Overcome Challenges
Right now success for small business owners may feel particularly elusive.
It goes without saying that a lot of people are in the midst of financial struggle. The stock market is running at a 12 year low, unemployment is close to 8%, and many are predicting the recession to run at least into 2010. This means less income, greater levels of debt, and a tightening of belts across all levels of careers, from bank executives to McDonald’s employees.
For us, as entrepreneurs, it can mean all those things, except that we have the additional need to continue growing towards success as small business owners, and finding the money it takes to do that. Sometimes, that can feel overwhelming. We go through periods where we make good money, and periods where there isn’t enough. Often the down times are subsidized with credit cards, which then increase our expenses when we are making money again, and only add to the financial pressure we feel.
So what are we to do?
It is critical to your success as a small business owner that you not allow your financial challenges to knock you out of the game. This is not intended to suggest that you ignore the very real issues you may be facing in terms of your money. Instead, consider these three habits that will help you work through financial obstacles.
Don’t do it alone.
Many of us seem almost hardwired to try to handle our problems on our own. This way of being is intensified when it comes to financial difficulties. Society suggests it isn’t appropriate to talk about money and it’s normal to fear you’ll be judged if you “come clean” about a financial problem. Still, one of the best ways to work towards a solution is to get perspectives and ideas from other people. Build a team. It may consist of friends, family, professionals or even fellow students in a financial seminar – but it’s essential that they be individuals you trust, who support you and who want you to have success in your small business. Seek communities of financially motivated individuals and you’ll be able to help each other work through hurdles, while continuing to challenge each other to achieve the goals you set for yourselves. It is almost impossible to grow financially and build success as a small business in a vacuum. The phrase “self made millionaire” is hugely misleading, because no one reaches high levels of achievement in any arena, without first surrounding themselves with the energy and strength that comes in numbers.
Take action
One of the terrible things about financial anxiety is its ability to rob a person of their will to take action – stalling your growth towards success as a small business. Someone is worried about a problem, so they ignore it and do nothing about it, which makes them more worried, which further paralyzes them, and so on. The only way to break this cycle is to take a deep breath, screw up your determination, and go to work! Make a list of everything you can think of – small and big – that could help improve the situation. (Again, your team can help with this.) Pick something on the list – start with something easy – and do it. Then pick something else, and do that. Action breeds more action, which leads first to small successes, and then grows into significant accomplishment. But you must get started. Quickly. Now! The longer you put it off, the more daunting it will seem. Once you get that first thing done, you will feel good about yourself for having made a positive step, and can then use that energy to take another… and another… and another, until you have smashed the old negative cycle, and have established a cycle of forward moving, positive action in its place.
Find the Lesson
We’ve all been told that we can learn from our mistakes. Still, when we’re in the thick of it, finding the lesson we’re meant to take from the struggle is far from easy. But there is an enormous benefit to taking a few steps back and identifying the choices that contributed to the problem. When it comes to financial difficulty, did the issue stem from an unexpected crisis such as illness; or is a pattern emerging such as spending more than you are earning, or disorganization leading to late bill payment and overdrawn accounts? We have to truly recognize that there is a problem as well as the role we played in its creation – in order to be able to do anything about it.
It’s probably not realistic to believe the day will come when all of your financial troubles will completely cease to exist. However, practicing these three habits will certainly make them less daunting and long lasting. Joining our entrepreneur community at http://www.AbundanceBoundSystem.com can help you to overcome each challenge. The strength and confidence you gain will have lasting effects in every area of your life, and will certainly increase your success as a small business owner.
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By migraine solution, September 19, 2009 @ 12:27 am
Nice content indeed! i will visit as often as i can.
cheers
By Jenny Franklin, September 30, 2009 @ 12:51 pm
Anxiety is simply an aspect of human nature to tell us something is wrong with the situation. Taking a step back and objectively reviewing what the situation is, how we arrived there and taking honest stock of our resources has made a world of difference to many companies. My own included.
Once you know where the essential expenses are, and what income is available, it becomes a matter of identifying what is and what is not worth the money that is left.
It gets very difficult to make that cut sometimes, but every right step is also a wrong step not taken.