Take it easy...
When I read books by famously successful business people I get inspired, but a part of me also feels lazy. When I read Tony Hsieh (CEO, Zappos), Dave Ramsey, Richard Branson, or Malcolm Gladwell, I get the sense that when I don't make good use of my idle time, I am a loser! These guys are so wildly successful and inspiring, I can't imagine them sitting around watching Brothers and Sisters like I do every night with my wife. I am sure these business icons have some down time and enjoy some form of entertainment, but from reading their books, you'd think wasting time was bread out of their DNA.
In the picture to the left of the infamous Tony Soprano, we are reminded of one of his favorite expressions…"take it easy". This is what he would say to someone that was getting upset as he would smirk cynically. Not the business icon I had originally thought of, but he was a character that embodied the essence of balancing life with work.
In any business I have ever studied or experienced, there are cycles of ups and downs. For my business, the spring season is our craziest time of year. One colleague of mine put it this way: "There is a finite amount of time to do an infinite amount of work." In the pool business, in Northern Virginia, the spring season is when the action happens. The summer and fall seasons are steady, and the winter is a ghost town.
The question everyone asks me when I tell them I am in the pool business is, "So, what do you do in the winter? Do you go on vacation?"
The reality of the pool business is not as glamorous as it may seem in the winter. The first hurdle is making sure we have enough money to pay all the bills in the winter. This requires saving money all year to prepare for the off season. Most years, I have fell short of this principle.
The way I have dealt with an extremely slow off season is to sell winter work. We can do construction work in the winter, that pays for the rent, lights and payroll. I will address my personal strategy for selling work off season in future posts.
If you have ever been self-employed or a business owner, then you have experienced the phenomenon of sitting at your desk wondering what you should do or where you should start. There are some days when the work is caught up and you have followed up on all the current leads. You surf through Youtube, maybe write emails to some friends, or even watch a movie. Some people clean and organize their desk and junk drawer, or clean out old files. All these activities are meant to distract us from our business, or lack of business.
In the next few posts, I will explore different approaches to surviving the lull.
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