Shan-Nel D. Simmons

5 Days to 5 Years Series: Day 5 – Sustain

Photo of Founder Shan-Nel D. Simmons, EA MBA by EYE-Imagery

As of 2020, the US Small Business Administration reports that about 33% of all small businesses exist long enough to operate beyond year 5 from when they open. This statistic has been consistent since 1995.

Lack of funding and cash flow, poor leadership/management, bad business models, and failed marketing are the top four reasons a small business ceases its operations before reaching year 5. This is why I celebrate so greatly this milestone because it was not an easy feat to make to 5 years.

I hear so many entrepreneurs, visionaries, and small businesses say they want to have generational wealth. However, if the asset that will continue to generate the income that will bring your family wealth into the future is supposed to be your business, you have to make sure you stay in business within your own generation first.

I do not say that to be mean. I want you to live your dreams and to have a company to give your children, and your children’s children, and your children’s children’s children. If familial succession is not the plan, I want you to build an enterprise that will outlive your body so your name will withstand the test of time and your impact will still be felt for future generations.

I ask you, do you want a company to sell or do you want company to sustain?

There is no wrong answer, and one answer will require a different approach than the other. But if your answer was a company to sustain, you are going to have to do more than just scale and make money.

This is not a one and one process, and it will require you to periodically step back and evaluate are you aligned with your timeless truths. But as I learned through mentorships, inner reflections, and sometimes tears, if I want to build something that will outlive me I have to start laying the foundations that will support all the wonderful things my business will influence in my lifetime and in the future.

I want you to join this 5 years club too so we together can break that statistic created in 1995. So, instead of them reporting only about 33% of small businesses exist beyond their fifth year, they will say 66% of small businesses exist beyond their fifth year — and hopefully they can report even an even higher percentage.

Cheers to 5 years!

To contact me: www.neltaxandfinancialsolutions.com/contact

To read the other parts of the series:

5 Days to 5 Years Series: Day 4 – Partner

Meeting Dr. Avis Jones-Deweever at her Media Marketing Money event

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” – African Proverb

On paper, for many years I operated as a one-woman show, self-employed, solopreneur. But one thing I knew before opening my business was I would not be able to realize my company’s fullest potential without collaborating with others.

The pictures above represent the mentoring, the coaching, the branding, the associations, the opportunities, the talents, and the friendships it takes for me as a leader and my business to continue expanding and growing successfully. On paper, I may look alone; but the reality is I have never operated by myself.

Network is more than what you do. It is also about how you align yourself and the reciprocity of those relationships. We give and receive to one another because we all are equally invested in the wind of everyone within our networks being successful. We thrive as a tribe. Network is what we are.

A business does not exist alone. Your next best practice, your next client, or your next employee could be within your network. But you must align yourself to others if you want to receive those abundant opportunities.

Whose next client do you have but you cannot share because you are not connected yourself to others? Even as an introvert, you do not have to know many people in order to create massive influence. It is better to have 5 powerhouse, trusted partners in your network than 5,000 who you barely know.

But I ask you, who has helped you either as leader or in your business? And more importantly, who have you helped? However you answer those questions could be the start of your network, your partners, your squad.

5 Days to 5 Years Series: Day 3 – Confirm

Visiting with long-time premium client Katie Harper-Sgarra in 2018. This was her social media post after I prepared her return and planned another successful year for her finances.

Many entrepreneurs have a fear of failing. But what happens when you are faced with obstacles outside of your control yet you are still able to keep proceeding, keep growing, and keep shining? Is succeeding just as scary as failing?

At the moment this selfie was taken, my client had no idea that weeks prior I received the news that I had uterine cysts and polyps that were thankfully benign after begin tested from the operation to remove them. Little did I know that about a month after this selfie, I would spend five days in the pediatric ICU working virtually during the height of tax season while my daughter slept hooked up to machines due to her asthma. Or by June, I would be dealing with what I thought was a horrible case of vertigo which ended up being a rare, incurable condition called idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH). And if that was not enough for 2018, at the end of September, the uterine cysts and polyps grew back more abundantly than when they were first discovered in January. So after Thanksgiving, I had a hysterectomy which revealed I had adenomyosis and and that the polyps were precancerous even though they were benign again.

Yet in spite of multiple surgeries, hospital visits, and facing my own mortality during 2018, I kept going with this dream that I was determined would live outside my head.

Now, I did turn down some clients and opportunities throughout that year. I also scheduled my casework to give me a two week break so I could focus solely on healing immediately after my hysterectomy.

Did my business suffer? Thankfully, no. I was still getting new clients, new speaking engagements, and creating new workshops in between all of the events that were happening outside of my control.

then realized I had two choices. I could have stopped, and there would have been no shame in that. I could have held my head up proudly knowing that I wanted to go into business and also knowing that I did. Due to changing circumstances with my health, I could have decided a different path for my life guilt-free.

Or I could confirm my goals, my dream, and my promise I made to myself years before all of the calamities. I worked with my doctors to create a plan for how I could continue to show up for my clients, my local and global community, and those who I have not yet had the pleasure to work with but seek the skills of what I can do.

I chose to continue. It was not my bravado. I wrestled with closing my business after being diagnosed with IIH. But quitting was not what I wanted even though my own body was my biggest threat to my business during that time.

I wanted to confirm to myself that I truly am a goal-completer. That I can see it through. That I would be successful on my own terms. But most importantly, when I tell my daughter that they only thing that can ever deny you are your choices, I can show her the results of my choices with my ongoing business being the confirmation of my choices many years ago.

What do you choose to confirm today for your future self and the future of your business?