Business Lessons Learned from Camping

Last weekend, two days after school let out, my youngest went camping with some older Girl Scouts from her school. My friend is the leader and wanted to teach the girls some basic camping skills and since my daughter is Miss Social Butterfly, she wouldn’t dare miss this opportunity.

While listening to her tales about her two nights away from home, I realized that business owners can learn a lot from the camping experience. Here’s a run down for those of you who wouldn’t be caught dead sleeping in a tent, not showering, or using a not-so-pleasant latrine:

1. Get back to basics. Being 7 years old and always having lights, computers, cell phones and television available (and flushable toilets), my daughter wasn’t quite used to using flashlights to see at nighttime or having to cook her food over the campfire. But she now has a new appreciation for all these things that we take for granted every day.

Those of us who depend on electricity and computers to make a living can’t just turn off the power and hope to make money but we can certainly explore ways to get back to business basics. Do you really need to be on all those mailing lists? Do you really need that $600 software? Are you paying monthly membership fees for programs that you’re not using? What is the bare minimum you NEED to run your business?

2. Know when to ask for help. A continuing theme throughout Girl Scouts is learning how to work together as a team. My daughter had a work team where she was paired with two other girls to do their camping chores and she also had her tent team, essentially her bunk mates. Even though the leaders are present to supervise and keep the girls safe, the girls are expected to do the work themselves, with the help of their teams. If one girls didn’t remember how to place the logs in the campfire, the other two could help teach her.

In business, we can only do so much in a 24 hour day. To reach that next level of success, we very often need to find a teammate or two who can help manage either the client work or the marketing of our own businesses. Spreading yourself too thin across your business will ultimately decrease your productivity and/or cause harm to your customer service. Knowing how and when to delegate to that teammate will help you stay focused on money-making activities.

3. Stay calm when faced with problems. The northeast has been plagued with rain and thunderstorms this last month so it was no surprise to see the dark clouds roll in during my daughter’s second night away. But those dark clouds soon led to rain, thunder, lightening AND hail, none of which make the camping experience fun. But they made the most of it by putting on plays for each other under the pavillion shelter and singing songs.

Not all businesses run smoothly. You can experience setbacks from the moment you open your doors or maybe a few months into your business when clients don’t have as much work to delegate. How you react to these circumstances will ultimately tell you if you’ll be successful or not. Someone who is flexible and keeps their cool can ride the rough waters but others who stress at the first bad thing to come along might be more likely to give up.

And here’s the last lesson for today: HAVE FUN! Enjoy these summer months with your family and friends. If you find that you’re working too much, figure out what changes you can make so YOU run your business rather than your BUSINESS running you.