Time-devouring challenges

Now that we’ve entered the best weather of the year, it should come as no surprise that 2010 is rapidly coming to a close. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and News Years are barreling towards us with barely enough time in between to catch your breath.

The good news is the top and doors are off my Jeep. Next we’ll turn off the AC and open up the house. Fall in Florida really is my favorite time of year.

Despite the lack of time remaining in the year for business, I am encouraged by the steady increase in new opportunities for Milestone. New leads keep coming in, and old leads keep popping up. Current work continues at a slow and steady pace, and the 2011 business plan is taking shape.

The unfortunate reality of this growing business is its negative impact on two things that are near and dear to my heart. The first is my volunteer time. Over the last twelve months I’ve met hundreds of people and made dozens of friends through my participation in various business organizations.

Of course I’ll do my best to maintain those relationships, but the reality is that I must shift my focus to paying clients. As our revenues grow to support the business we will begin to bring our freelance associates on board as fulltime employees. That may free up some time for more volunteer work, but I doubt it. The opposite is more likely as that level of growth will bring with it a new set of time-devouring challenges.

The second negative impact is more personal. My father was a workaholic. And while I don’t resent that aspect of my childhood, I do regret the fact that we weren’t able to spend more time together.

With each passing week I have a growing fear that my commitment to the success of this business is having an ill-effect on my family. Of course it’s easy to argue that I am doing this for my family, but that’s hard to justify when it severely limits the amount of time I can spend with my family.

Until next week,

Matthew Anderson, President
Milestone Marketing Associates, Inc.