Good Thursday Business Thought: Letting Go, Holding On or Staying the Course?

Sitting sipping coffee as the morning rays touched my skin flashed me back to a summer memory in Sylvan Beach during my high school years. My Aunt who loved investing in real estate would purchase homes along Oneida Lake and use the man power of my cousin and his friends to fix up the houses so they could be flipped. I remember having coffee with my Aunt during that summer as we spoke about her business.

My aunt was a true entrepreneur in the sense she took risks in business. She began her career without a college education because she was a daughter of an Italian man who arrived from Italy in his youth. Women in his mind did not work; they stayed home and took care of the extended family. My aunt married a man who became a doctor and started finding ways to invest their extra income into real estate deals while living in half of my grandparent’s large house.

Soon her interests moved into owning restaurants which became the places I started my food service career bartending, hostessing and waitressing. She flipped restaurants too. An investment was an opportunity to make money not a business to hold onto forever. Many women entrepreneurs consider their businesses like children or an extension of themselves never being able to see it with clarity when the time is right to part with it or jump into another venture.

There are many ways to make money in business. There are also many opportunities in life to make money and have professional careers. As I sipped my coffee in the sunlight, I wondered how many women stick with the same enterprise forever because they can’t part with the extension of themselves. I always appreciated my aunt’s ability to challenge herself, be successful and then move on to the next adventure.

Today’s wisdom is for you to contemplate your “business style” during this beautiful summer, peaceful day. Here are a few questions to ask, “Am I excited about my business now as I was when I started it. If not, why?” “Am I making enough money to make this one venture my only venture or do I have room to add secondary income or a second business?” “What moves me now that 5, 10 or 20 years have passed since becoming an entrepreneur?” and finally “How else can I make money and still follow my passion?”