“The first duty of a human being is to assume the right relationship to society — more briefly, to find your real job, and do it.”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

For people who value business and money and financial independence, the issues of business are important.  We consume information about business and probably network with a number of other business people too.  Yet on occasion we will encounter the person who has such different values in their life that we have the opportunity to reevaluate our own decisions.  Those are the artists or creatives in life rather than the pure business people.

Many of us are in business by default.  We have left full time employment through various circumstances, and taken our skills and hopefully some sort of financial capital along with our intellectual capital and invested both into an enterprise of our own.  We have either set up something independently or purchased a franchise.  Out of necessity we have had to generate the income we need to stay alive.

But what if we don’t actually have what it takes to run that business?  What if we don’t want to run that business?

I think too many people are running businesses into the ground and failing because they are neither equipped nor interested in the business of business.  They may love what they do, in the theme of their business, but not what happens around that.  In that case I urge some serious introspection and either that they desist before losing more money and affecting lives, or that they find a business partner who is more interested in the business itself than in the theme of what the originator was doing.

For the rest, who love what they are doing and want to be in business and still lack those skills; well we need to go back to school.  Since I lost my business I have become aware of countless resources, courses, materials and coaches that to various degrees could have assisted me and helped to avoid the failure of my business.  I lost a franchise store after 2 years, a very large amount of money, lost my personal financial reserves and retrenched 6 staff including family members.  This is not an experience I intend to go through again, so know that I am taking my lessons seriously; humbly and very seriously.

I love what I do.  I love speaking and teaching and writing.  I love crafting messages and working with ideas and concepts.  And occasionally I remember to invoice clients and consider cash flow.  Apparently that makes for bad business practice and my various financial advisors are not at all impressed.  Frankly I find it very frustrating and I get upset at having to stop the creative, important part of what I do for clients, to do the important part of what I must do for my own business.  If I do not however, I will fail again.  And that is why I have been learning those lessons and applying them as carefully as possible to this current business.

Please feel free to share your experience of mistakes or failures with us.  And if you are a resource that could help other small business owners, then you are welcome to post your information here (or on the Facebook page) as well.

“I’m Not Afraid of the F Word” can be ordered from any book store.  The distributor is Redline books and they can be contacted on christopher@redlinebooks.co.za or 021 557 2146.  Charlotte Kemp is available to speak on the subject of “I’m Not Afraid of the F Word” to entrepreneur groups or the subject of “The Art of Failure” to corporate groups.