Back to the Work
Some thoughts on meeting this moment.
Here’s my punchline: I took six weeks off from Wanderwell and nothing bad happened. I didn’t check email once, didn’t get pulled into any urgent (or not so urgent…) fires, and came back to a smoothly running business.
I spent most of my time off in India, a country I know well, having lived there for a chunk of my twenties, but which doesn’t exactly lend itself to “relaxing vacation” vibes. I certainly did not return well rested, but I did return reinvigorated and feeling deeply grounded— I had a magnificent time.
I met a number of Europeans in my travels, all of whom were perplexed as to why I would refer to 6 weeks as a sabbatical. Is that not just a vacation? they asked with furrowed brows. And they’re correct, in a fashion; it went by in a blink.
At the same time, I did cross the magical 2-3 week threshhold where my brain finally let go of it’s well-conditioned patterns and I truly stopped thinking about work at all.
I’ve now been back at work for two head-spinning weeks, and while my dear clients keep asking me “you’re going to write to us about your time, yes?” I’ve felt more than a little protective of my time away and don’t have a lot to share publicly at this point. I do have tips and advice for paving the way (some of which I’ve shared here), that may come sooner. In the meantime, if you’re wondering: you should definitely take a sabbatical.
Meeting this moment
As I’ve been talking with clients the past couple weeks, and I want to respond to something that’s coming up for a lot of you:
Yes, absolutely pay attention to the chaos swirling around us, specifically the potential impact on your business.
At the same time, make sure you’re not over-(re)acting in the present.
It’s always the job of leaders to tend to the present while keeping a keen eye on the horizon. That’s even more true now; we’re mere weeks into an oligarchy-driven attempt at gutting any part of the government that helps people. There’s a lot we don’t know, and, to be clear, I don’t think things will be fine! But we’re not completely doomed, and it’s not helpful to your business and your team to pre-react to potential (or even likely) circumstances that have not yet come to pass.
Maybe the majority of your clients fund their work with you through federal grants. There’s real risk to federal funding right now! However none of those contracts have gone anywhere yet, and the inquiries keep coming in.
Reactive would be to take actions as if the funding is already gone: premature layoffs, say, or even holding back on a hire you need and have been planning for anyway and asking your current team to labor on overburdened (because, hey! aren’t they lucky to still have jobs?!).
What I’m saying is, don’t mistake future risk for the present reality.
You want to see that there’s a series of stop signs ahead, but you keep rolling and brake for them one at a time rather than dismantling half the engine at the very first red sign. Dismantling the engine will close doors prematurely, better is to maintain good options while taking the risks ahead very seriously. This is a good time to take care of issues that you’ve maybe kicked down the road for lack of urgency (eg, if most of your work is funded via the Fed, time to start diversifying).
Last thing: if you don’t know what dashboard indicator lights to be watching, this is an excellent time to get your financials in order1.
How we can help in 2025
Here are a few reminders of how we (all of us at Wanderwell!) can help. We are having conversations now for our March-April openings:
BOOKKEEPING & ACCOUNTING SERVICES with a strategic backbone to provide you thoughtful, clear financials. We specialize in creative problem solving for growing companies led by non-finance-nerd founders.
ADVISORY SERVICES to help you transform your business and your relationship to your business: navigating leadership and business growth, (re)designing your business model, structuring your people and systems, and projecting and calibrating your financial performance. I’ll also add: increasing resilience in the face of massive uncertainty.
Whiskey Fridays PODCAST two seasons worth to catch up on.
ZINES to expand entrepreneurial imagination, including exploring post-capitalist business models and the purpose of profit for a radical enterprise.
If you’re interested in any of the above, I’d be delighted to start a conversation.
Related:
During the pandemic, there was a marked difference in recovery and overal “okayness” between the folks that were engaged with their financials and the ones that weren’t. Engaged with financials basically means having a handle on two things: 1. how money moves through the business, and 2. key metrics to inform decisions.