(There is no implied importance to the order of this list)
- You will most likely have some employees and depending on the size of the business and its markets you have to be prepared to step in and perform their duties and handle their responsibilities within the business should they take vacation, become ill, resign or just not show up for work.
- As an example, consider a small restaurant that has one chef. If that chef calls you an hour before opening and says; “I can’t come to work”, guess who is going to be flipping hamburgers? (You may wish to consider yourself lucky that they called you at all!)
- The overall security of the premises or facilities usually falls on you, the owner.
If the police discover that someone tried to break in to your premises at 3 a.m., can you guess whom they are going to call? - Lawsuits; whether justified or not will end up in your lap.
One of your male employees tells an off color joke, it is overheard by a female employee who proceeds to file a “sexual harassment” lawsuit. Lawsuits justified or not are a demand on your time and financial resources.
I was involved in a lawsuit that was filed against a company that I managed. After some investigation I determined that the lawsuit should have been filed against a company with the same name, but incorporated in another jurisdiction. It cost the company over one thousand dollars to have the lawsuit dismissed. The problem was not only the expense, but the number of unproductive man hours that were entailed to investigate the lawsuit and then to eventually have it dismissed.
- Do you like to go on vacation for a couple of weeks each year? As an owner of a small business it will not be that easy for you to get away. And if you can actually get away, will you be able to enjoy the vacation or will you be calling in every hour and thinking of nothing but the business. Most of the small business owners that I have met over the years have never had a real vacation.
I had a very good friend that owned a small hardware store for seventeen years. He had a very good business and for seventeen years he worked at the store six days a week and did the bookkeeping at home on the seventh. In those seventeen years he had never taken a vacation. He had no one that he felt he could trust to operate the business in his absence.
- Do you like to attend little league baseball games, watch your daughter in the school play and/or be active with the boy scouts? The business will usually take precedence no matter what you say to yourself before you acquire it.
As an example, you are an independent real estate agent, so your time is definitely your own, dream on! You have known for two months that your daughter will be valedictorian and be delivering her speech to the entire school, faculty and parents at graduation at 1:00 p.m. Saturday, November 10th and you have put a big X on your calendar for that day. You are so proud, absolutely nothing will stand in your way of being there; you would not miss it for anything.
On Friday evening you get a call from the Jorgesons, they have decided to place an offer on the $20M Rush Estate that you showed them a week ago. They are leaving for Sweden for a month on Saturday night so the only time they can get together with you to place and sign a firm offer is Saturday at 1:00 p.m. The commission on the deal is $1M. I am sure your daughter will understand!
It doesn’t matter if it’s a one man business or a large company, there will be times when you have to disappoint yourself and your family members because business matters must take precedence over family matters. This does not mean that business is more important than your family, one of the reasons you probably acquired the business was to give your family a better life style. What it means is that specific events in the business will take precedent over specific family matters. In the big picture your family is still more important than your business.