regretD.J. is a bankruptcy lawyer here in Sunny San Diego, and he told me that most people come to him after some kind of major crisis: job loss, major illness, divorce. It’s kind of a cascading effect that happens, and all of a sudden people who were getting by are facing bills they can’t pay.

I can see how that happens.

  1. In August, I politely told one of my biggest clients that he didn’t need me anymore.
  2. Then I took three days off to go to a conference, confident that I could use the professional event to find more business.
  3. The day after the conference, my family revealed that someone I love has terminal cancer. I stopped dead in my work tracks for at least two weeks, barely keeping up with my regular work.
  4. Then it was the end of August, and all my clients took vacation. Work got S.L.O.W.
  5. In addition, I was (am) still reeling from the cancer news, and I didn’t (don’t) have much energy to generate new biz.

So here we are, about a month later, and I didn’t generate enough money to make ends really meet. And I’m sitting here kicking myself for at least five things I did or didn’t do for my business:

  1. Gather your contacts while ye may. I spoke at a couple of conferences and attended a few meetings this year. I should have made much more of an effort to gather contact information from attendees in my sessions and the people I met. Instead I happily told myself that people would use my cards to get in touch when they needed me.
  2. Not understanding the concept of Opportunity Cost. Wikipedia says opportunity cost :is the value of a product forgone to produce or obtain another product.” This means that when I was spending time on one project (like trying to get speaking gigs that wouldn’t necessarily pay), I was actively losing the opportunity to make money on another project.
  3. Not understanding the concept of Low-Hanging Fruit. To drum up business, I could make some phone calls, reach out to some old contacts, send out a few emails. But I convinced myself that I wanted to break ground with new contacts and to market new services. So I didn’t reach for the low-hanging fruit — the easy contacts — I kept reaching for the top of the tree.
  4. Setting my minimum daily requirements too low. My daily financial goal is enough to keep me going, with an occasional latte and perhaps a trip to a sushi bar once a month. There’s not enough padding there to really create a nest egg for the hard times. And when I’m unable to make my minimum, I’m in trouble.
  5. Not getting an accountant. Other small business owners tell me that I’m paying WAY too much in taxes, and I continue to lop off a large chunk of my checks for my tax savings account, dutifully sending the government hefty checks every quarter. If I talk to an accountant, chances are he’d help me understand what I should be doing. Now I can’t really afford to visit with an accountant, so there’s the regret again.