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The Perception of A Successful Business – 03/10/2024

You know that feeling when someone says something and it resonates with you? It makes you pause for a moment and think about how that simple comment actually has set off a lightbulb in your head? I had one of those recently. The comment was simply that people perceive successful businesses as an upward trend. Imagine a graph where the first column is small but each column gets bigger than the last – that’s a successful business right? A successful business will make more sales month after month, profit will increase and productivity will raise – an upward trend that never falters. We think of them hiring more staff, moving into bigger premises and outsourcing work because the “to do” list is getting bigger with all of this success. The growth of a successful business could be slow or super quick, either way as long as it’s doing better than last month, it’s winning. If this is the case; mine and I’m sure many others businesses must be “failing”.

In 12 years, I’ve taken on zero staff. I haven’t moved into a bigger office and I don’t outsource my work (not even my accounts). I’ve had months where sales have been incredible, I’ve had months where I’ve barely broken even and some where I’ve been in profit loss. Worse still, I don’t have a flashy phone or a Company car to drive around! I must be failing right? Well actually, it depends on your viewpoint of what “success” means. To anyone who measures success on how much money is in the bank, I will be failing to them. To someone who measures success on what assets I have been able to buy through the business, I will be failing to them. To someone who looks at continuous growth each month, I will be failing to them.

So am I failing? I don’t think so based on what my personal measure of “success” is. My goals for Forest Traders were;

Have a good presence in the Forest as a business directory the public can use; goal achieved.

Have a “job” that means I get to have some personal identity and speak to real humans; goal achieved.

Be able to be flexible with working hours so I can enjoy being a mum too; goal achieved.

Make some friends along the way; goal achieved.

Be open to diversity in my work and relish new challenges; goal achieved.

Make some money whilst doing all of this; working progress!

I’ve met a lot of business owners who have the “success” everyone thinks about but the key one they don’t have is happiness in their work. They’re either totally overworking themselves, having issues with keeping their staff happy and productive or just struggling to keep their heads afloat with all of the responsibilities that come with running a business. On paper they’re a success but in reality, they’re on their way to a burn out.

A “real” business is one that has highs and lows, the saying “what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger” is totally how true when running one. Everyone’s measure of success is different, make sure you understand their version before you decide if it’s successful or not.