5 Ways to Lose Passion for Your Business
3 November, 2008 - General Business - 32 Comments
There’s no more important factor when it comes to running your own business. You need to be passionate about your idea, your customers, your colleagues and your work. So when you lose that passion, you find yourself in the deep end of an Olympic sized swimming pool with weights attached to your face.
How Do I Know?
I know, because in the final 12 months of running my own Web development company, I lost my passion. At the time, I thought I had lost the passion for Web development and the industry I was in. But as I’ve come to learn in the month since I stepped down as co-owner, my passion for the Web development industry is still there and strong. It was the passion for the business that I had lost.
How Did I lose My Passion?
Here is my five step process to losing your passion for your business.
Lack of Self Discipline
You try to do it all. You try to market, sell, quote, invoice, design, code and optimise. You don’t trust others to do the job to your high standard, and you struggle to grasp the concept that paying for sub contractors actually increases profits, as opposed to decreases profits.
You Promise More Than You Can Give
You over-promise and under-deliver, when you should be under-promising and over-delivering. You fall in to the moment of the meeting and promise far more to the client than you can give. You should step back, promise what you can give, and then give more as and when the time is right. Stop over-promising in an attempt to secure a contract, because the repeat work and referrals from the happy clients who you under-promised and over-delivered to will far outweigh the one or two lost contracts that arose when you didn’t promise enough. Think long term. Think repeat work and referrals. Don’t just think of the one contract in front of you.
You Work in Your Business as Opposed to on Your Business
Rather than stepping back to analyse, market and sell your business, you dive straight in to the shop floor work that your employees or contractors should be doing. You become an employee of your own business, working from project to project without stepping back to run your business. Suddenly, you find your business has one extra employee but no manager. A clear recipe for disaster.
You Forget About Your Customers
You complete a piece of work for a customer and never speak to him or her again. You treat them as though you just passed them on the street. A quick “Hello” and nothing more. You begin to provide average or mediocre service to most clients, and bad service to the rest. No client receives exceptional service… because you’re working in, not on your business.
You Compete On Price
You sense a client is running a small business and doesn’t have a huge budget. You present a proposal with a quote much lower than normal for that type of work. After all, $1,000 is better than nothing, even if the work is worth $3,000, right? Wrong! Never compete on price. Ever! You’re worth what your skills are worth, so unless you just lost half your skills overnight, you should charge what you’re worth. Besides, clients always refer similar clients. So Old Joe who you charged $1,000 for a $3,000 project will refer Old Bill who in turn will expect his $1,000 product. Of course, he wants the same quality that Joe got. The $3,000 quality. Again, the value gained from higher priced contracts and higher valued referrals far outweighs the contracts you’ll lose because your quote was outside a customers budget.
Those are my five traps to fall in to in order to ensure you lose your passion for your business. Five traps I fell in to over the past 12 months, but have been lucky to get out of.
Don’t make the same mistakes I did. Your passion and business depend on it!
Do you still have the passion for your business that you had on day one? Do you find yourself working in and not on your business? Let us know in the comments!
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Posted on 3 November, 2008 by Jamie Harrop
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Jamie, I can relate to this. In 2002, I created an online business that specialised in holiday rentals, villas etc. I wanted to make it massive, earn a tank full of money, and retire early.
I underestimated the task in hand; one man doing everying as you mention from web design (I am no designer too) to invoicing and search engine optimisation.
It’s not possible in a competitive market such as travel.
After spending five years on the business, this year, I closed it down, my heart wasn’t in it, and actually I earned more on my travel blog, and received more press attention in 6 months that I had received in five years.
I sold the domain to a competitor, and now concentrate 100% on building my blog as a popular brand. Short term it hurt having to give it up but long term I made the right decision.
Morning Darren,
It sounds like that online business gave you some good and much needed lessons. That’s never a bad thing.
Great tips! It’s a great point to bring up about working on your business and not becoming an employee. We all have that passion in the beginning and keeping that passion can be pushed aside in order to make certain goals.
Your tips can be useful in any situation, regardless if you have a business or not. Thanks for sharing.
Hey Rowell,
It’s certainly important to retain your passion. It’s sometimes difficult, but the reward is worth the effort.
As long as you keep the end result in mind and always remember what your cause is, you’ll do great!
I write about starting businesses based upon passion and a desire to make a difference (innerpreneurship) and the above article is immensely helpful. I worry about my passion fading and the roadblocks you have outlined are a wonderful help in keeping me conscious of my passion and enthusiasm.
Tara Joyces last blog post..The Next Chapter Book Blogging Group
Hey Tara,
The term “innerpreneurship” is new to me. It sounds interesting, and seems to coincide perfectly with what my new business goals are about.
I’m glad my post has helped. Thanks for the comment!
Hi Jamie - these are great points. And I can understand why they would cause you to lose your passion. It’s really tough to move from working on your business to working in your business.
I really struggled to find and keep decent admin assistants. So a lot of the time, instead of working on my business, I was playing catch up on a lot of paperwork. And it does get you down doesn’t it.
At least you haven’t lost your passion for your industry - that is the important thing.
Hey Cath,
Paperwork is the enemy of all business owners.
Yep, I’m pleased I’ve managed to retain the passion for the industry. I’d be lost without it.
Thanks for the comment, Cath!
Obviously I know first-hand about what you were experiencing. I was right there, and I could feel it as much as you. We started applying a very good mantra to our business, “work smarter, not harder,” but we underestimated the amount of time it takes to fully make the switch from one mentality to another.
Being good at working HARD only means you’re going to set yourself up for a work situation you won’t be able to handle down the road. It also means it can stop being fun. You’re absolutely right about those initial client meetings. When they go right (and they almost always go right), you come out of them feeling on top of the world, even a little high on life. If you’ve promised results within reason, you get to continue that feeling throughout the project, and launch something that really feels good.
More often than not, I’ve had the privilege of working with clients who have made the work very enjoyable. But the few that go awry can really put you in a hole (and they tend to be the big ones). They end up being the ones that stand out, and it affects everyone, other clients, colleagues and yourself.
A lot of the solutions to those five issues come down to trust: trust that those you manage can deliver as well or better than you; trust that your customers will see the value of your work; trust that they will be understanding of the challenges inherent in the work you’re doing; trust in your colleagues to deliver what they need to deliver in conjunction with you. Trust in others is the difference between owning your business and your business owning you. We’ve been there, we’re making the change, and we’re going to be a whole lot better off for it!
Wow! That was one hell of a comment, Paul.
“Trust in others is the difference between owning your business and your business owning you.”
That’s a fantastic piece of advice, Paul.
“We’ve been there, we’re making the change, and we’re going to be a whole lot better off for it!”
And it sounds like it’s going great for you guys.
>> We’ve been there, we’re making the change, and we’re going to be a whole lot better off for it!
> And it sounds like it’s going great for you guys.
You get to see things from the inside, so you know what sorts of conversations we’re having and our outlook in general about the future. Whether it’s going great at the moment or not is debatable (working hard at the moment, not necessarily smart!), but I think it will be going great in the near future.
I’m glad you have a path in front of you that ignites your passion again. Hopefully we’ll have the pleasure of seeing each other prosper, and perhaps we’ll contribute to each other’s prosperity along the way!
Hi Jamie. I agree that your passion can be “lost” or clouded when you spend all your time working in the business rather than on it. It’s suffocating.
I’m finding it really difficult to transition to working on the business with the biz still being in the infant stage. But, I know my passion is still with me. It is keeping me motivated.
Davinas last blog post..A Ghostly Life Experience
Hey Davina,
As long as your passion is there, motivation will present itself at every opportunity. Keep moving Davina, and keep stepping back to look at your business from the outside, rather than from within.
Hi Jamie,
What a cracking and poignant posting.
I’ve been running this small web design business of mine for 3 years. Over the past 6 months or so I’ve been experiencing insufferable procrastination.
Your post has made me sit up and realise, by succinctly summarising exactly where my business is today, why I’m procrastinating.
I’ve actually lost the will to continue with the way things are.
Now, what to do about it?
Morning Seamus,
It’s hard to know the right thing to say to your comment.
The first thing I would do is try to figure out whether it is your passion for the industry or passion for your business that you have lost. For six months I thought I had lost the passion for Web development, but as soon as I resigned from the business I knew it was the passion for the business that I had lost, and not the passion for the industry.
Once you have that sorted, you’ll be in a much better position to do something about it.
If it’s the customers who are getting you down, get rid of the ones who aren’t helping.
If you just don’t feel like you care, commit to calling each client once every 10-14 days. You don’t have to sell anything. Just chat and suggest ways they can improve their site, or just chat like you would with a friend. Looking back, I realised I lost a lot of care for my business because I didn’t even try to care. I didn’t try to call my clients. They called me. I didn’t try to have small talk like friends. I treated them as a bank ready to give me cash.
If business is slow, the first thing I would do (and what I’m currently doing) is put together a database of prospects who already have Web sites. Go through client lists of your competitors. Then call each prospect and ask for 30 seconds of their time. Ask just one question and tell them you’ll make the results available to the local newspaper. Ask… “How did you find your Web development company?” Maybe put in a few good words about their Web site “Hey. I’ve just been on your Web site. I love the newsletter feature. I wonder if you could spare 30 seconds of your time to answer a one question survey? We’ll be making the results available to the XYZ Newspaper and if you help we’ll put your name in the hat for a chance to win a free Web site”
Once you know how they found their Web developer, you’ll know where to market. And you’ll have a 100 or so fantastic prospects to send birthday cards, thank you letters etc to.
And if all else fails, jump on a plane to England and I’ll entertain you for a day and generally get you all motivated and inspired. For free. As long as you buy the beer.
Hi Jamie,
Thanks for the pep talk! Business isn’t slow. I’m slowing.
I think it’s some of the clients / projects I’m working on that have me wondering if I’m in the right place. Some of the projects I’m doing, I just don’t like doing. Some of the clients I’m dealing with, I just don’t get. But I’m guilty of chasing the next buck even if it means a project or client I just don’t want to be working with.
On top of all that, I’m falling into your very first trap…
>> You try to do it all… and you struggle to grasp the concept that paying for sub contractors actually increases profits, as opposed to decreases profits.
Now, where’s that Easyjet web site…
Lager or ale?
Thanks again.
Jamie, thanks for the advice. Perfect!
Davinas last blog post..A Ghostly Life Experience
How interesting! I just spent an hour talking to a friend about passion. My problem was LACK of passion! I went in to web design on a lark. Three whiny clients later, I had lost my taste for it.
I quickly fell through two of your traps: Working in rather than on; and competing on price. I do take care of my remaining clients, though
My passion is board game design. If I never build another website, it will be too soon.
Cheers,
Mitch
Mitchell Allens last blog post..PhraseExpress: Trés Cool
Hey Mitchell,
Sounds like you took a rough ride.
But it also sounds like you came out of it a few lessons learnt. Always work where your passion is.
Board game design sounds like a good passion to me. I once remember having to create a board game in junior school. I think I just copied Snakes and Ladders.
Hi Jamie,
So many agonizing lessons. But some good ones, too. Like how to actually create a website
But I agree, working where the passion is so important. We sometimes forget that balance is a key ingredient to a fulfilling life.
If you’re doing something you hate, just because there’s good money in it, you’re out of balance.
Cheers,
Mitch
Mitchell Allens last blog post..PhraseExpress: Trés Cool
“If you’re doing something you hate, just because there’s good money in it, you’re out of balance.”
That’s so true, Mitch.
I cringe when I see people in jobs just because the money is good. They spend eight hours a day (almost a third of their life) doing something they hate.
Would that person do something they hated for 16 hours each weekend? I suspect not. So why do 40 hours of something you hate during the week?
Ha! Don’t get me started on that one, Jamie.
“Get a good education so you can get a good job with benefits.”
1950’s era advice still being given out in the late 20th century caused many folks to miss out on the booming economy, where they could have ensured financial stability, if not total financial independence.
Failure to teach basic financial skills has duped many young people to opt for trading time for dollars, while also engaging in risky financial activity such as credit card spending, financing new cars and choosing to rent instead of buy.
While there are always exceptions to many rules, those exception are generally made in the context of wealth-building. Unfortunately, misinformed people are applying the exceptions to consumeristic activities, with no real return on spending.
Oops, I got started! sorry!
Cheers,
Mitch
Mitchell Allens last blog post..PhraseExpress: Trés Cool
When I was at school, a friend created a brilliant chess set for the blind.
It was made as a joint project between his woodworking class and his metalworking class. A brass board, surrounded by mahogany trim and highly polished lockable lid. Beautifully turned pieces with markings to identify each team’s piece.
He won an award for it I believe and a company bought the rights to manufacture it.
The class clown decided he’d follow suit and create a chess set for the deaf. It took a while to convince him it had been done!
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Wow, it’s like I’m reading my biography. Thank you for helping me step back and realize where things have faltered. For the last few months, it’s felt as though my heart has not been into the business, but I think you’re right — I’ve been too far into making sure the work is getting done and helping to do it that I’ve lost focus on keeping the bigger picture. Thank you for your insight.
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