Business 300

Two down.

First, speed up your cash in.

Second, maintain your cash hold.

One more left. For the next episode.

We don't ever think about our breathing, until we can't breath. We don't think about our blood-flow, until we're bleeding out. Breath and blood is essential to our survival. And yet, when things are normal, it's not something we have to think about.

However, we do take precautionary decisions and make choices to make sure we don't get put in a situation where we have to think about those sorts of shortages. If we're smart (and happy), we don't go to sleep with a plastic bag over our heads, and we don't put a knife into ourselves. We don't try to breath under water, and we avoid being shot. Those things are a given.

But when it comes to business, most owners don't approach it with the same level of wisdom and precaution. As blood is to your body, so cash is to our business. Cash is the oxygen your business needs in order to not just survive, but to sustain the energy required to pursue and grow and win.

Feeling doesn't excuse thinking. Wisely manage your effort, energy, gifting, and money to work towards the reward you're after. Is this business model sustainable for your life stage, energy level, and goals? Even if you love the game, be clear on what it costs to play. Will you be building this business, or will it be breaking you?

Some mountains are worth climbing. Others are just tall distractions. Choose wisely, as you utilize the Effort vs. Reward Matrix.

For this time, your take-away is the first 3 points:

1. Define the reward

2. Consider the business

3. Understand the effort

It's good to think about the effort needed for the reward you're after when choosing a business.

Every business decision you make, should in one way or another be audited through the customer-centric filter: “Does this make the customer’s life better?”

Everybody on your team, starting with you the business owner, must always keep the focus on the customer.

When starting off, you don’t need to be efficient. That'll come later.

When starting off, you need to move.

Efficiency is great when you’ve got momentum, systems, and clarity. But if you're at the starting line, still obsessing over the best way to take the first step, then you’re not building. You’re stalling.

You’re not stuck.

You’re just avoiding the thing you know you need to do — because it’s uncomfortable, risky, or might make someone mad. So instead, you’ve built this pretty little lie called “stuck,” and you’ve wrapped yourself in it like a warm productivity blanket.

What are some tasks that make you want to light your laptop on fire?

Figure out how to delete, automate, or delegate them.  

And start solving burnout — not with vacations, but with systems.

Because the goal isn’t to escape your business.  

The goal is to build one that doesn’t make you want to.

You don’t need a break.

You need a better business.

It's not overwork that's causing your burnout.

Internal motives and thoughts do matter in our public and work life. To be effective overtime in our business pursuits - serving customers, employing people, blessing the community - we’ll need to plant a little deeper than just surface level behavior. Our entire being should be aimed at doing good.