Most business owners will have times when they will ask for the cure. The owner will be coming in early to open the business on a snowy day after closing the place the night before, because an employee called you at 5 am saying he was unable to open due to the snow. Getting out of the warm bed was very tough and the straws of ownership keep weighing down the back. Usually when a bad day turns into a bad week, into a bad month . . . Then the question pops into your head, “is this really worth it?”

The obvious cure is to sell or close the business. However, the bug of business ownership can be a nasty virus. Once it gets into your system, it is almost impossible to treat ownership with simple non-ownership. The cure produces its own set of symptoms e.g. backseat driving employee, frustration with not being in the know on decisions, wanting to do more than is asked of you, loss of identity, not fitting in. Business ownership for some is not a choice.

The symptomology of business ownership can be rather diverse. Each patient exhibits symptomology from different causes, e.g. financial risk causes stress for every owner but some view the risk as energizing while others are paralyzed by it, some people thrive on making decisions and others are worn out by the non-stop decision making each day, leadership carries a spotlight that some enjoy and others feel as burdensome.

Knowing yourself becomes the most effective tool for diagnosing and treating your case of viral business ownership. Being aware of what raises your pulse rate (good or bad), anxiety (usually bad), and stress level (good or bad), etc. is the first step to living with and enjoying business ownership. People close to you can help you identify your symptomology. Keep in mind that financial risk may not bother you but really bother your spouse. Living with a stressed out spouse creates a bad home situation. What is the better solution? Trying to convince your spouse the financial risk is not worrisome or building up a financial cushion able to negate the spouse’s worry.

Emotions will surface taking you to new highs and lows. Ignoring or burying these emotions over a long period will create other symptoms. Your best plan of treatment is to acknowledge the emotional roller coaster ride, provide yourself with safeguards (e.g. financial cushion whenever possible, good confidants, healthy-stress relieving activities) that allow you minimize the effects of the roller coaster. Your Dramamine for motion sickness. The high points are incredible and numerous. Write them down, make a poster, take pictures, share them with peers, and loved ones. Celebrate your successes. It is important to review them when the business is in a down cycle. Mourn your losses and move on. You need to be like the baseball pitcher after throwing a home run ball. Do a quick check of your mechanics, give the batter his due, and then let the next pitch fly. Keep a healthy perspective. Mistakes will happen even after careful planning and success will happen sometimes with no planning. The key to success is to not repeat the mistakes and take advantage of unexpected opportunities.

Each owner should have an “On - Off Switch.” As much as possible, do not let the business control every waking moment of the day. Studies have shown that owners capable of switching off the business have a higher satisfaction level and healthier outlook on life. I use weight lifting after work for my off switch. The exercise helps relieve tension in the body and requires total concentration to do it right, forcing me to stop thinking of work issues. My on switch is listening to business oriented radio stations on the way to work. A client’s off switch was the exercise of writing down at the end of the day the goals for tomorrow and placing it on his desk. The on switch was reading the list the next morning. Another client met with her children when she got home and asked them about their day. The on switch was dropping them off at school the next morning.

You as an owner must evolve. Business experiences force you to develop your skills, patience, persistence, knowledge, etc. If you fight the evolution you will develop other symptoms, e.g. physically an ulcer, intellectually you will get dogmatic “my way or the highway,” personality will suffer a loss of humor, and socially you will start to isolate yourself, “if you want it done right, you have to do it yourself.”
Set goals for the business. Some of the goals should represent quality of life goals for you. Quality of life goals can be time away from work to coach your child’s soccer team, three-day weekends through out the summer to take your family up into the mountains, or a higher salary than you can command in the market. Support these goals with your best resources to provide the business with its best possible chance for success.

If the business cannot succeed in achieving your goals, objectively evaluate its continuation. If others are impacted by your decision, bring them into the discussion. Often the solution is a simple evolution of the original idea or delivery of your product or service.

Business ownership, though better traveled lately, is still the road less traveled. Is it making “all the difference in your life”? If not, choosing the cure can never be considered a failure if you took the chance, gave it your best possible effort, learned from the experience, and decided it was in your best interests at this time to move on.