I’ve had four people ask my advice on various business ventures this week. Four friends mind you, not people that would qualify as clients. I get asked often about aspects of starting or running a business, and for the most part I have no qualms giving advice for free. I’ve been hustling in some fashion for 15 years, and self-sufficient (living entirely off my businesses) for seven years. The precise value of my experience is not readily available on Salary.com, but fair to say it’s worth something.
So how do I decide who gets free advice and who has to ask nicely, and who has to actually pay? My simple test usually involves a mental history query, has this person done me wrong in the past? No, ok, sure whatever you want to know I’ll tell you. I’m not vindictive to those that have in some fashion wronged me in the past, I’m happy to give them advice too, for some money of course, as they would fall into the client category rather than that of friend. Anyone else asking, such as a stranger, I’ll usually give them my thoughts free, really I don’t care about money anymore than I have to for my friends at Wells Fargo Home Mortgage or The Fresh Market require.
Enough about me, let’s get to the crux of the issue that keeps gracing my ears as of late, how do you build and maintain a business with longevity in mind. In other words, how does one build something that is less one-off and more of a daily revenue generator? My answer to all four people was almost verbatim the same, and it will be repeated here for those of you watching at home. Grow organically.
With the advent of green washing, and an all around pension of those in the media to overuse terms like organic to the point of rendering them near meaningless, it is necessary to explain the word in relation to growing a new business.
Organic as defined by the online iteration of Merriam-Webster: of, relating to, or derived from living organisms <organic evolution>.
Just as evolution is an oft-taboo topic among Christians, growing organically is just as much something aspiring entrepreneurs do not want to talk about. What do you mean we have to wait to make money? What does it mean to give away my product, I thought I was trying to make money, not lose it? If you look close enough at their faces you can see the blood drain from their cheeks, as the skin settles back from the form of smiles to faces of inquisition.
Growing a business organically is so easy to compare to virtually any other organizational feat in life, think sports teams or ascending through higher education, I won’t bother you with such. Instead, just imagine a new business as something small and vulnerable, something that needs nourishing and protecting. Build it slow, let it fall before it walks, let the masses tell you it isn’t going to work, let people make fun of you for quitting your job to do it, let all of the awkwardness take place. Don’t try too hard to make it something it isn’t, just fail and adjust accordingly.
When you allow for the business to be small, imperfect, and open to change, you are in effect allowing it to be affordable to run, flexible to pivot into new directions, and above all else authentically yours. People seek realness from a business as much as they seek a quality product or service; look no further than your own curiosities. How many times have you visited a restaurant or clothing store and asked whom the owner was, and what their story was? Or online, how many times have you visited a website and rushed to click the About Us tab before all else? By operating on an organic level, of slow natural growth through effort and sweat over splash and big money, you will have a great story to share with all those inquiring minds, not to mention a sustainable business.
This blog post was partly inspired by the Jamie XX remix of Eliza Doolittle’s song Money Box. Somehow her lyrics, and the melody itself, provide an aura of less is more that perfectly speaks to the ideology of doing more with less. So often businesses are taught to think in terms of spend, spend, spend, when the best businesses can do with less, less, less and make more, more, more.
Eliza Doolittle - Money Box (Jamie xx Remix) by Tsiabaannah
Instead of going out to dinner tonight
We can grow vegetables
Underneath the skylight
Clicking these downloads everyday has its price
We can lounge on our couch
And listen to our 45s
So take your Dollar
Your Yen
Those Euros I can't spend
I won't get down with no pounds
Never need to leave this house
Don't need a moneybox
Cos I got lots and lots
Of what I need right here
Right here with you my dear
Don't need a cash machine
To make our days happy
So do me a favour
Don't jingle your change Sir
Instead of going to the movies tonight
There's no shame in us playing
Dust of that Sega Mega Drive
Hand me your trousers
You got holes in your knees
It's no fuss patch them up
Forget about that shopping spree
So take your Dollar
Your Francs
Your Rupees no thanks
I won't get down with no pounds
Never need to leave this house
Don't need a moneybox
Cos I got lots and lots
Of what I need right here
Right here with you my dear
Don't need a cash machine
To make our days happy
So do me a favour
Don't jingle your change Sir
Lock up your moneybox
It's not much of a loss
All that gold just goes to waste
Cos you're worth more anyway
No need to travel round London tonight
We can play Monopoly
Buy Mayfair in our own time
So take your Dollar
Your Buck
I couldn't give a penny
That's enough leave it out
Never need to leave this house
Don't need a moneybox
Cos I got lots and lots
Of what I need right here
Right here with you
I know I know I don't need a cash machine
To make our days happy
So do me a favour
Don't jingle your change Sir
Don't need a moneybox
Cos I got lots and lots
Of what I need right here
Right here with you
I know I know I don't need a cash machine
To make our days happy
So do me a favour
Don't jingle your change Sir
So do me a favour
Don't jingle your change Sir
Loobee loobee loobee loo
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