Working with a client recently, I was starkly reminded of the difficult decisions that you have to make in business. It's a really tricky challenge juggling the role you play as a business owner, an inspirational leader, a compassionate confidant, a creative entrepreneur, and a logical finance director. Playing these roles can be exhausting, and knowing that it is your responsibility to get those tough calls right can be daunting.

In turn, it's also hard to remember as a business owner what your ultimate responsibility is. You are the guardian of the business; without the business being successful, your team doesn't have jobs, your customers don't have a service. So, while you are torn between the needs of all stakeholders, the business itself is the helpless entity that relies on you the most to make the right choices.

While supporting a client to make a really difficult decision – one that would affect the lives of others but was nonetheless the right one for the business – I found myself, as usual, demonstrating the point with my own experience.

In 2019, a decision by my business partner was the domino that led to the instant closure of two of my businesses, creating an eye-watering debt for the business as it could no longer service its loans, insolvency, redundancy of 50 staff, my personal bankruptcy, and the loss of my family home!

Harsh!

But despite the hardship and difficulty that period caused me, the anxiety, upheaval, uncertainty, and vast amount of paperwork that it created for me (never mind that the consequence is that I am still not 'allowed' a contactless debit card!), objectively, I find it very hard to not agree with the decision that my business partner made.

Would I have done the same thing? No. There were other options, but do I agree that this was a clear, straightforward, legitimate way to proceed?

Unfortunately, yes!

This decision was clearly a very good business decision, maybe not for my business and certainly not for me personally, but for his business, it was the right thing to do.

What could have been handled better was the communication. He could have been more straight and honest, more frank and clear, I could have been less stubborn and easier to approach. Perhaps that would have made the difference and persuaded him to do things differently. But given the information that he had, the context of the choices, I find myself using his position as an example of when you need to sometimes make difficult business decisions.

(I 100% would have made a more compassionate decision and found the better way forward!)

What makes these decisions even harder, though, is not having someone who can step outside your business and ask you the right questions, supporting your decision-making process and allowing a dispassionate approach. In my case I don’t think my business partner discussed it with anyone else, he made a decision in total isolation with all the pressure of his own family context and responsibilities and was alone with anxiety of such a momentous plan.

Whilst this period in my life was of course extremely tough, I am very grateful for experiences like theses. This experience, along with all the other trials, tribulations, the times when I have been the hero and those when I've been the villain, the times when I have 'failed' and those when I have succeeded, all contribute to the experience and knowledge I am privileged to share with others in the hope that the fresh perspective in turns helps others learn.