Stockman offers survival tips

Editor’s note: Michelle Stockman works with Little Rock-based Arkansas Capital Corp. to promote entrepreneurship development around the state. Stockman earned a bachelor’s degree from Loyola University-Chicago in communications and fine arts, and earned a master’s in entrepreneurship from Western Carolina University. Her thoughts on business success appear each week on The City Wire.



Have you ever felt like owning your own company should come with a survivor’s handbook? Instead of picking up a “How to Start Your Own Business for Dummies” book, why hasn’t anyone created a “How to Survive Your Business”?

For those feeling the stress of running your own business, here are five survival tips for your sanity:


1. Running your own business consumes more time than most people think. Though you may be fitting your work related duties in creatively with other obligations in your life, it is important that you regularly schedule time to do something you enjoy as well. Not that you don’t enjoy running your business, but get away from the email, iPhone or Blackberry and the walls that contain your business. Get away, get some rest and get yourself recharged. You will find that you can make better decisions and be more creative about problems when you have allowed yourself time to rest.


2. Maintain an active relationship in the financial reporting of your business. If you are not skilled in accounting, find a class to help you better understand the lifeblood of your business. Understand how much your product or service costs, how much the market is willing to pay for it and how much you need to not only run your business, but make a profit. Reviewing financial information about your business on a weekly, (or better) daily manner will allow you to see positive or negative trends quickly. Seeing trends in your business gives you time to take action before it is too late.

3. Hire employees with a goal for what you would like them to achieve in mind (create an organization chart if needed). Lead your employees to imitate the behavior you would like to see in them, as your employees will only work as much as you are willing to work. Allow your employees to contribute to the business with their skills and ideas, then let go of those tasks to focus on other business needs. Likewise, if you ended up hiring an employee who not the right fit for the company, address that problem immediately. The longer you allow that employee to be a problem, the more the problem is going to grow.

4. Every year, take some time to plan for the year ahead and more. We are living in a time when change is not only constant, but comes at us quickly. Your business and industry are changing as rapidly as our economy. Stay on top of your market by planning for trends, business growth, economic changes and more. Like a business plan being used as an initial map to starting your business, engaging in strategic planning on a regular basis will give you clear direction on where to go. You can’t walk in the woods without a path, map or compass or you risk getting lost. Why allow yourself to do the same in business?

5. Owning and running your own business is hard, in fact it is even more difficult than having children when you have employees you are responsible for. However, if you can’t manage to have fun while running your business, you’ll be missing the best part of being a business owner. This is your time to find your joy even when it seems like times are tough.

Stockman can be reached at [email protected]