My Baby, My Business

What do you do with your days off? Do they end up being catch-up days? You know, where you catch up on everything around the house that you couldn't do during the workweek. Or do you make sure you do something out of the ordinary like go to the beach or a festival? For us, its always a mix of both. We always end up picking up around the house, but I find it impossible to not use this gift of time together better. (Sunday is my husband's and mine only day off together.) Every once in a while, a day off to just lie around the house is exactly what we need. This weekend was not one of those! What the business demands, the business gets.

Here's the deal when you own and run your own business. A day off is never sacred. You do what needs to be done no matter the day or time, because this is your baby. Yes, your business is a baby that you have to see is fed and rests regularly, cleaned up and dressed properly, held when it wakes up and cries, and taught new skills as it grows. Hopefully, after years of care and training, the 'baby' will grow up and not need so much hands-on care as it learns to take care of itself. This is how I think about it anyway. The end result of having a baby (owning your own business) is not to have a 20-year-old baby that still can't fend for itself without you. Rather you want a healthy and independent individual that you can be proud of and will go out on its own and be successful. Such is the goal of owning a business. Twenty years down the road you shouldn't have to be just as hands-on with the business as you were in the beginning (i.e. 75 hour weeks to keep it running). You want to be able to set back and enjoy the rewards. Well, we are in our third year of ownership here at the ODB. In keeping with the baby analogy, my 'baby' is potty trained, walking and talking on its own, and just learning its limits with authority. This is a time of great growth, tremendous challenges, and wonderful successes. All that to say, we're all still on-call when it comes to the needs of the business and there are no sacred days off.