We recently saw an exciting video “Bear and the Potty”. I think that was the title. Anyway, it was a big brown bear teaching all these little animals, who were outgrowing their diapers, how to use the potty.
Of course, we were watching it while babysitting a four year old for some friends. There was a line in the video that said something about how good it was to wear diapers and be free, except diapers slow you down.
Is your business slowing down from being in its infancy?
I remember when your business was this big. (pinch cheek)
Children grow fast, but companies grow even faster. Your business will be out of diapers in much less than four years, much less than a year typically.
Growth means many things: more freedom, more capacity and… more responsibility. Responsibility is a wonderful thing, because it means that you are interacting with your environment.
Babies have no sense of the difference between themselves and the world. They have no sense of the needs of others, only their own. They also just lie there and look around. Sometimes they creep.
As they grow older, they begin to have a sense of themselves as individuals. And, as that sense of self grows, little by little they learn that others have needs too. And they begin to interact with other children and adults, playing, talking and soon helping with household chores. Over time, they grow up and are able to take care of themselves and others.
freedom of underwear
The big bear said it takes a couple of things to make your diapers outgrown. The first was listening to your own body.
Are you listening to your business and what it needs? It may seem strange, but sometimes it takes a while to associate stomach pain with the need to go to the bathroom.
In the same way, you need to listen to what your business is telling you. And, take the time to find out what it really means. For example, does the chronically empty bank account really mean that you don’t have enough customers? Or does it mean you are losing money? Or both?
Or could it mean that your business is ready to move beyond just working with individual clients and you need other sources of income?
The brown bear also says that planning is needed
It takes planning to get to the bathroom on time. I’m trying to avoid being gross here, but I guess anyone who’s ever felt their business going down the toilet can relate.
You must be willing to look to the future and think about how the different parts of your business relate to each other, to the world, and to your heart, so that your progress into the future is as graceful as possible.
How to know when you’re ready
Baby toys are intended for exploration, engaging the senses, and very simple tasks, like shaking a rattle to make noise. You are not attached to particular outcomes, but rather allow yourself to delight in what is present. As one folk band, The Bills, says: “I have nowhere to go and I have all day to get there.”
But maybe you’re starting to dream of results more complex than winning one more customer or sale. If you want your business to become something stable that you can rely on, then planning is something you’re probably ready for.
This does not mean that game time is over. It simply means that the game becomes more engaging and requires more of you to be present. Like the difference between rattling a rattle, riding a bike, and then packing up the bike for a multi-day road trip along the coast.
When you start to contemplate how wonderful an adventurous bike ride can be, suddenly the convenience of diapers doesn’t seem so exciting anymore.
Okay, so you’re ready to plan. How to start without overwhelming yourself?
Keys for planning business adventures
o Scale your intentions to your age.
For a five-year-old, six months represents 10% of his life, but for a fifty-year-old it is 1%. If your business is relatively new and you don’t have a history of successful planning, don’t make a five-, ten-, or twenty-year plan.
Six months, maybe a year. Think about what you would like to happen in that moment and use your heart to see if it feels too little, too much, or just right. As you get used to that, you can extend your planning into years and even decades.
o Choose the business areas that need the most help.
To see those results in six to twelve months, your company will need help. What kind of help?
Your business has several areas or parts. Here are some of the most common:
– Product/service delivery – Customer service – Marketing – Financial systems/cash flow – Office systems – Support structures
Either on your own or with the support of someone you know, come up with a list of projects, as many as you can think of, that will help build your business along the path you see it take.
But don’t choose more than three to focus on at a time, and let the others fall behind. It’s easy to get overwhelmed trying to get to everything at once.
If you try to do too much, things are going to fall through the cracks. Instead, take control and choose which things to leave fallow, and only focus on three things at a time.
As you complete each project, you can move on to the next.
o Don’t worry if you make a mess.
Robert Burns, an 18th-century Scottish poet, put it well: “The best laid plans of mice and men come together in the stern.” If you can’t guess, ‘gang aft a-gley’ means, well, it might have been helpful if you’d had a diaper handy…
Don’t expect plans to describe the future. Your plans are simply meant to help you focus, pay attention, and take care of a part of your business that needs support. Follow your plan, and if things go wrong, then clean them up and move on.
Your business is getting old even as you read this. She blinks twice and she’ll already be in elementary school. Take the time to look six or twelve months ahead, let your heart and head pick out the first three supporting projects together, and get to work.
