It's not personal: business and the human condition
In the first in a series of weekly blogs, Auckland entrepreneur James Crow talks business, happiness and how they can overlap
Thursday, February 04 2010 || Comment || BY James Crow
With the title of 'father' being bestowed upon me, I think now is a great time to start sharing my thoughts with the world. Also never being one to complain without instantaneously searching for a solution, I feel that by sharing my business practices and general thoughts, others who travel on the same road might find some insight or at least some food for thought.
Three years ago I formed a family company, with my parents and two siblings as shareholders. This was done to honour the strong connection between the first product I planned to manufacture and sell (Pot of Gold skin balm) and its inception as a 100-year-old family recipe which my parents had kept alive as I grew up.
Currently the family company produces Pot of Gold skin balms and After Ink tattoo after care with new products on the way in 2010. The focus of my business ventures is always to find 'ethical holes' in the market where people could be receiving a better, healthier product and then set about figuring out how to give it to them. In a lot of ways I see this blog will exist for the same reason. Recently I have seen another ethical hole where people running businesses receive information that may help build their companies but can also degrade their home life and personal happiness.
Every day I hear advice about business, especially for startups like my own, and have found some of the information to be less than effective, if not down right confusing. This is not to say the information is not valid but just that I didn't see it helping me to create a business where I could also be stress-free and very happy in my life.
In this blog I am usually speaking to the small to medium sized business owner, like myself, who is involved in the daily running of their business.
A lot of what I know or have realised I know about business has come to light over the past few years. For that reason the blog will, for a while, work a little in reverse. Naturally the most pressing and freshest situations will present themselves first with some of the more basic, instinctive elements of how I do business coming later as I dredge them up from the murky depths between nappy changes.
My personal goal is to create a happy life for myself and my loved ones while helping the world around me. So if you're not interested in having a happy life I suggest you find another blog.
