Can You Afford to Love Your Small Business?

In the summer of 2005, I was in love.



Yup, I'll admit it.



Truly, madly, deeply.



I was in love with the small business that I had founded.



It was one of the first spas in the world for men, called The Men's PowerSpa.



And why shouldn't I have been in love with it - I had created it just the way I had imagined it.



It was slick, sleek and masculine, with a bit of swagger.



But it didn't only look cool, it had taste - man, you weren't going to hear any wind chimes and pan flutes in here - you were going to hear Sinatra, Darin, and Bennett - real guy music.



And it had a mission - a serious mission - to help men look and feel their best.



Because looking and feeling his best confers benefits in every aspect of a man's life.


That was the core belief of my business.


I loved having created one of the first spas in the world for men, I loved being the self-proclaimed world leader in the men's personal care industry and I loved it when guys came in and left - looking and feeling their best.


Because I loved my small business, I believed in it, and defended it against criticism, expecially if the source of the criticism was people who had never set foot in the spa.


Like my investors.


Love conquers all, they say. But they also say that love is blind.


Was I blind to some of the problems in my small business?


I really don't know.


If you have a small business, can you afford to be in love with your business?


Can you afford not to?