Choose Your Future

Dialing in our financial projections for the year is probably the least favorite part of my job. I don’t do the heavy mathematical lifting, but looking forward and committing to a number that doesn’t exist yet can be anxiety-inducing.

When projections are conservative it feels calmer and easier to focus on what we want to do: How can we better serve and support our guests and partners?

When the projections are more grandiose, it’s easier to find ourselves chasing a fad or ignoring our mission and values to make a quick buck. 

Of course, there is no such thing as a quick buck. If there were a button we could push to add another $250K to our bottom line, we would have pushed it already. 

Year-Over-Year

There’s nothing special about the calendar rolling over. Your year-over-year is based on your day-after-day. Working steadily with intention, trading instant gratification for long-term stability.

But slow and steady comes at a cost. You might not make as much money as you want (especially in the short term) and you might not have all the fancy toys the big dogs in your industry have. You don’t need those things to create impact but there’s also nothing wrong with wanting them.

What are you looking for with your work? Are you ok without the fancy toys and the big salary? Are you comfortable bootstrapping? What does enough look like? Once you answer these questions you can pursue a path that fits your needs. If generating large amounts of income is at the top of your list that’s fine, but there are better ways to make money than owning or working for an independent business.

“We want to get rich, let's start a coffee company” wasn’t how Cat & Cloud came to be. Maximizing my income wasn’t the goal when I walked away from college to go make espresso for minimum wage. Different needs, different desires, different beliefs, different seasons of life, different choices—each with a cost.

What do you want? What are you willing to give up to get it? Choose your answers, choose your future.