DOING WHAT YOU LOVE

As I write this article, the thermo-
meter reads three degrees. I’m not boasting or com-
plaining. My friends in Minnesota and Michigan are emboldened by their temperatures in the negatives. And fellow ballooners in Florida started wearing coats and gloves when the mercury plummeted below fifty.

I love living in the Midwest. I enjoy having equal parts of all four seasons. I look forward to the heat and humidity of August, the rain of April, the late frost in March, the last gasp of fall in November, the first day of short pants in March, the following day of wearing coat and gloves. I truly feel sorry for anyone who can’t enjoy both mowing the lawn and shoveling the driveway.

The cold weather gives me the opportunity to organize myself for the coming year. Compiling receipts and invoices for tax time, updating addresses for marketing campaigns, writing press releases for upcoming projects and working on new balloon designs.

I was recently talking with a friend at a networking luncheon. He has recently started a graphic design business out of his home. He has many years of experience and is very talented. His portfolio of logos, ad campaigns and websites is very impressive. (He designed the logo for my Balloon Garden project.) He’s been self-employed for about six months and already has a good client list.

We were discussing all the stuff we have to do that has nothing to do with the stuff we want to do. As we talked, we were joined by a few other “non-employee” business owners. (That’s the term being used to describe anyone who runs a company but doesn’t hire traditional employees.) Our little group included a bookkeeper, a baker, a plumber, a graphic designer and a balloon entertainer. We had a lot in common. While we all worked out of a home office, (the baker has partnered with a commercial kitchen), and are in different businesses, we all loved what we did. We all had a passion for our chosen field.

Unfortunately, to be successful in our business, we had to spend a lot of time not doing what we loved. Between marketing, contracting, invoicing, phone calls, letters, return phone calls and proposals; we were left with a small part of the calendar to perform our expertise. We came to the conclusion that you better love what you do because you’ll get very little time to do it. The rest of the time involves trying to convince someone to pay you to do what you love doing.

Many in our little group had worked in larger companies doing what they were now doing on their own. The plumber had worked for a national chain. The baker had worked in many restaurants. The bookkeeper had worked for a big firm. We all had our own reasons for starting our own businesses. Either the freedom to make our own decisions or to express our own ideas or to do things the way we wanted.

We discussed what we most loved about owning our own businesses. Nobody talked about the paperwork or phone calls or sending contracts. The plumber loves to rebuild drains. The baker loves to decorate cakes. The bookkeeper loves to balance numbers. I love to create unique balloon sculptures and entertain an audience. In our own ways, we love to show off what we love to do for the appreciation of our clients.

Certainly the burden of having to do everything yourself is outweighed by the sense of accomplishment in doing everything yourself. Love what you do and appreciate the time you get to do it.

Thad James
SAMMY J Balloon Creations
www.sammyjballoons.com
“Balloon entertainment with a twist”