As business owners, we should all spend a percentage of our time working ON our businesses and looking for new opportunities is one thing we should all do regularly. We cannot just assume that whatever we have been doing up until now will always produce us an income. Things change and we must change with them or risk getting left behind.
I remember as my Advertising Agency was growing in the early 2000’s that there never seemed to be a month go by where a new advertising medium wasn’t being introduced to the market. It was difficult to keep on top of it at times. I had to embrace these opportunities or risk getting left behind. I remember coming back from a days appointments in London and sitting on the train with a sheet of A4 paper wondering how many opportunities had come to the market in the last year or two, so I started to write them down, and I had gone all down one side of the A4 and half way down the other side. There were close to 50, and when I started in business there were 5. Then I started to think, “How am I going to explain this to my clients in a very simple format?” I decided that a sheet of A4, with a one inch square photo with 2 words under each so it was easy for them to understand. This one page pdf was attached to every email we sent so it was in our clients and prospective clients minds every time we communicated via email. Had the business not evolved and changed with the industry, there is no doubt that the business would not have lasted, and I would not have been able to sell it.
Opportunities are always there, and always have been. If we are not looking for them, we wont notice them. If we are going round with blinkers on or we are not thinking straight, if we have negative things going in on our lives, if we are under stress, we miss these opportunities. They were always there. We need to declutter our brains and focus on two things in business – doing what we are good at and spending time working on our business. Outsource everything else. If we are trying to do everything and be all things to all people, we will never move forward as we never move out of the working IN part of our business.
The pace the business world is changing is quite frightening at times and we need to have time to look at what is changing in our industry. We need to be market leaders and we need to take on new opportunities before everyone else takes them on and we always need to look at the next opportunity. We must be constantly evolving, and it is this that will keep us in business.
There are countless stories I can give you of companies who have evolved and are doing amazingly well and some who failed because they did not grasp new opportunities. Just buy me a beer sometime or fix up a zoom call and I will give you some of those stories I have witnessed over the last 33 years since I set up my business. You will undoubtedly know some you have seen yourselves.
We must have an open mind. We must have a clear mind. Our minds are like a parachute. They only work when they are open. Ask for help. Build a better business. Be a leader in your industry. Seize those opportunities. New opportunities help keep your business fresh and give you new focus. Doing the same thing day after day and expecting a different result will drive you insane. Good luck and enjoy the adventure.
I am always here to talk – drop me an email to richard@lionheartmanagement.co.uk
This article was first published on LinkedIn by Richard Knight on 09/08/2020