Long after the honeymoon is over, your relationship to your business matters
ActionCLUB is next week! Click the link to learn more & register:
caitlinblundell.actioncoach.com/actionclub
“Do What You Love….”
Whoever coined the phrase, “Do what you love, and you’ll never work another day in your life” was clearly out to lunch.
Every entrepreneur knows that when you love what you do, it can definitely still feel like work. Doing something you care deeply about can challenge you, push you to your limits, drain your energy, and toy with your emotions. Working for customers who chose to trust you, your team, and your business to deliver results creates pressure. There will be days you don’t love the work, and tasks you don’t enjoy at all.
Just like a successful marriage takes work, so does your relationship with your business. You may have noticed that when you’re paying attention to your business and treating it well, it tends to treat you well in return. When it’s neglected, resentment sets in and the issues start to multiply.
With Valentine’s Day coming up, it’s a good time to take stock of how you’re feeling about your business and invest some time and energy into strengthening this important relationship.
How to Fall Back in Love With Your Business
The top three pieces of relationship advice for long-term couples are:
Prioritize effective communication – listen to understand, even if it’s uncomfortable.
Cultivate respect and appreciation – accept and acknowledge your partner for who they are.
Fight against the problem, not each other.
Your business won’t ask you to buy flowers or remember anniversaries, but it does thrive when you follow the exact same three rules.
Prioritize effective communication. What’s your business trying to tell you? Since problems tend to get worse over time, catching issues when they’re just a whisper saves a lot of drama down the line. Unfortunately, because you can’t take your business out for dinner and a long chat, you’ll have to do all the heavy lifting in this conversation.
✔ Go back through your financial statements and see what’s changing over time. If your overhead expenses are growing faster than your revenue, for example, your business is trying to tell you something in the only language it does speak: your numbers.Cultivate respect and appreciation. Reconnect with your vision. What inspired you to start this business? What’s the next level you’d love to get to? Instead of focusing on what isn’t happening or isn’t yet possible, take a step back to appreciate what your business is capable of today.
✔ Take a moment to appreciate how far you’ve come, and give yourself permission to daydream about the future. The stronger the vision pulling you forward, the clearer the path becomes.Fight against the problem, not each other. In business terms, this can mean fully owning your decisions, actions, and results. If something in the business is not how you’d like it or not delivering the margin you’d expected, it’s time to take action to fix the problem.
✔ Take stock of any problems, big or small – is there something you’ve been ignoring and hoping it will go away? What’s the first step on the way to a solution?
For most people, being ‘married to their work’ might sound like a bad thing. But for small business owners, carving out some time to build a healthy relationship with their business can actually help them keep things in perspective!
This Week’s Takeaway
Your relationship with your business matters. This Valentine’s Day, why not take the time to reignite your passion for it?
Define Your Niche This February at ActionCLUB
On February 20th in Mississauga, join the ActionCLUB community where we’ll go beyond simple demographic market segments (like “men aged 20-60”) and define value that connects with prospects, even in a crowded field.
We’ll Cover:
Clearly defining your niche so your value proposition is clear and compelling for your target audience
Standing out from your competitors, so you never have to compete on price… and can command a premium rate instead
Cutting unnecessary fluff to speed up your sales cycle
Doing less of what isn’t working for you and get back your valuable time
What’s included:
ActionCLUB opening session (10-11am)
Define your Niche workshop (11am-12pm)
Networking lunch with local entrepreneurs (12-1pm)
$50 | @IDEA Mississauga | 10:00am – 1:00pm
Rest: By Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
Rest is a thoughtful counterbalance to the constant pressure to do more and push harder. The author makes a research-backed case that real productivity often comes from stepping away, not doubling down, and introduces the idea of “deliberate rest” as a skill rather than a reward. Better work often starts with taking rest just as seriously as effort.
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