Every business owner feels stuck sometimes. Today we’re going to talk about the three stages of “business grief” and how you can use those steps to move forward and improve your business.
Recognize That You’re Stuck
We first go through what’s called the denial phase, where people ask how everything’s going and we say “oh, everything’s fine.”
But in reality, you’re not fine. In the back of your head, you’re thinking about how much you’re spending, how much family time you’re missing out on, and how stressed you are. But you’re also telling yourself that this is just how businesses are, and you accept it.
That defeated attitude means you’re stuck, right? If you’ve got no fight left to try and make things better, you’re stuck. So step one is to admit to yourself that everything isn’t fine, you’re stuck.
Build Strong Roots
In order to get where you want to go, you have to recognize why you want to go there.
Simon Cynic wrote a book called Start With Why, which you should read for help with this step. Redefine your purpose. Write it down. Give yourself a vision, a mission statement, to help you remember what your roots are and why it is that you’re doing what you’re doing.
Now, this isn’t just like a fly by the seat of your pants situation. You can’t do this and that, put out this fire and run over here and hire this person, and so on. You need a well-planned structure that helps you to be really efficient with your time. And you’re not doing that just because you need that time, you’re doing it because you have those strong roots. You have that mission statement or vision that is always your goal.
Focus on What You Do Well
Don’t focus on the things that you are not doing well. By “things” I mean things that you’re selling, your services, your product offerings. If you don’t do a certain product well, people won’t be buying it. If you don’t like it, it’s cancer to your business. You need to cut it out, just like you would if you had cancer in real life.
Cut out all of the things that are sucking up your time, your energy, and your resources so you can focus on the one thing that you do really well. Next, expand on what does work well for your business. If you focus on the thing that does bring in revenue and customers, your business will grow more than just spinning your wheels.
Get Unstuck
Are you stressed beyond belief or feeling totally defeated? Once you recognize that you’re stuck, you’re headed in the right direction to take corrective actions and get you above and beyond your expectations.