Small Business Lifestyle
It's more than just hard work
Toni and I have been writing about small business for quite some time but it’s unlikely that you would have ever seen it. Our work has always appeared in publications and on web sites that have had a fairly narrow focus.
Our encouragement to come out into the wider world came from Martin Neumann who blogs at Home Office Voice. He unwittingly showed us that there was a demand for sites like this one and from that point on I just couldn’t help myself, I just had to start writing.
Martin’s blog is something that I always read because he has a different slant on the world of small business and home office. In fact there are times when, if you read his blog and compared it to mine, you would wonder if we really are in the same business.
I know that there are times when I think that Martin lives in a kinder and more gentle world than I do. And if he does then it certainly adds an interesting counterpoint to the life of the small business person as I see it.
His latest offering is a case in point. In writing ‘The Lifestyle Entrepreneur … just taking it easy’ Martin puts the case for small business being a way of improving your lifestyle. Compare that to anything I’ve written here and you may think that Martin and I live in different dimensions.
Much of what I have written so far would leave the impression that growing a small business is hard work followed up by more hard work and kept going with even more hard work. And if you read between the lines you would probably get the impression that the life of a small business person is one continual struggle.
Well, I make no apologies for presenting that image because that has been our personal experience and that has been the experience of the small business people that I came in contact with during 20 years in the New South Wales court system.
But Martin’s article has reminded me that small business is more than just hard work. Being your own boss certainly does bring more responsibilities and more hard work but it also brings a measure of freedom.
You can take time off and just get away from it all. You have the freedom of choice that others do not. For example when Toni or I have had enough of whatever we are doing there is always the beach to walk on or our favourite café just waiting to serve us some of their great coffee.
And that is certainly one of the almost hidden benefits of running your own business. I mean, why would you work long hours for someone else when you could work for yourself and be able to slip away and enjoy things like this.
I
took this photo here in Hervey Bay one Friday afternoon and at the time
I noted that I hadn’t worn a pair of shoes or a tie all week.
When we first moved here our favourite coffee shop was being run by a guy who had worked in a very similar department to the one I worked in. And we had often followed one another into various country centres around New South Wales. We knew the same people and shared some of the same experiences.
And one beautiful morning when Toni and I felt like coffee we wandered in and stood talking while he made the coffee. Here is something that I wrote in another place about that morning.
“Yesterday we stood and remembered some of those shared friends and workmates who aren't around anymore. Some of them dying as a result of the business we were in.
We lapsed into silence for a while remembering some of the really scary times - he more than me - times when you wondered if you would live through the next 5 minutes but you just went on because you didn't want to let the others down.
Then he looked up and looked out the front of his cafe at the sun shining and sea across from the cafe and said:
"Shit ... you wouldn't want to be back there would you?"
It's funny how pips and stripes, medals and commendations aren't important any more. Who would want to go back to all that when you can live somewhere like this?”
Thanks Martin
for helping to remind me that there’s more to running a small business
than just hard work.
7 Sep 2005