Lucid transition

When I first took over the design agency from my husband I had a lot of people ask me what my ultimate goals were, what I wanted to do with the company. At the time, their questions totally baffled me. What do you mean, do I want to build wealth? Sell the company? Who would buy us? I just want to do the work I love to do and not have to answer to a lunatic boss!When I got pregnant my goal was to grow the company, but mainly so I could distribute some of my responsibilities and take some time off. When I came back, and our sales pipeline was dead (mainly because of a poor hiring decision on my part), I had to quickly jump back in and rebuild what had been left to languish. I did it, and had the company back up and profitable within the year.

A month ago I put a date to start trying for another baby: next March. And I started looking at what I would have to do, who I would have to hire, what kind of projects we need to make that financially feasible. And I started to look at what would fulfill me personally and professionally. Nothing was adding up. Some scenarios looked too much like 2003, when I had C, and I didn't want to repeat that. The issue of who would do sales remained. And then I had to examine the issue of who I could depend on to take my responsibilities and who could be responsible for themselves. It was all looking like a tremendous amount of work on my part. If I've learned anything in this journey it's that one of the riskiest moves you can make is put too much responsibility in one person. If that person leaves, you're in a world of hurt.

The good news is our bank account is quite full right now and expenses are very low. And I started to consider this: My partner L and I could could take cash out of the company, keep some freelance clients, work from home, and likely make just as much money, if not more. Still no boss. Doing the work I love with the opportunity to do it with people I love to work with.

And then it became the only option I was willing to consider. I'm completely redesigning the business I've been running for the last four years.

I'm totally at peace with it and haven't had a moment of concern if this is the right thing to do. My friends and family are ecstatic and so supportive. Not everyone will be happy, of course, and some will think I'm giving up, but I'm totally unconcerned. I'm taking good care of the people I need to take care of, namely myself and my family and my employees.

There's more to tell, of course. I've already filled up my future with several new possibilities. The exciting part is seeing which ones comes to fruition....