Is this a good time to start a business? 

There are no right or wrong answers.  With the unrelenting focus on the “bad economy” this can definitely influence your decision. 

Let me know your thoughts. 

If you are already running your own business let me know how you see things.  

If you are starting your own business or thinking about starting one it would be great to hear your thoughts.

Having a dialog on this can be fun and helpful.

All of us need water to survive and to thrive.  But, the quality of the water you are drinking will determine your success or failure.  The water, in this case, is what you choose to let your mind drink in.  Are you drinking in thoughts of success?  

Years ago in Africa there was this tribe.  They were healthy and prosperous.    All their water came from a beautiful spring that supposedly had medicinal and healing properties. 

Suddenly, people started to die or get very sick for no apparent reason.  Experts were called in to determine what was causing the problem.  Here’s what they found.

The experts went back up the mountain to the origin of the spring.  It turned out that a mother pig and her piglets had drowned and were stuck in the opening where the spring came out.  The water was contaminated. 

The mother pig and her piglets were removed and the water was once again pure and the health of the people of the tribe was restored. 

The key to having the success you desire in business and personally rests on your ability to keep your water as pure as possible.  Be careful about what you let your mind drink in. We all have bad things that happen to us.  Starting your own business or running your own business is about challenges and overcoming them.

The problem is that too many business owners will hold onto the negative.  They will keep drinking in defeating thoughts.  They will remember the negative customer or they will not forgive and employee.  Over time the anger that they carry simmers.  It becomes the fertilizer in which the root of bitterness takes hold. 

There are many keys to having small business growth and to taking future steps to have your business successful.  But, to truly move forward you cannot let the root of bitterness take hold.  It may sound trite but it is true. 

First, forgive yourself.  Stop using the past as a weapon on yourself.  The past is past.  There isn’t anything you can do about it.  Secondly, you must forgive others.  Without forgiveness you set up an invisible wall that may protect your anger but at the same time it will keep opportunity from coming in. 

Develop a successful performance strategy.  Get clear of your past and uproot any bitterness you may have.  Focus on keeping your mind as free as possible of the negative.  When you do, you are more likely to attract the success you desire.

Have you ever heard someone say, “I’m practical.”  Or, they say, “I’m pragmatic.”  They both sound good.  A practical person does sensible things within a set of moral values.  A pragmatic person does whatever makes sense at the time.  

In today’s world the line gets blurred between the two.  For this post I am going to put them together although there are differences. 

Be very careful when you hear someone say they are pragmatic or practical.  What they may be saying is that they will do whatever they think is right.  And what they think is right can change from one day to the next. 

To have successful small business growth you must have a strong moral philosophy.  You must know what is right and what is wrong.   Pragmatism and practicality, more often than not, are about a “me first” philosophy. 

For example, a business owner takes steps to make his business successful and then changes his mind.  When asked about changing his mind he may say, ” I was just being practical.”  Or, he could say he was being pragmatic.  Of course his change of mind disrupted the lives of people.  But hey, he was just being practical or pragmatic.  In his mind, what’s the big deal?

Here’s the big deal.  People are counting on him keeping his word.  Yet, what he promises doesn’t happen.  The reason for not doing what he said he was going to do may be, “I changed my mind.”  If this happens regularly this is a problem. 

“Changing one’s mind” regularly is not good.  Very often you will hear along with “changing my mind” that “I was just being practical”, or “I am being pragmatic.”  And you are supposed to accept that as a legitimate excuse.

If you hear these phrases too often from people it is a warning sign.  It is a warning sign that they have no coherent philosophy to guide them.  Their philosophy and how they are going to act is, more often than not, subject to change.  Changing philosophy is not a foundation when building the steps to business success.

The pragmatist or practical person is always changing their philosophy because they are more concerned about what is right for them at the moment than adhering to any principles.  The only principle they adhere to is what is in their best interests.  Self-centeredness, more often than not, is their philosophy. 

Here’s what’s dangerous.  They cannot be trusted.  Business success and life is all about them.  One day you may feel close to them.  And, the next day you may feel as if they deserted you. 

You will find that most successful people make their decisions very quickly and change them very slowly.  They have a philosophy of right, wrong and good human relations that is bigger than them.

Inflexibility is one of the deadly mistakes that can prevent small business growth or to cause a small business to fail.  A successful performance strategy for growing small business must include flexibility.  After all, if you don’t embrace change you will be run over by it. 

I came across this solution for dealing with inflexibility.  It comes from one of my favorite authors, John Maxwell.  Go to www.JohnMaxwell.com and find a book of his to read.  It will be well worth your time.  The following shows the humorous, and often truthful responses, that come when people are inflexible. 

Inflexibility is the enemy of personal growth, success and achievement. 

The Top Ten Strategies For Dealing With A Dead Horse

1.  Buy a stronger whip.

2.  Change riders

3.  Appoint a committee to study the horse.

4.  Appoint a team to revive the horse.

5.  Send out a memo declaring the horse isn’t really dead.

6.  Hire an expensive consultant to find “the real problem.”

7.  Harness several dead horses together for increased speed and efficiency.

8.  Rewrite the standard definition of a live horse.

9.  Declare the horse to be better, faster, and cheaper when dead.

10.  Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.

Most of you have probably seen these solutions enacted at some point in your business career or life. 

So, how do you deal with the challenge of inflexibility.  When your horse is dead and your inflexibility is causing you to hold onto something that isn’t working, dismount. 

Small business coaching is about helping people to learn how to dismount, let go of thoughts and processes that aren’t working and to bury them.  Only once the things that don’t work are buried or put in a safe place, may you move forward. 

And, the way to move forward is to come up with a new performance strategy. Embrace change.  Embrace flexibility.  When you do, you will be able to mount a live horse and gallop forward to the success you desire.

I will finish up this series on starting your own business with a look at “flexibility”.  There are many things that go into having a small business successful, to small business growth and ultimately to the success you desire. 

I have purposely chosen to take some topics that are on the road less traveled.  They are crucial steps to business success and very often they are overlooked. 

Flexibility is one thing that is often overlooked.  Think about this.  Whether it be a marketing business plan, a sales strategy or the decision to hire someone, all of these start with a thought.  If you aren’t flexible between the ears then you have embraced a prescription for “not much is going to happen around here.” 

As I heard someone once quote.  “Embrace change or you will be run over by it.”  When you get run over by change you have been flattened.  When you are flattened, like one of those cartoon characters who is run over by a truck, your business and life become one dimensional. 

To avoid being flattened by change you must remain flexible.  When you are flexible in your thinking you will be agile.  With increased agility you will be able to grab opportunities when they present themselves (one form of change) and avoid disasters (another form of change). 

Just remember that all flexibility and agility starts with that 5 inches between your ears.  Flexibility is something that you must practice.  There are some areas where you are flexible.  Others where you are inflexible.  Take a look at the areas where you are inflexible.  Loosen up a little bit and you will find more energy and opportunity coming your way.

To have a successful business whether you are starting your own business or running your own business you must have positive, forward momentum. 

In the last post, I spoke about your small business being like an airplane.  If it is carrying too much baggage then it can’t take off and get you where you want to go.  Small business growth requires momentum. 

The first step to gaining momentum is to lighten your baggage.  Then you can take the plane of your business down the runway and take off.  Small business growth is dependent on keeping your momentum. 

Now you are up in the sky.  You are sailing along.  You are above the clouds.  It took a great deal of energy to take off.  What should you do now?

Pull back on the throttle.  Too many business owners burn out even after they have achieved some degree of success because they never pull back on the throttle and cruise for a while. 

They don’t fully comprehend the importance of their mental and emotional health to their business.  They are the engine that drives their growing small business and creates the steps to business success. 

Yet, they run at full throttle and eventually that engine wears out.  The key to personal and business success is to keep the momentum but at the same time pulling back on the throttle when appropriate. 

Without pulling back on the throttle it is hard to keep perspective.  You make your own business decisions.  But, with a loss of perspective that comes from burnout or overwork you increase the odds of killing your momentum and taking the plane of your business back down through the clouds to a crash landing.

Very often I am asked:  “What does it take to have a successful business?”  Whether you are starting up your business or running your business you already know that to have your small business successful requires many things. 

For this post, I would like to focus on one thing that can help you immensely.  Take a look at the following:

• What baggage are you carrying into your business?
• How much does that baggage weigh?

You may say, now wait a minute, where is this headed?  Think about your business as an airplane.  You have put time and effort into building the plane.  You are ready to start your small business. 

The plane is now on the runway.  You start the engines.  Suddenly, a red light comes on.  You are carrying too much weight.  The plane, in spite of its powerful engines cannot take off. 

At this point, you have to stop and check your baggage.  First you identify it.  Secondly, you decide what you are willing to discard.  Now you are ready to take off and do it successfully.

Take a look at the baggage you are carrying.  Determine what it weighs.  Decide whether or not your business can take off with this baggage. 

Owning a small business is about many things including having a good marketing business plan.  No matter how good your plan, you won’t be able to take off for the success you desire until you account for your baggage and have the proper weight. 

This single thing, baggage, which is not addressed will cause in many instances failure and never allow your business to get off the ground.  Check your baggage every day.  Get at the right weight.  When you do you will take off for success.

Growing your small business requires many things including how to cope with overwhelm.  When you are starting up your own business or running your own business you are very likely at times to feel overwhelm.

This is normal.  Somehow the orderly small business growth you dreamed of is just that, a dream.  It is easy to have too many things coming at you at one time.  When you do, that is when overwhelm can set in. 

Why is overwhelm dangerous?  Because it can cause you to lose your focus, enthusiasm and desire for productivity.  None of these ingredients are in the recipe for small business success. 

Most importantly, overwhelm can cause you to lose your energy and your edge leading to a meltdown.  What do you do to combat overwhelm?

1.  Have a plan for each day

2.  Identify what is important

3.  Prioritize your day to do what is important

The more you identify what is important and do it, the less things that you will have that will become critical.  When you have too many critical things and your day is taken up with them it drains you psychologically and emotionally. 

Being drained psychologically and emotionally is what leads to a feeling of overwhelm.  Know your steps to business success.  Your daily performance strategy should be about your priorities.

Know your priorities and take care of them.  When you do you are more likely to avoid overwhelm.

You have started up your own business.  Or, you are running your own business.  Regardless, even successful business owners will get stuck.  But, they won’t stay stuck for long.

With multiple challenges it is easy to get stuck.  One of the steps to business success is to minimize the time you are stuck or on hold. 

How do you go about getting unstuck?

• Have a Plan B in everything you do.  What is your alternative if Plan A does not work?
• Be ready to execute Plan B.  This is where many business owners get stuck.  They have thought about Plan B but they are not ready to execute it.

Why is having a Plan B important?  Having a Plan B forces you to get bigger than the challenge or problem? 

You get bigger than the challenge or problem by having a larger vision of how you are going to succeed.  Without this larger vision you will stay stuck. 

You will take the same problem and just dress it in different clothes without getting to the root cause of why the problem remains and you remain stuck. 

The root cause for staying stuck is that you won’t change your thinking.  Change your thinking and you will change your activity and that will change your results.  That’s success.

Whether it is your marketing business plan, personnel, sales or any other area where you can get stuck have a Plan B.  Small business growth is about having a Plan B.  When you do you will enlarge your vision, grow bigger than your challenge and move to greater success.

And, here’s the most important part.  You will do it in less time.

A small business startup is a challenging experience.  It is easy to become absorbed in one area and distracted in another.  But, to have your small business successful and to take the steps to business success, you must keep one thing in mind.  Your customer must have a great experience. 

Too often when you are creating your marketing business plan or coming up with a successful performance strategy, the customer experience gets overlooked.  For customers to want to return and for them to spread the word their experience must exceed being good.  It must be great.

Growing small business is about growing your customer base.  Your customer base, if they have that “WOW!” experience will become a part of your sales force.  Think about it. 

Different isn’t necessarily better.  But better is always different.  Are you giving them a better experience to talk about.  In an era of great competition and many product similarities how can you differentiate your customer’s experience in a positive way?

It could be something as simple as a follow up thank you note or email.  And, don’t try to send anything else in this communication.  If you do, it is another in your face sales pitch and is more likely to take your excited customer and cool him or her very quickly.

Think about a great customer experience you have had.  Think of ways to get your customers to say “WOW” not only about your product but about your organization and you.  When you do you are building a foundation to have your small business successful.