Your business needs to adapt, or it will die
| Radically shifting global and local economics, the changing face of the labour market, incremental evolution in technology, changes brought about by societal and personal expectations - how does this impact you, and your small business? The environment in which we operate is incredibly complex; the answer to the question of "How will your business cope?" is not simple. |
Perhaps that is the wrong question to ask. Put your Entrepreneurial Hat on - we'll try again.
New question: "What opportunities are lurking in these challenges? Now we're getting somewhere.
As you read through the 4 Challenges, make note of what resonates with you. Pay attention to the feelings evoked by the different statements; note which of those feelings are Positive, Negative, or Neutral.
Positive feelings are likely indicative that your business is robust in those respects, and you are geared for the changes. Perhaps you even welcome them as opportunities for growth or expansion - brilliant!
Neutral feelings - may indicate indifference, lack of affect, perhaps you think your business will be spared any impact, or the impact would be minor & manageable.
Negative feelings are likely indicative of areas where you have existing concerns; these changes would make those concerns more intense, more pressing, more urgent. Viola! These are your opportunities. These are the areas of your business that need attention, and now.
New question: "What opportunities are lurking in these challenges? Now we're getting somewhere.
As you read through the 4 Challenges, make note of what resonates with you. Pay attention to the feelings evoked by the different statements; note which of those feelings are Positive, Negative, or Neutral.
Positive feelings are likely indicative that your business is robust in those respects, and you are geared for the changes. Perhaps you even welcome them as opportunities for growth or expansion - brilliant!
Neutral feelings - may indicate indifference, lack of affect, perhaps you think your business will be spared any impact, or the impact would be minor & manageable.
Negative feelings are likely indicative of areas where you have existing concerns; these changes would make those concerns more intense, more pressing, more urgent. Viola! These are your opportunities. These are the areas of your business that need attention, and now.
Your Economic Challenge
How are you dealing with a world where work is undergoing a rapid and long-term change? How do you find your customers in this world?
Work your way through these opportunities to pinpoint what you need to change:
- Low wages are both a cause and a consequence of low productivity; What does this mean for you? Are you part of the statistic? Would you like to be? Is this the sort of generalization that makes you want to reach for your cricket bat? Or are you part of that infinitesimally small group of people who drives for perfection, strives for achievement, hungers for accomplishment?
- The nature of work is continually changing & morphing - how can you keep up? How open are you to change & innovation?
- The major advantage you have over large businesses is your ability to change & flex in line with client demand - is your business geared for this?
Work your way through these opportunities to pinpoint what you need to change:
- Opportunity: Is it really the economy holding back my business growth, or is it something else? How am I driving my business growth, and how does the economy impact on that drive?
- Opportunity: Do I need to shift my business focus / target market / product or service offering to meet the new economic needs?
- Opportunity: What have I done in the last year, the last month, the last week, yesterday, to re-align my business with the new economic situation?
- Opportunity: Am I allowing my perception of the current economy to inhibit my business innovation?
- Opportunity: Am I sufficiently different from my competitors to attract new clients and retain them?
- Opportunity: Am I shifting in line with my customers' needs? How do I know?
- Opportunity: How can I adapt; how can I look for the unmet needs of my customers, & adapt my business to meet those needs?
- Opportunity: How am I marketing my business - flyers, a website, social media, webvertising, emails, press releases ... What is my return on investment (ROI)?
Your Technological Challenge
- How can you make your way with confidence in a world which is being shaped by technologies evolving more quickly than before?
- How is your on-line presence? Website, Blog, Social Media accounts?
- How good is my grasp of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), the various social media platforms?
- How tech-savvy are your clients? Can they find you in the places they're searching?
- When was the last time you added another tech skill to your repertoire?
Work your way through these opportunities to pinpoint what you need to change:
- Opportunity: How can technology save me time & money? Do I already know, do I know how to find out?
- Opportunity: What is the minimum technology I can get away with? Have I mastered that? What is the next step if I want my business to thrive? What is stopping me from taking that step? What will happen to my business if I don't take that step? What does my potential client expect from me in terms of technology?
- Opportunity: How do my existing technology assets serve me? Do I need to level-up? Am I good, for now? Am I over-extended, if so, how can I scale back?
Your Social Challenge
How do you ensure you are informed enough to engage positively & confidently with far-reaching processes of social & cultural change?
Work your way through these opportunities to pinpoint what you need to change:
- We engage with people every day - but the forms that our engagement takes has changed radically. Instant Messaging (IM), Social Networks interaction, Short Messaging Services (SMS), have taken the place of face-to-face interactions.
- The foundations of trust have shifted - previously, being long-established was previously seen as a sign of trust-worthiness. Now being connected, and interacting, is at the foundation of trust. Valuable mantra: relationship is the new metric of success.
- Societal and environmental issues have become a personal issue, and sometimes a personal crusade. Most of us work toward minimizing our carbon footprint - we are aware of our impact on the environment and society at large. We relate to people half a world away; we have clients and customers all over the globe. What happens on other continents affects us personally. How does this impact your business, & the way you do business?
Work your way through these opportunities to pinpoint what you need to change:
- Opportunity: How am I connecting to my customers socially & for business purposes? Do I need to be present on social media - is that how they would find me? Does my business lend itself to social media interaction?
- Opportunity: How am I listening to what my clients want? How often do I ask them? Am I listening to the market, or listening to individuals? Are those individuals representative of my existing market, or are they part of a potential new market? If I am not listening to what my clients want, how do I know that what I sell is what they want today, next week, next year?
- Opportunity: Or should I be connecting with local businesses, should I consider joint ventures, business alliances?
- Opportunity: Am I presenting myself in a way that my customer can relate to?
- Opportunity: Do I have a recognizable brand? Do I need one - if so, what will I do to get one?
- Opportunity: Am I allowing fear to inhibit my business brilliance? Why would I do that? What am I afraid of - what could possibly happen that I could never recover from?
- Opportunity: How do I build trust & loyalty in an ephemeral world of built-in obsolescence and profiteering?
- Opportunity: Do I start my social networking on Facebook (family, friends, co-workers-oriented), Twitter (more tech-oriented with short 140-character messages; good for following brands, companies, & celebrities), Linked-In (professionals, for network & career opportunities), Pinterest (a simple tool to engage your customers effectively), or Google Plus (great for small businesses, marketing your brand)? What are my communication inclinations, my style, what am I comfortable with? Do I need training, who do I know that can guide me? Do I have the 4-8 hours per week to maintain this, or should I outsource to a social media manager? Do I have a consistent set of guides for my logo, brand colours, names, etc. to represent my business coherently across the different platforms?
Your Personal Challenge
How do you help develop the unique capabilities of people, & provide a basis on which they can build lives that are purposeful & meaningful?
- Let's re-phrase this: What are you doing that is meaningful and constructively contributes to building a better world?
- Are you building a legacy, or are you in the realm of month-to-month profit to meet your financial obligations? If the latter, what are your plans for levelling-up your game & your business?
- Opportunity: Am I building a legacy? For whom?
- Opportunity: Am I leveraging the benefits of being a small business?
- Opportunity: Am I trying to do everything myself? When was the last time I asked for help on some aspect of my business? When was the last time I allowed someone else to help me? Am I including my family, my friends, my business associates to provide me with information or assistance when I need it? Or am I playing the Great Atlas who can bear the world on his shoulders?
- Opportunity: What is my role in my business - am I the owner, + the accountant, + the marketer, + the branding officer, + the salesperson, + the prospector, + the operations manager, + the service/product delivery person, + the communications officers, + web-master, + co-ordinator, + the chief cook & bottle-washer? Am I fulfilling all these roles? Should I be? What else can I do? Who else could be filling one / some of these roles?
- Opportunity: Do I know my customer, have I differentiated myself, have I planned & prioritized my goals to generate revenue, build my brand, & be more profitable?
- Opportunity: Do I have a support network for my small business, do I have a mastermind group, a biz-group, a set of like-minded people who understand what my drivers are, who understand why I work an 18-hour day to build this thing I call My Small Business?
- Opportunity: Do I have an exit strategy (in the event my needs change radically)?
- Opportunity: Am I proud of what I am doing, & if not, what will I change so that I am proud of my creation?
- Opportunity: Have I invested in my training, my marketing, my processes, my business innovation & improvement?
- Opportunity: Who holds me accountable for my business growth? What are my goals - for the next year / month / week / day?
- Opportunity: How do I take care of myself to ensure business success? Have I set a retirement goal? Retirement income goal? What is my business worth today? Am I working IN my business, or ON it? Do I have a business coach to keep me on track & accountable? Do I take enough vacations, do I spend enough time with my family? How do I consistently deliver value to my customers - what metrics am I using to measure that?
Here are a few resources to get you thinking:
Carol Roth : The biggest regrets of entrepreneurs
Meghan Ross: 6 Challenges of owning a small business
Tom Mallens: #131 - The top 5 regrets of the small business owner - and how to solve them NOW
Danny Wong: The 11 biggest regrets entrepreneurs make when starting out (just forgive the grammatical error; the content is good)
Meghan Ross: 6 Challenges of owning a small business
Tom Mallens: #131 - The top 5 regrets of the small business owner - and how to solve them NOW
Danny Wong: The 11 biggest regrets entrepreneurs make when starting out (just forgive the grammatical error; the content is good)
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