Geek alert: As a fairly new business owner, I have dived deeply into my local small business development ecosystem, taking in the tremendous range of opportunities to learn how to make my company successful. They say that learning something new is good for the brain. Well, mine is firing in all kinds of new ways. Let me tell you why I’m so excited.
Last night, I attended a session on financial management. Sure, I’ve been working with nonprofit financial statements and budgets for years. (Huge thanks to Liz, the Business Manager who made sure that I understood all of the reports!) I’ve created multi-year government grant budgets and responded to some pretty detailed financial status questions on rigorous grant applications. Start me talking about direct and indirect costs and you’d better settle in comfortably. It’s going to be a while.
Lest we think we know everything, along comes life to set us straight. Managing my own business has caused me to understand financial reports and accounting through a whole new lens. It’s darn real and a little scary when there is no treasurer, bookkeeper, or another staff member with particular expertise working alongside me. And that’s just the financial management, never mind marketing, contracting, IT, and all the rest of the administrative side of an organization. I’m extra grateful to the friend who referred me to a fabulous small business accountant, and that my HR responsibilities are limited to paying quarterly taxes and reminding myself to pause for a cup of tea now and then.
One of my philosophies is that every experience is useful. I’ve recently branched out my grant services to assist small businesses with their applications for funding like the NC IDEA Grant, USDA programs, and the whole alphabet soup of government opportunities. Because of my own experience as a business owner, I am better able to express their needs in a way that will be persuasive to funding agencies.
My own education as a business owner is being layered on top of the work I’ve done with entrepreneurial business development organizations. I’ve advocated for the very same types of programs in which I’m now a participant and am taking in information on both levels. It’s been highly meta.
I’ll never be far from my nonprofit roots. My heart belongs in that sector even though I'm a consultant at present. It turns out that I can be a contributing member of both communities. I’m excited about small business development, for myself and for others who are ready to offer our community a business that will help us all to grow stronger.
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