Discernment - Finding me in my business
Updated: Jan 23, 2019
The battle is real when it comes to the noise out there in the world to tell you how to run your business, it can be overwhelming. Learning new skills and empowering yourself with knowledge is important to everyone’s personal and professional growth.
As entrepreneurs we ventured into business with the knowledge of something we have to offer.
I became a person who owned a jewellery store because I had experience and education. My experience included gemmology, jewellery sales, design, fabrication, and jewellery repairing. I also had many years in managing retail stores through a few nationally known retail companies (Walter’s Jewellers Ltd. and companies under the umbrella of Birks Co.) and at the time, recently completed two years of business education through Mohawk College.
When I took over E.A.LAMY & Co. in Rothesay New Brunswick in 1996 . I had worked as the head goldsmith, jewellery designer, and bookkeeper for three years. As the days leading up to the purchase of the company fast approached. I was filled with excitement as I was finally seeing my intuition come to fruition. You see, on my first day I sat at my bench I had this strong feeling in my being say to me, You will own this company one day!
I thought, I had more than enough experience under my belt to run a company and especially THIS company. The day came, the papers were signed. My key that I had as an employee now is being used to unlock the door, not as an employee, but now as the owner of this jewellery store, MY Jewellery Store!
As the days progressed, the excitement diminished, and the realization of the responsibility sank in. Being an employee is one thing. Being the owner, who is responsible for, and the caring for, this company, and its employees is a very, very, very, different reality than I had imagined.
The awareness that, when I was an employee saying "They should"…..… "If I owned this business, I would do" …." Why don’t they just do this" ….. Now, that I am in the position I longed for, for so long, I quickly realized and began to eat humble pie daily.
It was a bitter pill to swallow to humble myself in realizing I had judged my employer too often through a lens of ignorance.
It seemed that each day some new issue arose that I as an employee had no comprehension of and of its responsibility or financial implications. People came out of the wood work demanding payments on things I had no idea commitments were promised. Thank goodness for a great lawyer. For the first 8 months, daily I would answer the phone and end the conversation saying.” Thank you, But I am the new owner of this establishment and I did not agree to this” .
Please call my lawyer at …….
As employees we often think we know better. Yes, as an employee I contributed many, many, things. Prior to my arrival, the company didn’t have a computer. I implemented the transition from a manual accounting system to a computerized accounting system. I implemented an inventory system and created a customized inventory numbering system that would allow for you to easily determine the item if the tag had separated from the item, the cost of the item removing the need to look it up on the computer. I created procedures that considered all the departments of the shop for information flow and improved turn over and much more. BUT even though I had all this education and experience as an employee I was not the owner of the company, nor had control over the company. Basically, as valuable of an employee I may have been. When I became fully responsible, I became vulnerable and that vulnerability scare the hell out of me.
Knowing and being are two very different things. Being takes into effect your total self. Your emotional state, financial state, physical state, and spiritual state. Knowing is just head knowledge. Two very different states of being.
This awareness of who you are as a business owner is powerful. If we can be aware of our own state of being. We can identify and isolate how we are being at any period of the day.
With all the noise around us as entrepreneurs, can you discern who you are being, at any given moment ?
As entrepreneurs we had the courage to take the risk in doing what we do. But it takes confidence and discernment in who we are being to sustain our role.
Coaching for me helped me look within and find the strength to discern who I needed to be.
Since that day back in 1996 I have owned several businesses. I understand the challenges you will face. This is why I love being an entrepreneurial coach.
My clients will hear me ask many times…In this situation, who do you need to be?
If you are having a hard time finding who you are being in your business. I am here to help.