For those of you who read my articles and enjoy them, you’ve probably noticed that I love using pictures as inspiration.

Well today, I cleaned out the small dustbin I have in my room. Now, I don’t know if it works like this all over the world, but here in South Africa, we place a plastic bag inside the dustbin frame. So when the dustbin is full, we pull out the bag and replace it with a new and clean one.

This got me thinking about the perspective we should have on business.

For the love of business

I love business, not in a “love of money is the root of all evil” kind of way, but in a “passion for the art of business” way.

I have my own freelancing business, I have a food business that caters to markets and festivals, and I work in the financial services. These are not the only businesses I have had, nor will it be the last. I just love it.

When you get any kind of business advice, the best advice – and these days you’ll hear it a lot – is that you should work yourself out of a job. You should have a business system; your business must not be dependent on your presence.

The dustbin is the business

Like with my dustbin, my business must allow me to plug logistics in and out, avoiding the messy consequences.

This allows you to play with new marketing strategies, key person involvement, and new products whilst making sure the bottom line is unaffected.

If you find that you can’t exit the business as easily as I remove the plastic bag from the dustbin, it might be time to restructure.

With the New Year around the corner, rethink your resolutions, and create more TIME than work for yourself and your family.