5 strategies to assure effective execution of the How to Hire the BestTM Solution: Part One of Five
In my upcoming book, How to Hire the Best, Contractor’s Edition (Coming Fall 2019), I outline 6 strategies to assure effective execution of the How to Hire the BestTM Solution. First, design your business to be sustainably profitable.
Here’s a little story I share in the book, and I know many of you can relate in some form or another. It’s heartfelt and is something I come back to when making an investment in my business.
When I was a girl, my parents scrimped and saved to send me to private school. They dropped me off every day in our old pickup truck, or worse, our powder blue Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, which my friends nicknamed “the boat” when it became my first car. Every day I cringed in the drop-off line as my peers were dropped off in sleek, brand new Mercedes and BMWs. They wore shirts with alligators on them. When I told my mother I needed one of those, she got me a shirt with a dragon on it. Close enough, right? Wrong! Needless to say, I complained loudly at the dinner table about my parents “shortcomings” with respect to their choices in vehicles and clothing. That’s when I learned a life lesson that has stuck with me to this day.
You see, my father was a banker. Most of his customers were small business owners and they were in debt. He informed me it is possible to drive a BMW and wear alligator shirts, while you are downing in debt. In fact, he alluded to many of my peers’ parents being his customers, some of whom struggled month after month to make their payments. My parents chose vehicles and clothing we could pay for without going into debt.
Now, I admit, at the time. I still didn’t understand the full implications of “being in debt.” It wasn’t until I completed my PhD and started making payments on my student loans that I got it. Debt is crushing. Debt kept me awake at night worrying about how to pay the bills month after month. I quickly found a creative solution to paying off my student loans. (I share that tip later in the book.)
“Work supports life…not the other way around.” ~Dr. Sabrina Starling
Leave judgement at the door: self-judgement, family judgement, peer judgement. There’s no need to fit in or compete with the Jones’ when we have a clear vision of where we are going and how we’re going to get there. A profitable business gives us more than freedom to spend, it gives a clear conscious and allows us to be present to invest in ourselves, those we love, and in the experiences that we are meant to have here on this earth. I implore you to make the difficult decisions now, as a true investor in your business (see Entrepreneur as Investor Blog Post). Your future self thanks you. It’s not about martyrdom, it’s about self preservation. Immediate gratification now can put pride first. Investment in the business is self-love and takes self-discipline.
Remember … be the dragon people, rather than in the alligator crowd. You’ll sleep better at night.
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