“Why oh why did I start this business?” George was not happy. He’d worked hard for years to build his cafe business, but now he told me he had a hard time getting out of bed in the mornings.
“I can feel my business slipping, I feel it slowly eroding as I lose my passion and energy for my business.”
I asked him what had changed.
“I don’t know, it just feels like I am always working and the only people who are happy are my staff. I feel like I work for them.”
I asked him why he had started his business
“Originally, I wanted to give people a healthy option for lunch. When I started there were only fast food places around. Now there are healthy lunch places popping up everywhere. More places means less business for everyone. My staff don’t seem to understand that. They complain if I take a person off a slower shift.”
I asked him what he thought about staff at the very beginning.
“Well that was the other thing, I wanted to be able to pay a living wage and treat my people well. I guess I thought they would feel like they were in on it and would rally round when we ran into difficulties.”
I could see the fire enter his eyes as he continued.
“My grandparents owned a small store in our Town. It was a gathering place. I’ve heard stories since it closed about how they made sure everyone had good food to eat, even if they had to extend credit. Their place was where you went if you wanted to know what was really happening in the community. In a good way, a caring way.”
“I wanted my place to be that way, too. I wanted to feed my neighbours good food and help everyone have a great life. I learned how my grandparents used their business to make their community better, and I wanted to do that, too. That’s why I started a business, and this business in particular.”
I could see he was fired up again so I asked him to bring that thinking to his current business. What could he do in his business to bring it back to that place? I asked him if he had discussed this with his staff.
“Well, no I haven’t. I’m the boss, right? Although I suppose I could. What would that do?”
I told him that he might be surprised.
“Okay, I will talk to them. My chef has been asking me to simplify some of our offerings. We’ve gotten pretty fancy over time. He seems to think that people want more basic, healthy, delicious lunches for a reasonable price. The newer places are doing the fancy stuff and charging for it, I thought we had to compete. We could try that.”
“One of my staff said her cousin has a farm and would like to sell directly to us, and I keep putting them off because I’m nervous about it. But, it does fit with my desire to make our local community better.”
“Maybe I should make more of a deal that I am paying my staff a decent wage and giving them benefits. It would be interesting to see if the community will get behind me for this.”
I could see he had energy and passion for his business again.
You have to reacquaint yourself with your whys when you are facing challenges in business. Especially when things are not going your way. Or when you lose your passion, or feel unmotivated or spend days not doing what you know you must do.
This is why it is so important to know your why. In fact your 3 whys.
Why have you started a business? There are many other ways to make a living.
Why have you started this business? What was it about this particular industry that attracted you?
What global problem are you solving? How will people’s lives change because of your business?
What are your 3 whys?
