As a business owner, especially a solo business owner, it’s paramount to take care of yourself. You can’t possibly start to restore your business without first making sure that you are in the right place personally. For me, that meant restoring my home environment first. Beyond the normal spring cleaning, it was also time to dust off the lawn mower and string trimmer and get to work. It’s incredibly satisfying for me to stand on the porch and look out over a trimmed lawn.

We’re also getting to work in the gardens for the season. One of our raised beds was destroyed in the hurricane, so I’ve been working to rebuild that one. Getting the piles of cinder blocks moved and re-arranged is a lot of back-breaking work, but it’s so refreshing to have that last reminder of the pain of the hurricane beyond us. We’re also getting our seedlings planted and I’m very excited to see them start to grow.

I’m also taking this time to cut out “stuff” and bring in “energy.” Stuff is all the things that drain energy and fuels procrastination. Things like YouTube, social media, video games, and even tangible items like clutter on your desk or messy rooms. Energy encompasses all the things that you permanently love, that produce growth, and that grow confidence. Doubling down on these helps increase motivation. I’m doubling down on my family, time outdoors, and personal reflection time.

With our own personal restoration underway, business restoration can take many forms. One of the best things we have is the forcing function of tax preparation to get our finances back in line. That’s one thing that makes late winter and early spring a great time to work on restoration. It’s also a great time to look at business practices to make sure they keep up with the company and are continuing to provide timely, accurate, and relevant information. We are a growing business, and our financial system needs to adapt to keep up.

This is also a very good time to go back to core values and make sure they’re being held up throughout the business. Our values of honesty, compassion, and quality should be showing up in everything we do. And this is a great time to investigate our practices and ensure they’re there. Exercises like process mapping are helpful, and we’re looking at previous maps to see where we can tweak them.

I want to wish everyone a very happy and productive year ahead. When there is uncertainty around us, I’ve found the best thing to do is look inside and double down on what we can control. So that’s what we’re doing.

-Nate