In business, as in life, not everything goes to plan. Often our perfectly balanced schedules fall apart thanks to badly timed business curveballs. If you’ve done the work to prepare for these curveballs in advance this is likely to be nothing but an inconvenience. However, if you haven’t got a plan in place for these eventualities, you may find they turn into a much bigger problem.
Below I’ve shared a three step plan for dealing with business curveballs.
Step one: define what could your curveballs could be
The whole point of a curveball is that it’s unexpected, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a clear idea of the kind of issues you might be affected by. Making a list of things that could crop up is a great first step for making sure you’re prepared for them.
Consider things like:
childcare problems
illness (for you or a family member)
family tragedy
computer or other equipment problems
vehicle problems
power cuts
website problems
email or phone issues
customer complaints
flood/fire/theft
employee trouble
Step two: get your back up in place
If any of these things crop up, you’ll want to make sure you know exactly who to call. If you run a business with employees, this step will be about deciding which of them are prepared to take responsibility for which kind of problems, or who can step in to deputise for you if you have to be out of the office for a while.
Smaller business owners who work alone might find this step trickier, but taking the time to make sure you have people on side will be extremely valuable should you need them. Think of it this way: would you rather find an I.T. support service while your tech is all running smoothly, or would you rather scramble to find someone when your computer is down and you’re losing working hours? The more professionals you have waiting on the sidelines, the quicker you’ll be able to get back up and running should the need arise.
Step Three: design your processes with breathing room
Some of the most frequent business curveballs come in the form of tech problems, childcare falling though or illness. Though these things look different on the surface, they all boil down to the same thing: lost working time. To try and limit the damage these kind of curveballs cause, it can be wise to get into the habit of working with breathing room to spare. The way you do this will depend on the kind of business you run.
If you work within an appointment-heavy field, perhaps you could consider keeping the last appointment slot of the week empty in order to allow for unexpected events. If you work with a lot of retainer clients, you may want to experiment with working a week ahead to allow for delays. Whatever kind of work you do, aim to design your processes with breathing room so that when curveballs do arrive, you’ve got some wiggle-space.
I’m a coach. This means I spend most of my working hours sitting down with clients and helping them work through challenges they’re facing in their businesses, careers, relationships or personal lives (or often all four).
I’m also a business owner. This means I have many other things to do to keep my business, Green Shoots Coaching, happy and growing. This includes things like working on my blog, managing business finances, keeping up with paperwork, investing in marketing and developing my service offering.
What I’ve just described is, very briefly, the difference between working in your business and on your business.
Let’s recap: when you’re working in your business you’re doing the every day customer or client work that brings in a profit. When you’re working on your business you’re investing your energy in less immediately profitable work that will ensure you continue to be able to provide your product or service successfully in the long term.
Both these types of work are absolutely vital within an effective business. If you spend all your time working in your business and not enough on your business, you’ll likely find it hard to grow and improve. If you put too many of your resources towards working on your business, you’ll probably run out of funds before you can make those big plans a reality.
In my experience more business owners tend to fall into the first category. They love doing what they do and spend so much time doing it that there’s very little left over to ensure their business is healthy. Does this sound like you? If it does, don’t worry. It’s easy to get back on track.
Why not start by scheduling an hour this week to evaluate how things are going? I find this works best in a quiet spot with a cup of tea! Start by comparing your current position to your big business dream and asking yourself what you still need to do to get there. Once you know what you’re working towards it will seem much more worthwhile to put in the work.
Once you’ve got a goal in mind, set yourself a weekly target for working on your business. This could be something simple like spending an hour networking online, reaching out to five new prospects, working on a side project, maintaining a weekly blog or newsletter, or investing time to research new products. Whatever you decide to do, make it a priority and you’ll likely see the results.
If you were going to set yourself a weekly target for working on your business, what would it be? I’m on Twitter @GreenShootCoach and I’d love to hear your ideas.
Almost every business owner I speak to has a big business question bubbling away just beneath the surface. The question is often difficult or uncomfortable to answer, and so they leave it there, putting it off for another day. Big business questions can undoubtedly be tricky to deal with, but ignoring them will mean that you miss out on opportunities.
There are all kinds of big business question that you might be asking yourself, but almost all of them relate in some way to business growth and moving forwards. Here are a few examples of the type of ‘big question’ I hear from my clients every day:
Am I moving forward in the right direction?
Are the relationships in my business healthy?
Is there a product or service missing from my offering?
Does my website need a rebrand?
Am I working with the right sort of clients?
Could this be the time to move to new premises?
Is this the right time to take on another employee?
Should I do more training?
Would my business benefit from a new marketing plan?
Do any of these sound familiar? If so, perhaps it’s time to listen to your big business question and do something about it.
Write it down
There’s something very powerful about sitting down in front of a blank page and writing down your big business question. When you do this you may find you already have some of the answers. Try and listen to your gut feeling when you’re doing this, as that may help you to pin down what’s right for you.
Talk it out
Big business questions often seem daunting when you’re trying to answer them on your own. Talking through the question with someone you trust can be an excellent way to start to make sense of where to go next. A colleague, close friend or family member might be able to help. Alternatively, many business owners find it beneficial to talk to a professional like myself at this stage.
Make a plan
In order to start making progress with your big question, it’s vital that you make a plan for how you’re going to tackle it. Big questions usually involve big solutions, and it can be overwhelming to look at the whole solution all at once. Instead, I suggest splitting your plan into ordered stages. Then, all you’ll need to do is tackle one stage at a time.
Make yourself accountable
Once you’ve brought your big question out into the open, the last thing you’ll want is to let it slip back beneath the surface. It’s a good idea to set things in place to make sure you’re accountable to your plan. There are a few ways you could do this. Some business owners find it helpful to set clear targets for themselves, while others schedule regular meetings with a colleague or business coach to discuss progress.
If there’s a big business question you’ve been asking yourself for a while, why not take fifteen minutes today to start doing something about it? As always, I’m more than happy to chat. You can find me on Twitter and Facebook, or my direct contact details are available here.
I’m lucky enough to have worked with many small business owners. Though every case is unique, I come across some issues again and again. One of those issues is self-sabotage.
This sounds dramatic, I know, and at first glance you may think it doesn’t apply to you. You’re passionate about your business and want it to succeed: why would you be actively sabotaging it? The thing is, many of us are doing it without realising.
Below I’ve laid out four bad business habits that seem fairly harmless. Unfortunately, if you’re falling foul of any of these on a regular basis, it’s likely to be having a long-term impact on your business.
Procrastination
We all do this occasionally. It can be very easy to find yourself putting off a big or tricky task by focusing on smaller, less important ones. However, if you’re a serial procrastinator it’s likely to be having a big affect on your business. The more time you spend on unimportant busy work, the less time you have to spend on the key tasks that are earning you money and helping you grow. If you were able to get your procrastination under control and jump right into handling your biggest tasks, how much more do you think you’d be able to get done?
Avoidance
No business is perfect and there are always issues that need to be addressed. Maybe for you it’s deciding which direction you are going to grow your business in, addressing a weak area in your service provision or getting your expenses under control. Whatever your business’ issues are, it’s a bad idea to avoid dealing with them! The longer you put your issues off, the bigger they’re likely to become.
Under-confidence
Being in business can be scary. Us business owners have to put ourselves ‘out there’ a lot of the time, and those of us who suffer with a lack of confidence can find this difficult. However, if you are giving into under-confidence and failing to put yourself forward for opportunities; you are causing your business to miss out.
Indecisiveness
One of the great things about owning your own business is the flexibility. However, if you’re being too flexible this could become an issue. Successful business people know what they want and work on moving towards it, one step at a time. If you regularly change your mind about your goals, it’s going to be very difficult for you to achieve them. It might seem frightening to commit to what you want from your business: but the sooner you do it the sooner you’ll be able to start enjoying the rewards.
Sabotaging your business is a lot easier than you might think, and most of us don’t even realise when we’re doing it! Whether your business is being held back by one of these bad habits or by another one entirely, recognising the problem is the first step to being able to solve it.
