Building a business that supports the life you want

For many entrepreneurs, business ownership starts with a vision — greater independence, more flexibility, the opportunity to build something meaningful. But as any business owner knows, growth and ownership also introduce difficult trade-offs: How much risk is worth taking? When should you make a change? How do you balance financial opportunity with time, energy, and the life you want outside of work?

These questions surface at every stage of ownership — whether you're preparing to buy a business, navigating growth, or reassessing what success looks like years into the journey.

A recent conversation with Krista and Phil Franks, founders of Owl and Key, offered several practical lessons for entrepreneurs facing those decisions. Their story is personal, but the takeaways apply broadly to aspiring and established business owners alike.

When entrepreneurs consider a new venture, an acquisition, or a major business change, the conversation often begins with logistics: financing, operations, revenue targets, and timelines. Those details matter, but they’re easier to navigate when anchored to a clear vision. Before launching their business, the Franks asked themselves a simple but clarifying question: What kind of life are we actually trying to build?

That conversation helped define priorities around flexibility, family, work, and personal fulfillment before decisions about business structure or strategy entered the picture. For business owners, this exercise matters because strategy works best when it supports a clearly defined outcome.

Consider:

Without those answers, it becomes easy to build a business that performs well financially but feels increasingly disconnected from your personal goals.

Entrepreneurship often gets framed as a financial calculation. And capital planning and financial responsibility certainly matter. But experienced owners understand that risk is rarely one-dimensional.

The Franks faced this reality when preparing for parenthood and considering significant career changes. On paper, leaving secure career paths carried obvious financial implications. But they evaluated risk more broadly, weighing not only income, but also time, energy, and presence with family.

That framework offers a valuable lens for owners at any stage. When evaluating a decision, consider multiple forms of risk:

Strong decisions rarely come from focusing on only one of these variables.

3. Growth doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing
One of the more persistent myths around entrepreneurship is that success requires dramatic leaps. In reality, many ownership journeys evolve more gradually. Phil Franks describes their transition using a phrase many business owners may appreciate: “One foot in, one foot out.”

Rather than abandoning stability overnight, they explored opportunities, validated demand, and leveraged existing capabilities while building toward something new. That approach mirrors how many successful entrepreneurs and business buyers operate. They test, learn, gather information, and build confidence through action.

4. Movement creates clarity
Entrepreneurs can spend months — sometimes years — waiting for certainty. But certainty rarely arrives before action. One insight from the Franks’ early entrepreneurial experience stands out: Movement creates clarity faster than overthinking.

During an early restaurant concept that they explored, business planning, financial modeling, and financing conversations helped pressure-test assumptions and reveal what was viable. Not every idea became a business, but every step generated information. This principle applies across ownership decisions:

Progress often comes through informed experimentation rather than perfect certainty.

5. Businesses require recalibration, too
Many owners treat strategic planning as something reserved for the launch phase. But successful businesses — and successful owners — revisit those questions regularly. Even after building Owl and Key, the Franks continue to reassess their priorities and redesign parts of their business as life evolves. That mindset is worth adopting, because business ownership is rarely static — growth creates new demands, families evolve, markets shift, and goals change.

Periodic recalibration can help owners stay aligned with both business performance and personal priorities.

A useful exercise
Ask yourself:

The answers may reveal opportunities to simplify, restructure, grow, or rethink what comes next.

Ownership is more than a financial decision
Business ownership is often discussed in terms of capital, operations, and growth. Those factors matter, but behind every ownership journey is something more personal: a vision for how life and work fit together.

The most successful ownership decisions are not simply financially sound. They are intentionally built, with clarity around both the business being created and the life it’s meant to support. And sometimes the most valuable first step is not having all the answers. It’s simply asking the right questions.


 
 Fifth Third Bank is not responsible for any third-party services referenced herein.