The Enemy of Great is Good – Part 4

As we continue in this part 4 of “The Enemy of Great is Good” series I want to bring the subject to a personal level.  This time we will be discussing the separation of Business Life and Personal Life.

This isn’t the easiest concept to live by even though on paper is sounds so easy.  In our lives, and as entrepreneurs, we often find our decisions land in the middle since we share so much of our personal life with our business life.  The problems we run into, and sometime never even know they are problems, are easy to fix but take discipline to keep fixed.

The first issue is the separation of business.  By this I mean keeping your financial houses in order.  Do everything in your power to keep you business finances away from personal finances…or should I have said that the other way around.  It is very easy to look at your business and say to yourself “it’s all my money anyway.” While this statement may be true, for you business to grow and prosper you must treat is as a business. And though you are the owner, you must remember you are also an employee. It is a discipline to keep these two apart, trust me I deal with this one every day!

The second issue is the closing hours of business.  When your business is supposed to be closed, close it! Too often I find myself working well beyond the time limit I have placed on my business life and that’s a no, no! I can’t let my personal life suffer because I’m a workaholic.  Besides, my family is far more important to me than my business.  You must give yourself time away from business to clear your thoughts and allow your brain to organize the days’ work.  If you don’t do this then you overflow your brain and you lose thoughts and ideas. Did I mention burn out?

Whatever you make a priority will always dominate your life, for me that’s my family.  You must always remember to define your roles and responsibilities.  Then, you must live by them. It is a concept that sounds so simple, yet when you go to put this in practice you will see how just how difficult it is.

This is just the surface of the issue of keeping business and personal separate, but I hope it gives you a starting point for making changes and starting fresh.  But I ask you, what has been the most challenging aspect of keeping your business and personal separate?

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The Enemy of Great is Good – Part 3

So, in the last post in this series we talked about being involved in your local industry association and in your community. Today I want to bring you the second principle of being great.  This lesson again, was learned while helping my friend rescue his business.

Are you a Mentor? If not are you being mentored? You should have answered yes to at least one of those questions if not both. If you didn’t answer yes, then let’s work on a few things to fix this issue.  I bet you just asked yourself “Why do I need a Mentor?” Thankfully this is an easy answer. Everyone needs a coach; we can’t always see the things we need to fix or the details that are holding us back.  The best example I have is back in college while I was in music school. I had a coach that spent hours with me just hammering me on fundamentals. She constantly was yelling at me to fix my bow pressure, watch my finger positions, and to ease up on my wrists during my bow strokes. She drove me insane! In all honesty I was too young and too stupid to appreciate the lessons she was teaching me. However, I see now the importance of having that person standing by you, helping you fix the tiny details which build a better you.  We often get into a groove will performing our duties and working in our businesses, and this groove can lead to patterns and sometimes it can lead to bad habits.  The worst thing that can happen is we can be doing things wrong and not even be aware we are doing them at all.  This is where having a coach and receiving feedback and critiques can elevate you from good to great!

The second part is being a Mentor.  It doesn’t matter where you are in your business or your career you can always be a Mentor to someone.  Being a mentor is like being a teacher and I’ve always said to others “that if you truly want to learn something teach it.” Over the years I have been a Mentor to quite a few people and with every person that I have been involved with I have always grown personally and professionally.  Each experience was an opportunity for me as well.  I always found something I can do better or a new way of presenting an old idea.  Being a Mentor was and is one of my favorite passions.  I love to teach and I hope that shows in the classes I teach at the University of Texas at Arlington.  I bet some of my students would happily tell you about their experiences…right?

So from this lesson I want to leave with a thought. How far can you elevate yourself without someone helping you? As you think of this question also think about how far you could elevate yourself if you had someone always watching and giving you feedback on your business. So I ask you, what are your experiences with being a Mentor or a student?

You might also want to check out Preston Bailey’s Blog on this very subject http://www.prestonbailey.com/2010/07/to-do-the-gift-of-mentoring/

The Enemy of Great is Good – Part 2

As we begin the discussion on ways you can move from good to great I want you to keep an open mind and allow yourself a chance to change some of the things that are keeping you from being great. The examples that I have taken from helping my friend turn his business around are simple, but doing them takes discipline so as part of this series I am going to share with you some of my own issues with that very subject.

First, my successful friend was a regular attendee at the local association meetings and was involved in his community.  He was taking the time to share knowledge with his peers and enrich his local community.  I often hear people complain that they get nothing from local association meetings, and all I can say is you get what you give.  It’s a shame to see so many good people struggle because they have such a closed minded approach to business.  If you have ever said “I don’t need to go to those meetings because I know everything and they can’t teach me anything” then listen up cause I’m talking to you. A close minded business man is one that will constantly struggle and/or eventually fail.  I know a person in our local association that always complains about content, they say that its always missing “meat” that all the presenters ever do is push products.  While some presenters do have products there is always “meat”, you just are already in the mindset that you can’t learn anything so you don’t LISTEN! If you would come to meeting ready to FIND “meat” you will!  You will see what you want to in everything so leave your preconceived notions at the door and be ready to learn.

The second part of this point is that my successful friend is involved in his community.  If you aren’t participating in your local community in some form or fashion you are doing your business a disservice. By opening yourself up to the community you bring awareness to your business and build relationships that will bring you business.  But ultimately, the success for community involvement is when they refer to you as the expert in your field and other seek your advice.  This status will bring you closer to a “celebrity” figure and will create community and industry buzz.  Approach with caution in this area as the work and time to get to this point is great, but bringing it all down can be as simple as an unreturned phone call.

So I leave you with this to think about.  Are you involved in your industry? Are you involved in your community?  Are you close minded?  Are you good or great?  So tell me, what are you doing?

The Enemy of Great is Good

I got to thinking here lately and I truly came to the realization that the enemy of great is good.  I’ve hear this saying before, and it was inspirational at the time, but it never resounded in me the way it does now.  Over the last few months I’ve been really working hard with my students while also beginning the new Preston Bailey Certified Wedding and Event Design course.  That’s when I caught myself thinking about what the missing ingredient in success is with so many in our industry.  Why are so many businesses failing? Why is there so many that are struggling? And why are there not more success stories in our profession? And then it really hit me, “The Enemy of Great is Good.”

In our industry there are an ever increasing number starting up and joining our ranks.  Of all the people in our industry a vast majority are really “good” at what they do, key word being good.  Why then, if so many of our colleagues are “good” why have they not gone further in their professional lives?  The reason; they have become content with “good.”

There comes a point in our careers when things start going good, business is consistent and we think to ourselves “Wow, I am good.” Now the last part may come in different forms but ultimately we are content with business and business is good.  This is where the majority of our colleagues get off the train so to speak. Unfortunately this station is a place where business failure comes easily, contentment here is dangerous because business is giving you a false sense of completion.  Business has only two stages, growing or dying.  Contentment leads to death. So do you think this is an extreme statement? I hope so, but truthfully it isn’t so farfetched.

I have personally known a couple people that were exceptional at what they did; unfortunately they didn’t understand their own value and they became content with business as usual.  Two years later, one of my friends was on the verge of bankruptcy and the other was on their way to breaking one million dollars in their second year of business.  What was so different in these two people? Why was one good and the other great? As I began helping my friend gain control over his dying business; it became obvious rather quickly the differences. 

The next few blog posts will be a series discussing how to take your business from good to great.  As I post the series I would love to hear all about the things you are doing to make your business “Great.” So I ask you, how are you going from good to great?