It's Not Business, It's Personal
Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 1:57PM As a self employed massage therapist it’s inevitable that some weeks will be extraordinarily busy and others...well...not! After five years of enduring this roller coaster ride of peaks and troughs you’d think I’d be used to the quiet days (or weeks!) safe in the knowledge that another busy period was just round the corner.
However, given the fact there is never any certainty that busy weeks will always follow quiet ones, it’s always a rather stressful time for me. But what I’ve really come to understand about myself is the fact I have a nasty habit of taking it all a bit personally.
Whether it’s the nature of my business, or my own human nature, I think the ever old saying ‘it’s not personal, it’s business’ came from someone who never had their own business and, if they did, certainly wasn’t in the health industry!
Every interaction I have with a client is absolutely 100% personal, so how can I separate my therapist role from my business owner role? And furthermore do I even want to?
With that question in mind I realised that, actually I think it’s great to embrace the personal aspect of business in order to help convey passion for what I do and how I work. That way, you will always succeed in being individual and your USP* will easily be identified by you and the consumer, boosting your marketing means before you’ve even started!
I often get approached by other therapists and small businesses that need a little help or guidance with their marketing and there are a couple of questions I like to ask before we even get to first base:
- Do you really want your own business, with all the other roles it entails to run a business, as well as being a practitioner**?
and
- How badly to you want it?
Needless to say the first question comes from a very practical angle. Some individuals may simply not fully understand all the ins and outs of running a business, what the time commitments are and all the ‘behind the scenes’ work that is involved on a daily basis.
The second question is, without doubt, a personal one. And sometimes not so easy to answer! I always ask people to really think about this one because it really determines the level of commitment sat in front of me and will therefore help me tailor my marketing tips etc to be most effective for the individual. Of course, it’s all proportional...the more time, effort and energy you put into your business the more you will get out of it in the long term, however, what you deem as ‘success’ is hugely personal anyway!
I will never forget a consultation I had with Christina Jackson, from Actioncoach, years ago where she asked me if I had a business or a job. Given my self-employment status I replied I had a business, at which point she highlighted that if I went on holiday or became ill I wouldn’t actually earn any money. ‘You have a job’ she said, ‘A business keeps on running even when you’re not actually there!’
This conversation has stayed with me ever since and so my ultimate, long term goal is to have a business.
Over the last five years I’ve certainly learnt a lot. I’ve made a truck load of mistakes but have also made some great decisions through the simple process of trial and error (and I like to think a healthy amount of common sense!) As a result, my next step is to launch a new consulting business: It’s Not Business, It’s Personal because when it’s your business, it’s always personal!
*unique selling point
**or whatever the chosen profession may be
Reader Comments (1)
Hi Steph
I think that it depends entirely what you want to achieve with your business.
I'm not sure that it is fair to tell people they don't have a business if you don't earn money from it when you are away from it though.
Surely the definition of "being in business" is individual and unique.
Just my thoughts.