An Out-Of-Balance Business is Like a Short-Legged Table
Have you ever felt like your business and/or your life were out-of-balance? This is a common situation with self-employed companies. It’s like a three-legged table with one short leg…kind of wobbly.
I know I’ve felt this way and sometimes still do. You’ve probably heard the saying feast or famine. This saying is used quite often in the building industry.
It refers to the common problem of having too much to do. Or worrying about how you are going to pay the bills if you don’t get some work soon.
Sometimes this is caused by situations beyond our control. The economy, the weather, or some other external force. More often than not it is an out-of-balance business. It’s wobbly like a table with one short leg.
Most of us that are self-employed started out by learning our trade as an apprentice, working for someone else. I know this is how I got started.
The problem with this is that while I learned how to build a building, I wasn’t taught how to build a company.
After years of struggling and learning things the hard way—paying the expensive tuition to the school of hard knocks—I’m still not close to graduating yet.
This became apparent this past week. I realized that I was not maintaining balance in the business. I was letting things distract me and not being intentional about what I was doing.
One of the things that I implemented years ago was having a different focus for each day of the week. I had been neglecting this. So, I was intentional this week to focus on the specific focus for that day. It was a productive week.
Keeping the business balanced and supported is an ongoing process.
I was reminded that my business is like a three-legged table. When all the legs are the same length, it helps provide a level, sturdy platform for my company to sit on.
When any one or two of them are short, the table starts leaning. If it leans too far the company will slide off.
It’s never good when a company crashes to the floor.
The three legs of the table are:
1 – Sales/Marketing – Searching for and finding customers that you can help. Sharing about your service and/or product through word-of-mouth, advertising and awareness. Meeting with potential customers, determining what they want/need and preparation of estimates, proposals, and contracts.
2 – Production – Organizing, scheduling and maintaining projects or products. Determining who the right people are to perform specific tasks. Knowing the parts that are needed and making sure they fit. Maintaining communication between all parties involved.
3 – Administration/finance – The preparation of documents needed to communicate, track, and record all aspects of the business. The filling out and filing of income, expense, banking, and tax papers. This leg is one of the easiest for ‘tradespeople’ to neglect.
When any one of these legs get short, it can really cause the whole table to lean.
The tabletop is the big picture: planning and organizing. It’s what connects the three separate legs. It’s easy to give too much attention to one or two legs and forget the other.
Getting so focused on the production of a project that we forget to follow-up with a new customer. Or working so hard on preparing proposals that we forget to invoice. Or even working so diligently on tracking expenses that we don’t leave enough time to work on the construction project.
There is no perfect answer to keep the table from ever leaning.
The most important thing is to realize that it can happen and to continually work to keep the table balanced.
Updated from a previous post 4/30/16
While at a school dance a young woman found herself in an awkward situation. Across the room she spotted a young man whom she was attracted to. While talking about him with her girlfriends, she knew exactly what she was going to say. Once she finally mustered up the courage, she went up to him to introduce herself. It was at this point that she became totally tongue tied and everything she wanted to say refused to cooperate. We’ve all found ourselves in similar situations, but it doesn’t have to be this way.
It’s difficult balancing confidence and fear. Self-awareness and understanding are where balance starts. Once we know who we are and what we do, we can move toward balance. Sometimes we need some guidance and inspiration to get us moving though.
I see BALANCE as large platform sitting centered on top of a small point. Without anything on the platform, it sits level. When one thing is placed on top of the platform near the center, things go pretty well, and it stays relatively level. As more things are put on the platform and things begin to be crowded from the center it starts to get heavier at different areas. This causes the platform to lean. If one heavy thing or too many things are moved too far from the center the platform will tip far enough that things falls off. Keeping things setting on the platform is all about weight and location.
I decided to write about this core value while reading “The Seventh Most Important Thing”, by Shelley Pearsall. In the story Mr. Hampton leaves a hand-written message for Arthur on a piece of cardboard, 
It has been my experience when building a building that people have a dream of what they envision the finished project to look like. The problem is, they don’t know how to get that dream from their head to a physical structure. This is where vision comes in. The vision is the process of taking the imagined and turning it into reality. This provides a clear and intentional plan for building the dream.