Column: Balancing love of job with profit

When I attended a local high school to discuss careers in accounting, the first question I was asked was "how much money do you make?"
Now that's fair enough but no one asked me whether I enjoyed my career. I sensed a need among the students to consider their values around money versus job satisfaction.
I suggested they may be limiting their capabilities by comparing career paths on the basis of earning capacity to the detriment of true career/job satisfaction.
That may not sound like the advice of a bean counter, but finding a balance between money and satisfaction is extremely important to the sustainability of a business. Our goals and passions are what drive us.
I know one client who faced this dilemma - he found the focus of his business had changed since he started it. A component he wasn't interested in was making all the profit. His concern was whether he should focus on where the money is and forget his goals or see how he could revive them.
One of the attributes that makes successful entrepreneurs is the passion they have for what they do. Have you ever met a successful business person who genuinely didn't enjoy what they were doing?
Small business owners wear several hats. Often they are the technician, the manager, the marketer, the bookkeeper and the human resources adviser. With so many responsibilities, it's no wonder most business owners dislike some part of their job.
Before you choose to follow the passion or the money, think carefully about what you enjoy doing and what you don't enjoy.
When we go through this exercise with clients, we find they often focus on the symptoms rather than the cause of their dissatisfaction.
It is important to be pragmatic when considering your dilemma. The profitable part of your business is probably providing the cash flow to allow you to pursue your original goals. If that is the case, it may be a necessary evil to some extent - at least until such time as you have grown the unprofitable part of your business to the point where it is generating sufficient profitability to sustain itself.
Another point to ponder is whether the profitable part of your business could be split off from the rest of the business and sold. Divesting this part of the business would relieve you from the apathy you feel toward it, but the proceeds of the sale might provide you with an opportunity to invest further into the other part of the business and accelerate your growth.
- Stephen Graham is a partner at BDO Rotorua chartered accounting and advisory firm