Can you ‘kill the baby’?

Written by chris, January 21st, 2010, The Empire Builder,The Professional Woman's Toolbox

“Killing the baby” means removing the personal attachment you have to your business. Entrepreneurs (especially first-timers), have a personal attachment to their business. They grow it and nurture it and feel connected with it. Not unlike a new parent, business owners personalize everything in their business. The upside is they put a lot of detail into what they do; downside is the company will never have value unless they can let it go.

When you are building a company, consider yourself a foster parent. You are there to give it love, care for it, feed it, wash it, and sing it lullabies. But you are just ‘taking care of it’ until the new parents come to take the baby home. You can’t get too attached. As long as you and it are attached, no one will ever want to buy it. If the baby can make money on it’s own without mamma (or papa), then that baby will work with any parents. But….if you are the only one that can care for it, you haven’t built a business. You’ve bought a job. And that is something to cry about.

2 comments

2 Comments so far

  1. Jacki Hollywood Brown January 21st, 2010 11:23 am

    Funny you should mention this. As a parent your job should be to raise your children so they can do everything on their own as soon as they reach a certain age in life – so from that perspective you should think of your company like a baby – raise it until it takes off then let it go.

  2. Kristie January 21st, 2010 1:25 pm

    I remember you telling me this when we sat down for coffee. Thank you for the reminder.

Leave a reply