I visited a tourist ghost town yesterday. It was the same town I’d visited with my kids when they were three and five…almost twenty years ago! Time has gone by so fast. The name of the town is Goldfield. It’s just north of the town of Apache Junction, now basically an east valley suburb of Phoenix. It was thrilling to see that the ghost town, ironically, was as bustling as it had been when we were there all those years ago. It got me to thinking about businesses, and the fact that no matter what you do, they don’t last forever.
When you’re deeply involved in the day-to-day operation of your business, it’s not always easy to stop and think about the future. I have that problem constantly. I need to be thinking about getting new writers documented and briefed on the Foster Writing way of doing things. I need to establish more solid financial and sales goals, then take steps each day to reach them. I’m doing it in fits and starts, but it has to get smoother. If it doesn’t, how long can I expect my business to last? Are you thinking about the future? How long will your business last?
The truth is, every business that exists now will someday be a ghost town of activity. That’s just a fact of life. Businesses come and go with the people who run them. Even if you have a plan for someone to take your place when you retire, within a generation or two or three, the business is likely to be nothing but a memory.
Our job, I would say, is to make the years our businesses do survive as prosperous and meaningful as possible. One of the best ways to add meaning is to keep talking and writing about what we are doing and what we want to accomplish–or what we want to contribute to the world. The web has helped us document our businesses through blogs like this, as well as articles, website copy and more.
It used to be the only things written about a company were found in one brochure, maybe a framed newspaper profile article and a business plan that only the bank or investors got to see. Now, we have all kinds of ways to ruminate on our business activity, motives, dreams, philosophies and more. All of this requires that we know how to express ourselves through writing.
How do you feel about your writing skills? Wouldn’t you rather be able to write your own messages than have a writer speak for you? It’s possible for the most literarily challenged person to learn this important skill. Especially since we don’t expect anyone to write perfectly these days. We just want to read or hear what you have to say. Being able to write authentically about your business could be one of the things that lengthens it’s life.
Foster Writing is all about helping people say what they mean for important reasons, such as keeping businesses alive. Stay tuned to this space for ongoing tips and tricks for writing in such a way that you might be able to put off the ghost-towning of your business a little longer than expected.
