Step 3: "The Business Is Not Me"

There is stuff that any business will need. Sometimes it might be stuff that you, as the owner, don’t want. Sometimes it will be stuff that you don’t want to pay for.

Get used to it.

The business needs to function at some level in a consistent fashion.

That means there will be equipment that needs to be available. Marketing material will need to be available, whether you have the skills or know how, or you don’t. The business needs marketing. If it isn’t your core skill, the business might need someone to manage the marketing and someone to make sure the invoices go out – and get paid. These activities are not ‘optional’ they are necessary. There are a lot of these kinds of activities that have to happen. Your responsibility as owner is to make sure that they do.

So the business needs a budget to accommodate the basic things that it needs to function. The marketing has to happen… day in, day out, week in, week out. Not just when the orders have dried up and it is panic time.

In the same way, you need to ensure that your exposure to risk is understood, and any insurance you need is in place so the business is protected, your personal assets are protected and you get to sleep easily at night, and not have to be burdened by worry or financially devastated when something goes wrong. And something always goes wrong.

Some of it will be totally of your control.

Be ready for it.

On the flip side, since the business isn’t you – and the money in the business account isn’t yours… you will want to ensure that you have set yourself up so that you can collect your pay every week or month as the case may be. This could be hard for some at times, but you need to be paid just like everyone else and your planning (and your business plan) should have that covered with the strategy that makes that just happen. It’s an old saying and still valid. “Pay yourself first”. Well at least not last!

You’ve loaned the business money? Well make sure that you have a strategy and a plan for getting that back out in some time. The things the business needs, the business pays for. That’s not your money, so you can feel detached from paying it.

That doesn’t mean that you waste money, it means that you spend what the business needs, and spend it wisely. That’s part of your role and your responsibility to manage this aspect of your business. Embrace it, as it is the key to your future strength in the business.

There is only one thing worse than having a bad boss. That’s having a bad boss… and it’s you! So take care of your interests, just as you let the business interests be taken care of too.