Joy

I’ve been thinking a lot about Joy. Not really surprising I guess. ‘Tis the season after all. But what I have been thinking about is the joy I feel when I can help a business owner overcome that “thing” that is bringing them down or holding them back.

Sometimes it is a simple as handling the bookkeeping or acting as their office manager; allowing me to carry part of the burden of managing the business side of their business.

I often think of this as the back-end. Most of my clients have companies where they are the face of their business and this often means a lot of time away from the office. They are frequently in their company’s early stage which also means that a lot of the responsibility for the day-to-day administrative tasks falls on them.

And those tasks are more than sending invoices, phoning in payroll and paying bills. Even when we don’t want to, we generate paperwork. And tax audit support still requires receipts. Paper or electronic, those need to be filed and, hopefully, tagged with the purpose of the purchase. It’s a lot of stuff and when you are starting out it doesn’t always feel important but, as I often tell myself “Start as you will go” so even though it may not feel necessary now, having a system in place as your business grows can make that growth a bit less painful.

Creating these systems also helps you identify the tasks that should be given away as quickly as possible. Every task needed to successfully run a business is important but not every task needs to be performed by the owner (the most highly compensated employee – we hope) or manager. As I noted in my Happiness blog, there are tasks that can be handed off that not only relieve your stress but allow an enterprising somebody to learn and earn.

And now I circle back to Joy. But your joy as a business owner. Is the day-to-day administrative stuff taking that away? Are you beginning to forget why you started your business to begin with? Have you lost the time to do that thing that used to make your long days worth it?

Ask for help.

It’s not a reflection of an owner not being able to manage their business.

It is a reflection of an owner knowing how to manage their business growth.

Just a thought.