Over the years so many times have I heard the following comments
“I went out of business because of the recession”
“The financial crash ruined my business”
“It’s the governments fault I went out of business” …………..
or any other number of excuses or “justifiable reasons” as to why someone had to close the doors of their business – something they will have probably dreamed about for years. Now it has gone up in a puff of smoke. That dream has died. It is no more.
How many people do you think would put it down to themselves? The reason our business is no more because of us or is it just too easy to blame external circumstances?
We must accept responsibility for our actions. We are totally in control of ourselves. External stuff always happens. We must understand we cannot control things outside our control. What we can control is how we react to them.
Generally, when business owners cease trading, there has been an underlying issue that has been bubbling for months or years. They have chosen to ignore it or try and work their way through it. They do not ask for help.
Having been in business for over 30 years, and having gone through 2 recessions and a depression, a business partnership break up and countless other issues, I have built a business from scratch and sold that business. As business owners we must constantly reinvent ourselves. We always must be creative. We must be aware of what the economy or market is doing, and we have to react accordingly – but way before it’s too late. We must be proactive on our business which is why the working ON part of our business is as important, or more important in some cases than working in our business.
I have always understood what I was good at and got help for the things I was not good at. We all need external support as we are too close to the action sometimes to spot the signs ourselves. Also, we are very blinkered when it comes to making decisions on our own business. Somebody who has run a business for years and will have experienced the challenges you are going through will spot the signs very quickly. We always need to be ahead of the game. One thing that is certain in business is that there will always be a “What if” out there that could stop you in your tracks. We must prepare and make sure our business is able to handle anything that is thrown at us. If we don’t, when that “what if” does happen, we won’t know what to do. So, we will probably wallow in our own self pity and let the situation completely swallow us up.
So, when I say stuff doesn’t just happen, I mean that if our business has issues – whatever they might be – we have to address them and not ignore them, and we have to address them NOW. We must always be in total control of our business. We MUST ask for help, and not think we can solve them ourselves. We cannot assume that because we have always done things a certain way, we will continue to do them that way. If it isn’t working the way we want it to work, then don’t keep doing it. Nothing will change. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing day after day and expecting a different result. I know generally most of us don’t like change, but we have to embrace it. It can be frustrating at times that things change so quickly, but again we cannot control that, but we can control how we react to it.
Please ask for help. I can help you. I have the experience and gone through pretty much every challenge you have faced, are currently facing and will face. Email me richard@lionheartmanagement.co.uk or message me through my linked in profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/richardlionheartknight/
“I am a Knight who has had his metal (mettle) well and truly tested”
This article was first published on LinkedIn by Richard Knight on 26/04/2020