Recently we watched an exciting video “Bear and the Potty.” I think that was the title. Anyway, it was about a big brown bear teaching all these little animals, who were outgrowing their diapers, to use the potty.
Of course, we were watching it as we were babysitting a four year-old for some friends. There was a line in the video that said something about how great it was to wear diapers and be free, except that diapers slow you down.
Is your business being slowed down by staying in diapers?
I remember when your business was -this- big. (pinch cheek)
Children grow up quickly, but businesses grow up even faster. Your business will grow out of diapers in far less than four years- much less than a year, usually.
Growth means a lot of things: more freedom, greater ability, and… greater responsibility. Responsibility is a wonderful thing, because it means that you are interacting with your environment.
Babies have no sense of a difference between them and the world. They have no sense of anyone else’s needs, just their own. They also just lay there and stare around. Sometimes they crawl.
As they grow, they begin to get a sense of themselves as an individual. And, as that sense of themselves grows, they slowly learn that others have needs too. And, they begin to interact with other kids and adults, playing, talking, soon helping with the chores. Eventually they grow up and are able to take care of themselves and others.
The freedom of underwear
The big bear said it took a couple of things to outgrow your diapers. The first was listening to your own body.
Are you listening to your business, and what it’s needing? It may seem strange, but sometimes it takes awhile to associate pain in the stomach with the need to go to the bathroom.
In the same way, you need to listen to what your business is telling you. And, taking the time to know what it really means. For instance, does the chronically empty bank account really mean that you don’t have enough clients? Or does it mean that you are leaking money? Or both?
Or could it mean that your business is ready to go beyond simply working with individual clients, and needs other sources of income?
Brown bear also says it takes planning
It takes planning to get to the bathroom in time. I’m trying to avoid being gross here, but I’m guessing that anyone who has felt like their business is going down the toilet, can relate.
You have to be willing to look into the future,and think about how different pieces of your business relate to each other, to the world, and to your heart, in order to make your progress into the future as graceful as possible.
How to know when you’re ready
Baby toys are meant for exploration, engaging the senses, and very simple tasks, like shaking a rattle to make noise. You aren’t attached to particular results, but allowing yourself to be delighted by what is present. As one folk band, The Bills, puts it: “I’ve got nowhere to go and all day to get there.”
But, perhaps you’re starting to dream of more complex outcomes than winning one more client or sale. If you’re wanting your business to become something stable that you can depend on, then planning is something you’re probably ready for.
This doesn’t mean that playtime is over. It just means that the game gets more engaging, and calls on more of you to be present. Like the difference between rattling a rattle, and riding a bicycle, and then packing up the bicycle to go on a several day road trip along the coast.
When you start to contemplate how wonderful an adventurous bike trip can be, suddenly the convenience of diapers doesn’t seem so exciting any more.
Okay, so you’re ready to plan. How do you get started, without overwhelming yourself?
Keys to Business Adventure Planning
• Scale your intentions to your age.
For a five year-old, six months represents 10% of his life, but for a fifty year-old, it’s 1%. If your business is relatively new, and you don’t have a history of successful planning, don’t come up with a five, ten or twenty-year plan.
Six months, maybe a year. Think about what you’d like to see happen in that time, and use your heart to see if it feels like too little, too much, or just right. As you get used to that, you can stretch your planning out into years and even decades.
• Pick business areas that need the most help.
In order to see those outcomes six or twelve months from now, your business will need some help. What kind of help?
Your business has several areas, or parts to it. Here are a few of the most common:
Product/service delivery
Caring for customers
Marketing
Financial systems/cash flow
Office systems
Support structures
Either on your own, or through getting support from someone who knows, come up with a list of projects, as many as you can think of, that will help develop your business along the path you see it travelling.
But pick no more than three to focus on at one time, and let the others lag. It’s easy to overwhelm yourself by trying to get to everything at once.
If you try to do too much, things are going to fall through the cracks. Instead, take control and choose which things you are going to let lie fallow, and just focus on three things at a time.
As you complete each project, then you can move on to the next one.
• Don’t worry if you make a mess.
Robert Burns, an eighteenth century Scottish poet put it well: “The best-laid schemes of mice and men gang aft a-gley.” If you can’t guess, ‘gang aft a-gley’ means, well, it might’ve been helpful if you’d had a diaper at hand…
Don’t expect plans to describe the future. Your plans are merely meant to help bring focus, attention and care on a part of your business that is needing support. Follow your plan, and if things gang aft a-gley, well then, clean it up, and keep going.
Your business is aging even as you read this. Blink twice and it will already be in grade school. Take the time to look six or twelve months out, let your heart and your head together pick the first three supportive projects, and get to work.
