Being a good business owner takes many skills, like leadership, time management, creativity, people skills, finances, and others, as you have already discovered over the years. Owning and running a business has many parallels to owning and driving a car. But there are legal limitations on how long you can drive a car. What about owning a business?
This article came from a simple comparison that made me realize how often we start something that we think we will learn quickly and then realize that, over time, we settle into our learned skills and stop looking for the next step.
Keys to being a…
| Good Car Owner & Driver | Good Business Owner & CEO |
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Like driving (and in life in general), as we get older, our experience adds a more mature view of how we manage our skills and learning. The challenge with this is, at some point in our life we need to say, I need to stop driving. At what time do we come to that realization? That we don’t need to drive as often? That driving seems more difficult, not as pleasurable, or simply overwhelming? Maybe we are no longer a competent driver and for the safety of others, we should get off the road. Or maybe someone has realized this for us.
This is the same in your business. At what point do you say, “It’s time to leave,” and what does that mean for us and our business? If we have not prepared ahead of time, to have a business that can run without us, it means a really difficult transition for us, our people, our customers, and the business.
Learn to prepare yourself and your business for the future. Don’t wait until you have no options. No one wants to have the unfortunate experience of someone else telling us, “you are too dangerous to drive this company”.
Keep practicing. Keep learning. Keep evaluating your options. And keep making plans for the future. Just because you have built the business, doesn’t mean you can coast. You should always be making plans for what you want to happen, and prepare for any other unforeseen or unexpected possibilities that might happen in the future.
Future proof your business so it will have value now and in the future, without you at the helm.
This article is 100% original content – The articles you read in this blog are 100% created by Barb Stuhlemmer, not by AI. © 2026 Barb Stuhlemmer
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