Business Reflection #1: The Fruit Tree that Snapped Itself

Did you know a tree can break under the weight of its own fruit?

Yes, a tree can overbear itself with more weight than it can handle and subsequently collapse. Not only a branch but I’m talking the whole damn tree.

I never knew about this phenomenon but searched it up after thinking about how I run my small business. I am obsessed about slow, meaningful, and long-term growth. Small and purposeful efforts where the business grows and bears more fruits slowly over a long duration.

The analogy of the tree collapsing under its own fruit hit me when a fellow business owner and long-term friend of mine told me about someone he knew that hired 2-3 team members. They hired these team members within a year of opening their services based business. For me that felt reckless to aggressively increase the head count of the team in the early stages of the business.

Why?

Because for me, in that situation I crunch the numbers. I quickly determine that to hire a new team member I must:

1. organise a job ad,
2. spend company resources interviewing,
3. accept I might not find a valid candidate,
4. ensure correct working rights,
5. speak with my lawyers to ensure I am compliant with Australian (super complex) law,
6. onboard a new team member,
7. perform training for the team member,
8. increase marketing efforts to absorb the new costs,
9. avoid negative cash flow whilst training the new team member,
10. ensure compliance with the (constantly changing) Australian taxation requirements.

Not only that, every new team member introduces risks to a business, they may:

1. leave at any point with no explanation,
2. call in sick with fake excuses,
3. lie or steal from the company,
4. harass or bully others,
5. surprise you with new information they never mentioned in the interviews,
6. force situations that require you to seek legal consult (again… Australian “overly-complex” law),
7. not think about the team but solely about their personal circumstances,
8. become confrontational without provocation,
9. create a toxic environment that makes the whole team uncomfortable.

As with all things in life, adding new team members solves problems but at the same time introduces new ones. Without the right balance this potentially leads to fatal situations to the entire company.

…I promise this aligns with the overbearing of the fruit tree, give me a sec to tie everything together.

Let me first clarify: I am not against hiring team members, I am merely attempting to demonstrate that for a business it’s not a simple equation to say: “ok, me hire now”.

As a business owner it’s irresponsible, demoralising, and unethical to hire someone without enough evidence to prove that the business possesses financial stability to survive catastrophic events. Events that force the business to collapse or to remove the new team member. These aren’t pawns on the chess board or numbers in an excel spreadsheet, these are fellow human beings.

Therefore, the example from earlier with introducing 2-3 team members straight away in a services business, in my opinion, introduces a significant amount of unnecessary risk, in particular for a services based business. Risk that may overbear the tree with too much fruit that causes it to collapse.

Instead, with small, nurturing, and premeditated efforts over the long term permits the tree of business to grow at its own pace, bearing the fruits to not only the owners but the entire team behind it. I wrote about a similar phenomenon a couple years ago about entrenching the roots of a business through slow growth.

I see many people start their business journey sprinting and wanting to take the fast line. A commendable enthusiasm that dwindles after a business owner realises it’s a marathon, not a sprint. I used the example of adding new team members in quick succession to demonstrate rushing into things before doing the prep work.

For me, I started my business with the thought that this is the last job I will ever do. I am in no rush, nor am I sprinting, and nor am I planning my “sell-out” moment. I decided a long time ago that I will dedicate my lifetime to business ownership until I am dead. I love what I do and I am dedicated to this tree and will continue to allow it to flourish.

I am on no one else’s timeline, I am not following any other persons metrics of success, and I am never loading up more fruit on the tree then I am comfortable with or because someone force me too. I will continue to build this company with a dedicated team, on our own terms and in our own way.

My final note to other business owners: Don’t load up the tree of business with more fruit then it can handle.

Until the next one.

-Sav