Wednesday Wisdom: Ending a Business Venture

Wednesday Thoughts for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Businesses

My son who is in the medical profession said to me once, “Mom, everyone has their own personal death story, just like their birth story.” I quickly said, “I hope my story is being hit on the head by a pineapple that falls from a tree while sitting under it on Sanibel Island.” I suppose thinking of how my life would end one day needed some humor to deal with the thought.

Yesterday, when I left my home for the last live event for my company of 18 years, I knew it was the end of that part of my business since I was keeping the women’s athletic division open for recreational purposes, but I wasn’t sure how I’d feel since no one discusses ending a business, but rather the start-up or growth years. Who wants to talk about the literal death of a business? No one in my 30 years of bringing together this community of female entrepreneurs.

As the event ended and I walked out the door of my favorite woman-owned business coffee shop in Rochester on the way to a 10th-anniversary celebration of another female business owner, I looked up at the blue sky and smiled. “Aah, this is the way it is ending – peaceful, content, calm, and joyous.”

As I drove down the familiar highway that has taken me to Albany, Saratoga, Ithaca, Cortland, Binghamton, Oswego, Watertown, Utica, Rome, Skaneateles, and Auburn to gather thousands of women together, I realized that not only was the major part of my business ending but my sons were married and on their own. I felt free – free from three decades of my life that have brought me countless blessings, people, opportunities, cherished memories, and so much more. It was like reading the last chapter of a great novel.

“What’s next I asked myself,” an enterprising woman who has worked all her life. I responded, “I’ll just see,” with a twinkle in my eye as the sun streamed in my sunroof.

Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is meant to have you think of planning for endings – or not – it is totally up to you. Your choice. Your story. Your life. Your next chapter or two depending on your age and zest to continue a career. I know many women entrepreneurs who work until their mid-80s, some stop at 63 to retire with their partners, and others earlier.

In fact, I’ve heard 80 is the new 40 – so keep on’ keeping on’ if you want or like me take a break and then let something else fill you up until you feel it’s time to sit under the proverbial pineapple tree.