Hi,
This is my first official BLOG; I am new to this, so please be patient with me. I want to discuss something very dear to me and hope that I can shed some light on coping with family emergencies while caring for a business.
Over the last weeks I have been through a very challenging time with a very ill grandfather. I have learned a few valuable skills, and how to cope with losses both in business and life. Even though my g-pa survived the ordeal for now, the hard part has just begin. I know he will pass on very soon and I must prepare myself and my business for that.
I am the owner of KimCo, and we develop and sell product to retail. I represent hundreds of products worldwide, and have any clients that I work with. I consider myself a very strong person, and can usually handle many tasks all at one time. A family illness, however, is much more challenging than I ever expected.
On June 15th, my g-pa was admitted to the hospital. He is 1.5 hours from where I live so of course I jumped in my car and did not return for 3 weeks. I was in a fog the entire time and did not realize how I was going to be tested over this time. I was in and out of ICU’s and hospital waiting rooms on a revolving door basis. Every day when I got back to his home, I was mentally, not to mention physically drained, to where I collapsed out of exhaustion.
I knew that I needed to be doing work with clients this whole time, however, the fog I was in was incredible and I just could not focus on any one task due to the emotional distress I was going through. The pressure of the “sink or swim” phenomenon set in, and for the first time in my career I truly watched how strong I really am. Despite my insecurity of not being able to handle much.
During this trying time also, I was asked to write a forward for a new book due out in October. Which I did finish on July the 11th deadline …YIPPEE! The book to be due out is called
Moral of this story:
1) Know that you are very strong
2) If I did not have an incredible team behind me, working with me to secure all of the new products I was working on in over the past three weeks, and the new ones coming on board, I could have NEVER managed to keep the ship afloat and continue caring for my clients like I did my grandfather. It is extremely important to not work your business alone. Find your team and build it to help you through the rough times, because their will be many tough times.
3 )Have in place the system that will help someone run your business in your absence. If your gone, can your business survive without you? Have a manual or some sort of operating process that someone can easily fill in your absence. Mine was simply being able to call my team and ask them to take charge in my absence, which they did. FYI- this team was just put together a few weeks prior to my emergency. So that I am grateful!
To not have these safe guards could spell disaster for you. Having them may just save your business!
Always Dream BIG!
Kim
