• Skip to content

Jim Blasingame

Business futurist, award-winning author, speaker and columnist

header image
  • Home
  • Books
    • The Third Ingredient
    • Age of the Customer
  • Speaking
  • About Jim
  • Press Room
    • Jim In the News
    • Press Materials
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Books
    • The Third Ingredient
    • Age of the Customer
  • Speaking
  • About Jim
  • Press Room
    • Jim In the News
    • Press Materials
  • Blog
  • Contact

What’s Love Got To Do With You And Your Small Business?

April 18, 2022 by Jim Blasingame

In her second-most-popular song, Tina Turner sang, “What’s love got to do with it?” Out here in the Main Street marketplace, the answer is a lot.

Indeed, love is the reason people start businesses. We love to make and sell things: shoes, tires, hamburgers, cars, soap, computers, bread, air conditioners – you get the picture. You love your business; I love my business. Starting and running a business is a love story.

Yes, I know. Sometimes our businesses are not easy to love. In fact, our business is often like our teenagers: You may not always like it, but you always love it. Which is a good thing, because if you didn’t love your business you wouldn’t come back the day after it gave you the worst day of your life.

But love can also be a problem. Is it possible to love your business too much? As business owners, we know how to fall in love with our businesses, but we usually don’t know how and when to fall out of love with it. Here’s a great American love story that went wrong:

In the early 20th century, 19th-century legacy railroads thought they were in the railroad business when they were actually in the transportation business. When shipping and travel alternatives came along, many railroad companies failed because they loved what they did more than how they did it. Now consider these two happy love stories:

In 1993, IBM’s octogenarian business model was in trouble. Top leadership saved the company by realizing they weren’t in the computer business, but rather the information business. So they shifted from being hardware/software-centric to focusing more on information management services. IBM had to fall out of love with making machines and fall in love with delivering digital information solutions.

Founded in 1916, Boeing had deep roots in Seattle. But in 2001, the leadership realized their future was increasingly in aerospace, not just airplanes, and to punctuate that very dramatic decision, the headquarters was moved to Chicago. They loved what they did, not where they did it.

Both IBM and Boeing saved themselves by following Blasingame’s Law of Business Love: “It’s okay to fall in love with what you do, but it’s not okay to fall in love with how you do it.”

What do you love about your business? I’m serious; make a list. Then go back over the list and identify anything that might be holding you back. It’s unlikely that you can do this by yourself, so get your team involved. As you go through this process, listen for and beware of romantic notions that sound like: “It’s how we’ve always done it.” Those aren’t love song lyrics, they’re an epitaph waiting to be chiseled into a failed business’s tombstone.

In the 21st century, more than any other time, the choice is yours: reinvention or extinction.

By the way, Tina’s #1 song was her cover of “Proud Mary.” Everybody knows that.

Write this on a rock … It’s okay to be in love with your business, but not with how you do business.

Filed Under: Entrepreneurship, Management Fundamentals, Start Ups, The Age of the Customer, Uncategorized Tagged With: entrepreneurship, management fundamentals, small business, success

Categories

  • Banking
  • Business Planning
  • Buying a Business
  • Cash Flow
  • Communication
  • Coronavirus
  • Corporate Culture
  • Customer Care
  • Cybersecurity
  • Demographics, Generations
  • e-business
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Ethics / Trust
  • Finance / Accounting / Taxes
  • Franchising / Licensing
  • Futuring
  • Government / Politics
  • Human Resources
  • Innovation / Creativity
  • Intellectual Property
  • Investors
  • Leadership
  • Legal
  • Management Fundamentals
  • Marketing / Branding / Advertising
  • Mobile Computing
  • National and Global Economy
  • Negotiating
  • Networking
  • Profitability
  • Sales / Sales Management
  • Social Media
  • Start Ups
  • Technology / General
  • The 3rd Ingredient
  • The Age of the Customer
  • Trade: Import, Export, Globalization
  • Uncategorized
  • Work-Life / Balance

Archives

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017

© 2023 · Jim BlasingameContact Us