Have you every wished you had a business partner in your solopreneur business?  What if the business itself could be that partner? If you are an entrepreneur, if your pay is ‘commission’ based, if you are self-employed — your business is your partner!

One of the pitfalls of having an independent business is that it’s just you, right?  You make all the decisions.  Sure you may have some outside help for things like accounting and keeping all the technology going.  Hopefully you also use some outside support around marketing.  And at the end of the day it’s just you.

I’d like you to consider a radical idea, one that will actually improve your business!  Think of the business itself as an entity outside of you!  Even imagine it as a person.  First allow your mind to dream her up.  See her there about three feet in front of you?  What does she look like?  What is she wearing?  What is her name?  Is it the name of your business or something else?

Imagine what it would be like to have a partner and ally in your business that you could talk to.  Someone you could brainstorm ideas with.  Someone that is right there with you every step of the way.  Frankly most of us ‘talk’ to ourselves anyway — what would be the value of purposeful conversation with your business?

When you start thinking of your business as a person or entity things shift.  It allows you not only to give different attention to your business, but to also have a clearer separation between it and your personal life.  That’s a very good thing!

It’s very easy for us to get tangled in having the feeling that our business is personal—that people’s response to the business is to be taken personally.  And that’s a trap.  Clients see the ‘business’ you differently than friends and family do, right?  You need to have some separation between those different roles in life to keep sane!

I have had some clear personal experience in this area.  As the Money Knot Untangler, people naturally associate me with money.  That’s a good thing for business.  However, when you find people backing away from you when you are introduced because you represent that scary money thing, you start to worry that you might smell bad!  I’ve had that experience many, many times.  My ‘Business Babe‘ part laughs at that and thinks it’s great.  Personally it took some getting used to in order to stop feeling like no one wanted to dance with me at the school dance.

In case you are thinking this is just weird and woo-woo, allow me to remind you that even our government thinks of Corporations as entities.  Just sayin’!

How about having little meetings with your business?  Asking what it needs?  What’s working well? What needs improvement?  Oh, and together you both might actually gather some data about what’s going on by looking at the money stuff.  Money’s job really is to provide information.  The twist here is that your business may see and interpret the information in a different way that creates new opportunities, or smooths out rough spots.  It’s worth a shot, right?

By creating a real relationship with your business you will make both of your lives easier, and may actually get a level of support you just haven’t found before.  Give it a try.  At least these days when we talk to ourselves out in the world folks just assume we are on our cell phone, so no worries there!  Remember that you are still the President/Owner of the business, and this ally is here to help you.  See what you two can come up with.  And if you need a bit of help mediating the difference between what you want and what the business wants, I’m here to help!

Ka-ching

Shell Tain, the Untangler

Let me know if you’d like help creating a relationship with your business.  Give me a call at 503-258-1630 or leave a comment.