Weathering the Storm
No, this isn’t really about the weather; it’s about the stormy
economy. If you don’t own a business you
may not know what it is like and how hard it is sometimes to keep it
going. In thinking about it, owning a
business is a lot like owning a boat – your happiest days may be the day you
buy the business and the the day you sell it (if indeed you are lucky enough to
be able to sell it).
This owning a business/boat analogy comes from firsthand
experience. Bill and I have
white-knuckled the adventures of both owning a business and a boat. Here is just one of our many adventures on
the boat that illustrates my point.
We were off to a Rotary conference in Victoria and it was our
first long cruise on our boat. We left
our safe moorage in Port Orchard and headed off to Port Townsend for the first
leg of our voyage. The weather was good
and we had planned carefully to make it to Port Townsend for the night and then
to cross the Straits of Juan de Fuca with the outgoing tide in the
morning. It was an enjoyable and easy
trip north leaving us more confident than ever in our boating ability. When we
got in to Port Townsend that night we double checked with the harbormaster to
make sure we timed our morning departure with the outgoing tide and to our
relief, an easy crossing was predicted.
Sure enough that morning the sun rose on a perfect day. The boat was in great running order, the seas
were flat, and we caught the tide. We
took much pride in our boating skills as we powered in to Victoria Harbour and
tied up at the dock. Little did we know
what awaited us on our return voyage.
As we prepared to leave Victoria a few days later, the conditions
were not as favorable and there was already some chop in the water and it was
getting a bit breezy. We felt confident
in our boating skills, though, so we got under way taking some good advice from
fellow boaters to set a course up the coast and then cross over to the San
Juan’s as to avoid a direct crossing of the Straits. Well we weren’t far out of the harbor before I
grabbed our life jackets and squall gear.
When you are in a 34’ boat and feel compelled to don the life jackets,
you know you’ve hit some rough water.
Some of the last words of advice before leaving the harbor was remember
the boat can take more than the captain, and the captain can take more than the
first mate. How true those words seemed
as I was screaming at the captain I was ready to just jump overboard to spare
myself the suspense of waiting to be tossed overboard. Below deck stuff was flying all over the
place – stuff I thought had been securely stowed but evidently not stowed well
enough. It was a harrowing ride up the
coast but thankfully as predicted, calmer waters awaited us.
You might ask why we just didn’t turn around and seek the safety of
the harbor. Well, that wasn’t in our
nature and besides, we saw a few other brave souls out on the water and felt
equal to the task at hand – it wasn’t always going to be sunshine and calm seas
on the boat you know, so we might as well keep going. We needed that experience to know we were
capable enough to handle most any situation.
But I will tell you, there was no greater thrill than to safely tie up
to the dock in Friday Harbor. We had
survived and safely arrived with a whole new level of skills and confidence in
our ability to navigate some really rough water.
That’s what owning a business is like in these economically
challenging times. There are days that
are all bright and beautiful, the balance of supply and demand is perfect, you
can meet payroll, pay the taxes, cut yourself a pay check and there is growing
opportunity every day. And then
suddenly, consumers are spending less, the cash flow dries up, employees are
laid off, and you just want to bail
because the resources are exhausted. It is
perilous because the economic situation tied to consumer spending can be as
unpredictable as the weather.
My point in all of this is it’s a stormy time for most
businesses. The economic recovery has
been pushed out to 2014. No one expected
this recession to last this long and the longer it goes the rougher it
gets. The role of the chamber is to help
provide a safe harbor to our local business owners, a place to share the
experience, and to gather resources and information to help chart a course that
will help us survive this economic storm together. To join this ever growing organization of
fellow business owners or to just talk business, call the chamber and share the
adventure!
Added on 02/02/2012
Filed Under
Exec's Corner by Chamber blog
