The RollerCoaster of small business
30th October 2009
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Running a small business involves living with the complete absence of certainty! However in some ways this puts you in better touch with reality. The wage-earner often lives under an illusion of security, expecting that monthly payment to appear in the bank account every month indefinitely, when the reality is that there is no such thing as a "job for life" - at any moment your employer could go under, you could fall foul of a new regime or you could become ill.
When you run your own business, you have no such illusions because the uncertain nature of the market place is a daily experience. Clients can appear out of nowhere and then vanish just as quickly. A particularly bad run can undermine confidence. About one third of all my clients come to me wanting help with anxiety and confidence issues, and many of those are actually entrepreneurs who have had some hard knocks.
Unlike the rollercoasters you may find at amusement parks, the rollercoaster of small business has no safety harness! You have to cling on for grim death in order to prevent yourself being thrown off the track. As well as economic and business competence, a key and overlooked business skill is keeping your mind in the right place.
Mental focus should be in two distinct places - firstly on the overall objective and secondly on the seizing of the moment. In the daily running of a business and keeping it afloat, the overall vision can be lost. It is important to be focused on where you want to be. Not everyone finds visualizing the future easy, so I often guide clients to focus on how achieving their objective will make them feel. Feelings and emotions are triggered just as powerfully by the memory, deams and imagination as they are by real events, and they make real changes to both mind and body. Constant focus on how good the objective will feel thus has genuine mental and physical benefits.
Siezing the moment is another crucial mental skill. Any circumstance is an opportunity to do something positive for your business. Even stuck in traffic is an opportunity for communication or meditation. There is always something positive that can be done in the most adverse circumstances. There are always doors opening into something.
It is a mistake to waste precious mental and physical energy wondering how on earth what seems like the very minor opportunities you can see will ever get you to where you want to be. Your path to success is made of many small opportunities seized. It is very easy to let them pass by whilst hunting for the elusive "big break". Big breaks are much more likely to arise when the groundwork of minor networking opportunities has been done.
To keep your grip on the rollercoaster of small business, by all means have a business plan to begin with, but keep your mind on the WHAT and don't waste time and effort on the HOW. Seize every minor opportunity that you encounter and modify that plan to suit changing reality. Remember that failure is not being knocked down, it's the decision to stay on the floor! Unless you're physically killed, you are still in the hunt! When a door of opportunity slams shut in your face knocking you on your rear, get up as soon as you can and move on to the next door, there always is one!
