I wished clients knew that people who own small businesses are human. What they don’t see is the hard work and exhaustion they put towards making their clientele happy. When you own a small business all the work lands on the shoulders of the owner. They are in charge of clientele, booking, invoicing, and making sure there is money in the account. From the moment they wake up-to-the-minute they go to bed that business is theirs. Even if they have a day off it’s not really a day off because they are managing it inside their personal life. In professional attributes your supposed to be able to leave your personal life behind. When you own your own business it’s not possible to obtain.
We live in a needy society that feels entitled to being treated right now versus understanding the complexity of human needs. Right now creates greed. It creates this sense that they are the only person making the small stay afloat. In reality there are several clients or customers making the company move forward. Every amount of money paid into a small business pays for the person who owns it to live and help their families. That being said, the right now entitlement generates impossible standards for owners to be successful. Clients with the right now don’t understand how they generate extra stress and immobility to function. Right now creates a lack of boundaries and understanding between owner and client. Clients should remember that just like them owners have personal lives outside the project.
This includes days off. Everyone needs downtime to recharge and be refocused. Pushing a person into burn out creates problems inside their lives and the company they own. Expecting individuals to work 24/7 with no breathing room is inexcusable. When clients work someone to the breaking point & the owner is not giving 100 percent the problem lies with being unmotivated and exhausted. The standard should be set to know that small business owners are not robots they cannot operate 24/7. Exhaustion creates health issues beyond not getting the values work the client once held to high standards. It’s inhuman to work someone into a state of depression, illness, and burnout. In 2020, we learned the value of appreciating workers and their needs for family and human interaction. That notion is not being applied to small companies operating to keep their doors open and be able to survive in a shutdown world. Clients need to stop and revalue compassion towards owners and work towards treating them like how they would want to be treated.
Financially clients need to be understanding of the value they place into the owners. Most people see small business as desperate for money. Feeling like it’s not a corporation clients often want more for less. Most owners try to give their best and work on building trusting clientele. They want business because it’s their passion, however they don’t deserve to be treated like second class citizens. Any business can fall apart at any given time. This can be due to economical, financial, or personal stressors. Compact having clientele trying to cheap out and undervalue the lower player on the totem pole. Time equals money to be made when owning a business let alone a small business. Most of the time or in some situations the client doesn’t see the personal hours being placed to keep the client happy. The owner is important in keeping honesty with the client. The client should extend the curtsy and understand the value of the business they are helping.
We are living in a time when equality is being strongly sought out. Human rights go deeply into small business. Locally owned right in your country. Supporting a home business or local no matter how small can change the economy. Keeping small businesses includes remembering that treating the owner like a human makes a large difference. Clients need to understand that personal lives and work lives are not the only thing to make a business stay afloat. Our world needs to get better at how they treat people to see change & see more opportunities to help others flourish. People can change this with getting rid of the entitlement and the ego check. One client can make a difference if they help build a strong company and strong community with understatement of the human needs.
Written by Ali Johnson
PERSONAL BLOGS OF LIFE'S GIFTS AND REFLECTIONS 