I haven’t posted in quite some time. I’ve changed my business focus to coaching/consulting, taken a vacation to Mexico, and baked a ton of Christmas goodies with my kids. In short, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about my work/life balance, goals, and as Michael Gerber says it, my “primary aim”.
In “The E-Myth Revised”, Gerber explains that your primary aim is essentially who you want to be in the world. What do you want your life to be about?
I’ll share my psychological self-assessment and my “primary aim”. I left employment almost a year ago. I started out as Acclaro Accounting… essentially a bookkeeping business that also offered management accounting. A new name for the business I had 2 years before. Unfortunately, I wasn’t happy in the last business, but I went back to what I knew instead of moving towards what I wanted.
It soon became clear that I did not want a business based primarily on bookkeeping. I spent some time with a consultant and launched CrackerJack Accounting. In this business, my primary focus is accounting for creatives. I love the energy of creatives and my analytical skills compliment their creativity nicely.
Initially, I tried to bundle consulting and coaching in the accounting business. What I quickly realized is there is a stigma attached with the word “accounting”. My goal was to help businesses beyond accounting. I wanted to show them how EVERYTHING is impacted or impacts their business financials. That, my friends, is not your stereotypical accounting.
Fast forward to my blog hiatus. I have realized that I will not be happy in my business unless my business is authentically who I am and coincides with all aspects of my life. When you own your own business, you live the business 24/7. You better love what you do and it better fit with your life goals. Making money is not the only purpose for owning a business (there’s a statement that contradicts the accounting stereotype!).
So, what’s my “primary aim”?
I want to help small business owners to be successful (whatever that means to them). I believe the future of this country belongs with small, creative business owners who are nimble, revolutionary, risk takers. There are thousands of entrepreneurs with extraordinary ideas that will fail. Many will fail because they don’t have a sounding board, don’t understand their financials, or just lack certain business experience. I can help those owners.
That’s my business goal. It does have to coordinate with my life which means… I work from home, not an office, because being available to my children is on my short list. I’ll visit clients at their offices, coffee shops, wherever, but home is my home base. I might contract out some admin work, but I am my business and my brand. I believe that my knowledge and skill base can help other owners and I’d like to make a living doing that, but my goal is not to build a large organization. I’ll help those crazy entrepreneurs build large organizations (if that fits their primary aim!).
That, in a nutshell, is how I’m dealing with my work-life balance. What’s your primary aim?
