How To Warm Up A Cold Business

Less Than 3% Of The Population Place Their Own Signature On The Front Of A Payroll Check.
Everyone Else Pens It Onto The Back Of The Check.

Running a profitable business is not always a joy to perform.  Every business owner who practices running a business long enough recognizes two things.  One; the mind of a business owner must think differently than the mind of most everyone else.  Two; rarely does everyone else truly understand and respect what goes through the mind of a business owner.  The business owner is held accountable for the success or failure of every decision about the business.  This kind of accountability runs freely and carries every piece of blame the trail of decisions may produce.  This concept is real and brings to the surface one very measurable result.  The business owner must keep to themselves many of the ideas and thoughts they process about what they plan or do not plan to do.  Much of the deeper thinking a business owner performs is very secret stuff.  This kind of planning is a cause and effect result of the effort to avoid too much criticism.  Consequently, successful business owners often operate in deeper thought than their viewers see.  The successful ones think well away from all the other white balls.

Most business volume activities run side by side with economic patterns.  No question.  However, business volume activities also run side by side with subtle killers.  Deeper to understand.  When a business runs cold, usually the economy is running cold.  If the economy is running warm and the business is running cold, something inside the business model is wrong.  These are very simple perspectives to accept and understand.  What is more difficult to accept, let alone understand...is how a business remains cold during a cold economy.  Many business owners have made interesting business adjustments during cold economies and produced warming businesses.  The question remains, is your business running a bit warmer now or is it remaining cold as the economy lags along?  Is your business becoming warmer as the economy lags along?

How do you plan to warm up your business model?

First of all, owners will need to think deeper and more differently than what they are doing right now.  Owners will need to become a black ball in the sea of white spheres.  Secondly, owners will not be able to share how they plan to do all the deeper adjustment thinking with anyone else.  Owners will become the only black ball in the sea of white spheres.  Repeated correctly: owners should not share how they plan to do the deeper adjustment thinking with anyone else.  The owners deeper decisions do not need to include everyone else.  At times, owners may include others in their deeper decision models.  However, an owner can avoid being too inclusive in the decision-making portions of their business model and produce very good results.  Not always is it a good idea for an owner to include others in the decision-making process.

Some owners have a difficult time with this concept.  If any owner has a tough time with this concept, they have all the right to remain positioned exactly where they are.  Owners can include many others in the decision making process.  Additionally, if an owner wrestles with this concept enough to find it offensive, by all means accept the current business position and learn to ride along side the economic trends, using many other ideas and thoughts on how to decide what to do.  Owners can keep the decision making individually to themselves or they can share the effort with many trusted associates.  Both methodologies will work.

Leaders Are Not Afraid To Lead

Let us talk about keeping the decision-making roles more individual.  In this case, the owner thinks quietly about what they want to plan and do with their business model.  The advantage to this kind of planning is that others in the owners sphere of influence will not have the ability to interfere with the roots of the plan.  Interferences are held to a minimum.  What's more, if the plan is not producing what the owner has in mind, the owner can make quicker, less disruptive adjustments to correct the results.  This method offers less human dynamics to consider which produces more flexibility.  Personally, I prefer more flexibility when I am making tough decisions.  A more fluid approach helps to allow better opportunities to adjust when market conditions require modification.  Many conditions in our current market place are difficult to anticipate.  Markets have become very volatile in this economy.  Flexibility is huge.

Running on single mode to produce operational plans is risky business.  It usually requires a long list of good experiences to pan out successfully.  Even so, I prefer to practice this method of operation.  Yes, I know this kind of thinking is not friendly stuff.  I know.  I just think some owners would prefer to win regardless of what the economy has in mind for them to accept.  Running a successful business is not for the faint in heart.  It never was.  It is a serious time for owners to dig in and try a lot of interesting things to create successful results.

The more folks allowed to get involved in the planning process in these economic times, the greater the chance is to get bogged down with the what cant's, what shouldn't and the many suggestions for maybe not.  Ditch the groups right now.  Take the bull by the horn and plow into finding a bundle of stuff that works well.  Get ready to adjust those plans and maybe adjust them even more.

Become A Serious Thinker

A great step to take as owners try winning during hard economic times is to think differently.  And as owners begin to think differently they must plan differently.  And as owners plan differently they must keep those plans very close to the chest so they do not become exposed for destruction.  Many folks in the owners sphere of influence will work hard on destroying new ideas during tough times.  Those ideas need to develop quietly and with as much stealth as is possible.  Do not go to war with this concept.  Accept it and wear it well.  Regardless of what decisions occur, the owner will be held accountable in the end.  It is no longer safe to blame the economy.  Owners have choices to survive and better yet, opportunities to flourish.  Give the business a chance to flourish during these difficult times.  Stretch newer skills into better decision-making work and think harder on finding what to do.

Have fun creating success and believe it can be done regardless of what the current economics permit.  Shoot for single control and work on reading when and where to adjust.  The use of flexibility will help owners find what works better than waiting for the economy to return.

Until next time...