Like this article? PLEASE +1 it! Evan Signature
Evan Carmichael Top Header
Share for a Cause









Needs vs. Wants : A Business Owner's Biggest Struggle

Written by: Jennifer Walsh

Article Overview: As a business owner you have so many roles to play and so many things to do. Sometimes it is difficult to find the energy to do everything you need to do. You start to wonder if it's worth it and that mistake will ruin your business.

Free Download - Needs vs. Wants : A Business Owner's Biggest Struggle By Jennifer Walsh
Name: Email:

Needs vs. Wants : A Business Owner's Biggest Struggle

An endless list of needs
You find that there are so many things that you want to do but you never have the time to do them. You are always making a “to-do” list and it seems like the list never ends. Isn't it unfair that you are the only person on the earth that doesn't get to do what you want to do because there are so many things that you need to do? So many bills to pay, customers to call, orders to process, or sales to make. After a while those tasks always seem like a chore and who wants to live a life full of chores? With such a long demanding list of needs, life gets cumbersome and you can experience a loss of hope and desire for that dreamy life to come true. The dreamy life that is the reason you started this career path in the first place. You then feel stressed and overworked most often leading to resentment towards those around you... employees, friends, mates, and even strangers. So you procrastinate, and avoid all the things that need to be done. You are overwhelmed and tired of doing trying to make it all work.

Adjusting the scale
When experiencing frustration like this, most people have a hard time understanding what is causing it. Most people will focus on the negative side of things or the areas where you are lacking the most or blame it on another person. Others will try to figure out what is most important and then go down from there. Most often you believe that if something is on your “need to” list, then it must be more important than what you “want to” do. But there's a connection between what you think you need to do and what you want to do. This is what most people don't realize. So the the stress emerges and resentment follows. It's inevitable if you don't understand how your perception of what you need to do versus what you want to do is skewed.

Childhood training
Do you ever remember hearing... “You need to clean your room if you want to play outside”. “You need to wash your hands if you want to eat those cookies” or “You need to finish your homework if you want to go to your friend's house later”. Yes, we were all trained from birth that we “need to” do things before we can do what we “want to” do. Let's try to rewire the brain...

Adulthood retraining
Pretend that you grew up hearing... “If you want to play outside, you'll want to clean up your room first.” or “If you want to eat those cookies, you'll want to wash those hands.” or “If you want to go to your friend's house later, you'll want to finish your homework.” It all sounds so much better and gives new hope for a more positive outcome. Now look at your “need to” list and see if you can reword any items to match this new way of thinking.

Ex. I need to call all of these leads.
turns into...
“If I want to try to generate more income and have a successful business, I'll want to call these leads and see what I can make of it.”

A single list of wants
There was a reason you wanted to own the business you have. There was a reason that you wanted to be in charge of your life. Everything that you do for that business is ultimately fulfilling a "want" that you established before you took the job. So it's important realize that
the list of what you need to do, really comes down to what you want to do. Try this change of thought and you'll see that you will be more motivated to make your business succeed and live your life to the fullest. It may seem like an easy thing to do...so go ahead and try it and see what happens this week.

Related Articles
  What Are You Afraid Of?
  "Anything worth doing, is worth paying someone else to do."
  The Journey to Success - Persistence
  Finding a Niche That’s Ideal and Profitable
  No Struggle No Progress for Businesses or Individuals

Home > Work-Life > Jennifer Walsh > Needs vs Wants A Business Owners Biggest Struggle
Article Tags: career path, chores, desire, earth, frustration, hard time, homework, many things, mates, perception, resentment, stress



Related Forum Posts
A ton of Great Women A ton of Great Women - You might want to profile Teresa Cascioli of LakePort Brewery. She has an amazing story! I met her at at the celebratory luncheon for the Profit/Chatelaine Top 100 Women Business Owners. The Top 100 list is also a great resource for inspirational stories of Women Entrepreneurs.
My entry My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Artist vs Biz Owner Artist vs Biz Owner - I think there is a fine line between "artists" and "business owners". Artists begin with their passion and self expression and try to find a market for it. e.g. I like painting flowers and I think people out there like flowers too so that is what I am going to sell. This is where hard-selling starts and the starving-artist persona. Business Owners (who can be artists too) first find out wants and needs in the market and deliver that. e.g. Ashley may have noticed that MySpace had some real yukky backgrounds and thought I can do better - then filled that need. would love if Ashley were on this site too...
Young Entrepreneur Young Entrepreneur - I'm fifteen and last year, when I was fourteen I owned a motor sports marketing company. So yes, I do feel last year I was a "Young CEO." This year I'm getting more involved in investing. I assume I am now a "young investor." And for everyone's reference, there are four types of people in this world: 1.)The Employed 2.) The Self Employed 3.) Business Owners 4.) Investors The difference between the self employed and business owners is that business owners can leave their company for one year and come back and find that it is more profitable than when he/she left. A self employed person is like a Doctor or Dentist.
Most Useful SEO Tools For Webmasters Most Useful SEO Tools For Webmasters - Hi, My name is Jeff, I work for WebBizIdeas.com and we are developing an article called "50 Most Useful SEO Tools for Webmasters." We have ranked & listed our top 30 SEO Tools but want to get your opinion on what SEO Tools are most useful to you; as Internet Business Owners. Google Webmaster Tools Google Analytics Google Alerts Yahoo Site Explorer SEOBook.com Keyword Research SEOBOOK.com SEO For Firefox Tool SEOBOOK.com Search Engine Rank Checker SEOBOOK.com Back Link Analyzer SEOChat.com Keyword Difficulty Compete.com Quantcast.com Alexa.com Archive.org Stompernet Site Seer Technorati.com PRWEB.com ADDTHIS.com SHARETHIS.com EzineArticles.com Scribd.com Squidoo.com YouTube.com StumbleUpon.com Reddit.com Digg.com Del.icio.us Wikipedia.org Flickr.com NewsVine.com Yahoo Answers NOTE: When you list your answers please include a description on what the site is, why it is important to you, and your experience please....we may include it in our article. Jeff


Recommended Article for You close

  What Are You Afraid Of?

Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.



Featured Article


Bottom Footer
Share for a Cause












Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!
Name:
Email:
Popular Articles

How do I finance a franchise?

Track Your Time for Increased Productivity

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.