One of the benefits to having your own business is control. You control what your business is or is not. You decide whether you’re going provide one service or multiple, if you will hire a staff and, if you do, what kind people they will be.

Only you choose whether you will work for or with clientele you don’t particularly like because the money is good, or whether you will forego those clients whose work ethic doesn’t align with your own.

Personally, I find satisfaction from working with individuals and organizations who do a public good. I also enjoy having a wide variety of work (writing, editing, events and project managing) on myriad subjects (arts, business, education, nonprofits, journalism, corporate communications…) and learning from the work I do.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch recently partnered with one of my clients to develop stories related to the importance of diversity and inclusion. I appreciated learning while researching and reporting the recently published white paper: “The ROI of D&I.” (https://www.bofaml.com/content/dam/boamlimages/documents/articles/ID18_0705/roi_of_diversity_inclusion.pdf).

Prior, I didn’t realize how great the disparity in employment is between cultures and for those with disabilities. Neither did I understand how much greater businesses perform when they create ethnically diverse businesses.

Essentially, as one business owner said, creating diverse corporate cultures isn’t just about creating strategically smart businesses, it’s just the right thing to do.

“Division is easy. Diversity is the opportunity for the miracle of unity.” — Mike Patz, pastor of Greenhouse Church.

Read more:

Bank of America’s Embracing Diversity site: https://www.bofaml.com/en-us/content/embrace-diversity-inclusion-in-business.html

Detroit-area employers (Carhartt, Henry Ford Health System, Bridgewater Interiors, Barton Malow) on diversity and inclusion: https://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20180430/custom/659156/the-roi-of-dampi-why-promoting-a-culture-of-diversity-and-inclusion