Editorial: You Are Your Business

A business that you own and run is work that never ends. But this work that is always with you should free you to do what you want, not be a chore you hate.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [March 5, 2007]

Over the past seven years, ISP-Planet has interviewed at least one entrepreneur, founder, or CEO each week. Here are a few observations.

When you are working for yourself, in your own business, work never ends. But your job doesn't have to be a prison. You can turning everything you do that's good and fun into part of your work.

Do what you do
For example, in our profile of D.C. Access, an ISP in Washington, D.C., we note that the owner, Matt Wade, is a runner and that the ISP established a core competence in serving track meets and shoe stores.

Chicago-based ANET Internet Solutions parlayed a contract with the arena that houses the Chicago Bulls into significant name recognition (and, maybe, season tickets too).

For Rich Bader of Portland, Ore.-based EasyStreet, the business was about making that one town, Portland, a better place to be. If that's an ambition you share, you could learn from him.

You could also learn from Terry Conrad of Grants Pass, Ore., and the Grants Pass Towne Center Association.

Be polite
It also means being polite to everyone, especially to unhappy customers.

It means joining local associations, starting with the Chamber of Commerce. Now, we're not expecting you to be able to achieve as much as Dover, Delaware-based Delaware.net's John McKown, but the CoC can help you.

Once you start to grow, you can do the sorts of things that Portland, Ore.-based Opus::Interactive did when it opened new offices around the state of Oregon:

donations to Grant Watts Elementary and Columbia County Christian School, title sponsorship of a Little League Baseball field in St. Helens, and signature sponsorship of Campfires & Canoes, a commemorative celebration of Lewis and Clark's journey along the lower Columbia River

Be yourself
The most important piece of advice is that you should know what you want. At the start of last year, we reviewed the book The E-Myth Revisited: Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It. One of the key points of the book is that the business owner should have a goal beyond making money. Know how big you want the business to be, know what makes you do what you do. The goal of the author of the book, he says, is to never have to lie. "My wish is to be a human being who doesn't lie."

At the time, we talked to John McKown, Jon Price, and Rudy Yakym about their goals.

Set any goal that makes sense. Take advantage of the fact that you are your business. There are more things that you could do than you ever will do. If you are sufficiently ambitious, you will never run out of ideas, and you will never achieve everything that you can imagine.

That's great! So get started.

— End