Your Life Is Your Business- small business owner!

In the past couple weeks I’ve been working with several clients whose businesses have taken over their lives. ( sound familiar?) These solopreneurs are running on empty; physically, emotionally and spiritually. They wonder if they were ever passionate . They want their lives and their freedom back, oh ya and they want to keep creating money and wealth….

They want a life and a business; not just a business.

Where’s the beef? That’s what small business owners whose businesses have become balls and chains and running their lives ask. The very reasons most of us chose to go into business are often a joke; what freedom? What passion? What control? When business becomes a job and a job that doesn’t return what we want then it’s time to make a change.

I get this. I’m a one person business currently even though much of my business career involved working with employees. One person, service providing businesses don’t scale. This is a job. Sorry. But it’s true. It doesn’t have to be that way, but if the only revenue stream in a one person business is service this is a job business. Period.

My conversations with small business owners have fueled my belief that its time for us to all get UNLEASHED. Unleashed is my vision for shaping a life not just a business or venture. What would happen if we put meaning, passion, purpose back into creating profits and financing our lives?

It’s time for everyone to get unleashed. And this isn’t just for entrepreneurs. Unleashed is a way of being, a way of living, a belief that life was meant to be meaningful, passionate and profitable.It’s for anyone that has every whispered,”What I really want is a life, my own life, on my terms, doing what I love, investing my time and talents in things that I’m passionate about and things that matter to me. Now how do I make it pay?”

Unleashed? Yes it’s time to get unleashed from the old paradigm.

The old paradigm say’s get a job, income, start a business, grow the business- that’s all that matters. Wrong. Your life matters. So does meaningful investments and passionate pursuits. YOU matter. You see the key NOW, is the individual. Not the economic engine or business or even the market opportunity. The individual is the designer. Our lives are our business. They inform the design specifications and the filters by which we evaluate our life and business investment options. They guide our choices.

Of course market timing, competitive elements, team and market execution will continue to be key to market success but secondary to the importance of individual life design. The individual is the difference in the new economy. (Always has been but now with our digital world individuals are empowered, resourced and liberated) And you and I we will be competing with this unleashed individual so we better wake up now!

Successful businesses will be created more and more by individuals who are unleashed. Who have combined meaning, purpose, passion and profits in their life. It will be hard to compete against these people because they are congruent, aligned and well networked and resourced. Make no mistake, if you’re doing something you don’t love, if what you spend your time and resources on is robbing you of meaning, passion, purpose and profits you can’t possibly succeed in the business arena against someone who has designed a life and venture of meaning, passion and profits. Period.

So re-envision, re-work, re-invent, re-create, or create. But start with you.

What gets you up in the morning and keeps you up late at night?

What can’t you not do? That my friend is something you should press into. What has meaning and value to you? This is where you need to design your one incredible life. It is the place you are called to, where your passion meets the world needs and it’s where you love life.

So don’t settle for a business that’s taken over your life. Don’t grow a business. Get a life. A life? Yes. Forget the past paradigm. They lied. Your life is the starting point of everything valuable.

Small business can do better and they will when individuals get unleashed from ole school paradigms that are at the heart of 627,200 new businesses being started in 2008 and 595,600 businesses closing in the same year. You see we have to change how we think about our lives to succeed in this new economy.

When a business owner is ready to re-envision their life and create something new in their business they must begin by getting crystal clear on what’s important to them now. What they want to be doing, how they want to invest their vital resources; time, talents and money. After they are clear on their current life priorities and goals ( I want to pick my kids up after school, I will be at every high school basketball game, I want to build an international brand, I want my elderly parent to live with us.) Then they are ready to assess and filter market and business opportunities for aligment and resonance. We can evaluate the best financial opportunities in light of their ability to let the individual live the life they want.

The best economic opportunity in the world isn’t right for you if it doesn’t sync up with your passion, values, desired lifestyle and resources. Resources? Yes. You must rigorously assess the resources you have, are willing to go into debt to get, will co-mingle to access and want to invest. Will it take 70 hours of work and 40 hours of travel to succeed? Do you have the resources and are you willing to make this investment, is this investment congruent with what you want to spend your time doing? Can you hire the resources?

Seasons in life change. Let your life speak.

What do you want?

Financially

Relationally

Physically

Intellectually/Mentally

Spiritually

What are you passionate about

What do you want to spend your time doing?

What are you not willing to compromise?

What is your vision for this personal season of life?

Your life is your business.

Live unleashed; design a meaningful, passionate and profitable life!

Pam Hoelzle

425 218 5864

Photo credit Uploaded on July 10, 2006
by quick5pnt0