New Love Incorporated: RE-Falling For Your Business

New Love Incorporated: Re-Falling For Your Business

Recently, I found myself in close proximity to a newly-in-love person. Once you get over the seemingly endless descriptions of “how he looks at me,” it’s actually pretty inspiring. For this married lady, it probed me to look at my husband in a new way and to recall all the early flutters of curiosity, awe, wonder and “wow” factor. And I haven’t even been married that long! Nevertheless, the daily grind sets in and sometimes you need a kick in the butt.

Weirdly, the same is true about your business. I’ve been reading The Dip by Seth Godin and musing at how we start our businesses with such vim and vigor and all the passion our beating hearts can muster. Soooo in love! But time passes, challenges arise, people judge you or support you depending on the day and entrepreneurs can easily slip into the uninspired slump. Whereas you used to make-out and caress your business, now you kind of roll over, put a pillow over your head and hope it doesn’t see you drooling in your sleep.

Relationships have it and businesses have it. It’s the ditch on the side of the highway that allows you to see who is hauling ass at mock speed with their tail in the air while you do your best to climb out of the dirt.

Here’s the funny thing; the antidote to the “ditch” is often hitching a ride on someone else’s entrepreneurial Masarati, someone who happens to be on the highway at the moment, someone who can remind you about how it was and can be. The easiest way to do that is to be around a bunch of smart chicks doing cool stuff, people who are truly excited about what they’re growing. It reminds you. It inspires you. It kicks your complacent butt into gear.

Don't forget to hold hands and flirt with your business, even when the view isn't so gorgeous.

Deep, mad, crazy love has two people paying so much attention to one another that they see when one is hot, cold, hungry, tired….when one of you need your feet rubbed. Are you paying attention to your business this way? Are you feeding it? Giving it a rest sometimes? Bringing new information to the table to innovate and create? Are you keeping it interesting? Is your business worthy of a love affair?

It’s easy to stay in your sweat pants, hair in a ponytail, scarfing lunch at your desk. But imagine if you were in looooove. You’d put on lip gloss, rock a beautiful pedicure, prepare a gorgeous lunch to be enjoyed with a real knife and fork (!).

You’d get out of bed with a spring in your step and answer your phone with breathless excitement!
Find yourself a community. Get connected to other free agents who are in committed relationships and are HAPPY in them.

No one can love your baby like you can. So change the sheets, open the windows, look your business in the eye and put some umpf into it (and you can read that howeevvver you want.) Remember the first day you thought of your idea and how excited you were, and mostly, remember why you started it in the first place.

Amy Swift Crosby is the founder of SMARTY, a community and resource for entrepreneurial women in Los Angeles and around the country.

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Comments ( 5 )

I’m off to flirt, manhandle, and woo my business for the day. Great post, great analogy, good real life advice!

Laurie March, EvangelistaLA added these words on Jul 28 09 at 12:20 PM

Great use of metaphor Amy! I’m going to put on some mood music and brainstorm!

cori added these words on Jul 28 09 at 1:43 PM

Hi Amy,

I found this article from a link Melody Biringer posted on her FB fan page. I had to laugh when I read this post. I was just telling my husband last night how still “in love” I was with my business and products after one and half years. I still get giddy when I take inventory and super excited when I show them to people. It definitely has not been easy, but the passion and love I have for the business always carries me through.