Multiple personalities…

I’ve had to work hard to manage my multiple personalities. No, not my psychological condition, but a managerie of personalities brought on by operating a business solo. It’s hard. There’s no one to counter balance myself. But it’s also a challenge. I find myself as the owner, mechanic, buyer, accountant, marketer, and janitor. The janitor part is probably the easiest task, but one that I too often forget to do.

I’m already a good mechanic. I can manage the marketing tasks, but figuring out where to place my marketing efforts is not easy with the budget the owner set for me and the fact that I am brand new to the area. The owner wants me to buy up as much inventory as possible (can’t sell without anything to sell) because he’s a bike parts geek. However, the buyer in me has to stop him and say “do you really need that?” So, we argue and in the end, he acquiesces to my buying skill.

Thanks to Quick Books, the accountant role is eased quite a bit. It was challenging setting up the individual accounts, but now all I have to do is enter information on a timely basis and keep it up to date. A slight delay just makes it harder to catch up, so the owner keeps pushing me to keep the books up-to-date. He’s a pretty fair boss.

The janitor is telling me to get off the computer and clean the toilet. Guess I can’t ignore it any further. Now where did he leave those rubber gloves?