Non-Traditional Non-Profit Non-Boring Business School

November 10, 2023

If it weren’t for you your houseplants would die. (Although the opposite is true for some people.)
 
Think about it. A houseplant has no natural access to food, water, or sun. It’s completely dependent on you. It lives or dies by your hand.
 
Kind of fun to play God, isn’t it? Especially when your plants flourish.
 
This modus operandi works for home flora, but do you know where it fails?
 
Small business.
 
You’ve seen them. The super hero small business owner putting out fires. Solving problems. Kicking butt. Taking names. Always at the ready.
 
Some business owners love being that person. It makes them feel needed and important. A god in their own universe.
 
Other business owners are the backbone of everything but for different reasons. Usually, it comes down to control and distrust. If they don’t touch it, how can they be sure it’ll get done right?
 
Whatever the reason, the result is the same.
 
No vacations. No retirement. No sellable asset.
 
From that vantage, being important or in control doesn’t sound so nice.
 
A business that dies the moment you’re not tending it is a weight around your neck. Perhaps you can carry it for a while, but friend, at some point we all have to swim.
 
Don’t worry, though. There are things you can do to make your business independently profitable.
 
And it starts by honestly asking, do I own a business or a houseplant with employees?
 
– Zac Smith, VC