The Best Laid Plans

In any given year, I spend the last two or three months thinking about my plans for the upcoming year.  I’ve done this for several years now.  It’s a good exercise, although I’ll be the first to admit that things don’t always work out the way I had planned.

We’re not even to 2011 yet and already the plans for my business for the upcoming year are falling apart.  As I’ve reported previously, 2010 was a very good year for my insurance agency.  In fact, it was our best year in the past five years and was one of the top two years we’ve had since I started the agency in 2000.  As 2010 was coming to a close, I knew we were riding a wave of momentum and I wanted to capitalize on it in 2011.

I received some bad news in October when one of my team members decided to pursue a different line of work.  I was disappointed, but understood her decision.  I immediately went to work to replace her.  I had the luxury of having two other experienced team members in my office, so I was able to hire someone without experience.  Thankfully, I found someone that is going to be very good for my business, but it is going to take her some time to get up to speed.

November was spent making plans for 2011 and at the beginning of December, I put all of my thoughts about the upcoming year into a formal business plan.  Unfortunately, a couple of days after my business plan was completed, my main team member dropped a bombshell on me.  He too had decided to take another job in a different industry.  I tried to sweeten his income package, but I couldn’t compete with the company he decided to work for.  So now it’s back to the drawing board.  Not only do I have to find another team member, but I also have to rethink my plans for 2011.

Some people would view this situation as reason not to own their own business.  I couldn’t disagree more.  I’ll be the first to admit that this is a headache.  Let me rephrase that.  It is a HUGE headache.  But it is a small price to pay for the freedom that I enjoy all year long. 

I have been very fortunate over the years to have some excellent team members.  Their hard work has allowed me to live a lifestyle that most people only dream about.  But it’s not all puppy dogs and rainbows.  I am a lifestyle designer, not a trust fund baby.  Occassionally, bad situations arise and it is my responsibility to deal with them.  I hate it while I’m going through it, but it really is a very small sacrifice to make in order to live the way I do.

I’ve been hearing a lot of criticism lately about advocates of lifestyle design.  The critics claim that lifestyle designers try to make their lives sound picture perfect.  They say that we are sugar coating the truth and trying to sell a bill of goods to others. 

I’m here to tell you that my life is not picture perfect.  In fact, far from it.    Like everyone else, I have to deal with my share of headaches and disappointments.  The fact that I own a brick and mortar business with real live employees can sometimes make the headaches even worse.  I don’t want to sugar coat that fact.  But the truth is, it still beats having to show up to an office every day; or worse yet, having to work for someone else.

I try to be very realistic about my lifestyle.  It’s not a utopia by any means.  But I have to tell, it is pretty damned good, even if a problem does spring up every now and then.