Things have changed so my wife tells me. Every time I hear politicians promising the world, or a new great idea by industry gurus I start to shutter. She says I never used to do that in the old days and she’s right, and much of it has to do with business. I never really cared before being in business. As employees your get your paycheck, you clock into work and life goes on. When they say they are going to raise a tax many times it is so buried in our pay program that many of us never even notice. Even when the HST came in most folks buying from a retail location looked at the final price and if it seemed reasonable would pay it without a thought. This is because the business whether it be the store or manufacturer have buried part of the tax in the price. So as the public many time you don’t see the full picture.

In business however you see the larger picture because it affects your bottom line right off the bat. It doesn’t matter if you are purchasing manufacturing parts or a bolt to go in the part every decision for taxes and pricing affects your operation. There is much more to it however than just money. Business is great for teaching you how the world works, how commerce works, why companies succeed, and why they don’t. Business teaches you money management, working with contracts, dealing with suppliers, and selling your wares to the public. It teaches you to defend yourself and protect against things that may compromise the business. Business teaches you about saving, borrowing, and taxes. Probably the most important part it teaches you about you. How you handle yourself in meetings and negotiations, and how good you are at time management. There is no better learning area than the world of business, and even the text books can’t teach you many of the things you will learn just by jumping in.

You may be asking yourself why I am talking about learning from business? The fact is that many people judge the success of their business by the dollar, now I do believe that is important, but if you focus only on the dollar you will miss the many areas of success that are outside that area. I have worked at many businesses before and many of them weren’t successful from a dollar standpoint. Even if you learned what not to do you have learned something that can be applied to the next venture. Every product or service that I develop helps me learn something new that can be used for future business endeavors. So if you’re an Owner Operator are you learning from your business how to run smarter, if you’re an entrepreneur are you learning about your target market, if you’re an employee are you looking to work smarter. If you have learned anything from your business whether it is highly successful or on the verge of closing the doors, think back to what it taught you from the day you opened to today and you may just find you are a success in one form or another.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is a business and leadership consultant. More information can be found on his website at www.outridge.ca