What are you running a business for?

Last week, I was sent an article (thank you to the person who sent this to me by the way) which was on the subject of "What are you running a business for?" - in other words if you're putting in all this hard work and can't go off and enjoy yourself occasionally, what's the point?

Reading through the article made me realise that what I'd written on my earlier blogs over the last couple of weeks might have been misconstrued. You see, I'm actually very clear on what I'm running a business for and what I want to get out of it.

Up until fairly recently, what I wanted to do was get the business to a point where it was established and to where it could start to run without me necessarily being there. We've now done that and the next phase is to put structures in place to support it over the next 5-10 years so that the business grows; we can provide service and quality to more people and so that the business is not reliant on me.

As we enter this new phase, it's presenting its own challenges and I am being tested and I'm writing about my experiences because a) we are all human and b) I hope my experiences will be useful to others going through the same situation.

But, I haven't lost sight of why I'm running the business or what I want out of it for me personally or what the end goal for the business is - although it may seem like it at times. Knowing why you're doing things and what you're running a business for is a vital question - but to take time off and go out for lunch etc occasionally is often not the prime reason for everyone. Without a doubt for me, it's much more than that!