Thoughts on Business... and Life

I have a very small business - selling spelling workbooks that I wrote and published about eight years ago. I started when I was teaching - when I couldn't find a resource to recommend to my students who were having problems with homonyms - words that sound the same, like write and right; cell and sell; sight, site and cite...

We'd come across them in class from time to time, and go over them. But English has so many of these confusing words - more than 500, in fact! - that I thought my students could benefit from more practice with a self-study book. But I couldn't find one to recommend...

To cut a long story short, I decided to create one - print it and sell it.

I won't go into details here about why I decided to self-publish - but I did. And, for me, it was a good decision. I sold my first batch of 2000, and printed a second edition. (Maybe I should do a few blogs on self-publishing sometime... I have learned a lot!)














After writing and publishing it, my creative endeavors had to stop - or at least shift gears - as I then needed to focus on selling my boxes of books! In the meantime, I kept on accumulating more material for a second book, if I were to someday write one...














I stuffed my notes into a plastic bin. From time to time, I'd look at them, and wonder what to do...

Occasionally, I would also pick up a book on writing, self-publishing, advertising, or running a small business.














Yesterday, I came across a really good one called The Common Sense Guide to Running Your Own Business by John Aylen. (It has one of my favorite features in a book: short chapters.) The chapter entitled, "Know Who You Are (and What You Want to Become)" has a lot of food for thought... And some of the ideas are relevant to life as well as to business.

The first one to jump out at me was: "Commit yourself to goals and activities, but do only things that make you happy, in the short term, the long term, or both: Do things that are worth the accomplishment and that are fun. Getting there isn't half the fun, it's all the fun."

Writing that first book was challenging and fun. In fact, my whole family got involved in it, one way or another.

The second thought that struck me was: There is no shortage of time, only of energy...

So as I reflect on where I want to go with my little business, what I want it to become, I am asking myself:

• Do I want it to grow (and consume more of my time and energy)? Or do I want to spend my time doing other things at this stage of life?
  
• Would it be fun to write another book? (And then go out and promote it...)
• Do I have the energy to do all of the above/some of the above/ none of the above?!

And for now, the answer to all of the questions is: I really don't know!