A parasite is an organism that invades the body of the host organism and ultimately sucks the life out the host, in most cases, causing it to die.  Too often, I have worked with business owners and professionals who have a good business but at the same time are stuck, overwhelmed or just plain unhappy. 

What’s holding them back?  You would think that it would be obvious.  It’s the parasites and they are not obvious.  If they were, we would never let them enter.  Whether you are starting up your own business or running your own business here are some things to look for. 

1. Process parasites
2. Relational parasites
3. Thought parasites
4. Client parasites

For this post let’s look at the first one, process parasites.  This refers to your process of doing business and the parasites are the things that need to be eliminated from your process to improve your business.  Are any of your methods causing you to have higher costs, greater inconvenience or adversely affecting your product or service?  Most of the time in small business there are things we can improve in the process. 

But to improve the process means to embrace change.  After all, the old way is the way things have always been done around here.  Why change?  As is said, “Don’t fix what isn’t broke”.  Sadly, the parasites in a business process have become tolerations. 

And, if you don’t develop the discipline of eliminating tolerations then guess what, you will keep adding them.  This is not a process for growing small business.  And, you will add them to the point where your business process and you will be a mess.  The small business growth and success you desire will be unattainable.

Look at your business process now.  Or, get someone to look at it for you.  To have the success you desire you must minimize or eliminate the tolerations.  After all, in owning your own business you have a choice when it comes to change.  You can either let it run over you or you can embrace it. 

Be in the habit of embracing change and you will be successful.   

After all if you have a good marketing business plan or a successful performance strategy for small business growth you should be doing well.  Maybe?

In the last post we looked at the “people plan” and how a lack of it can be an “elephant under the carpet” that could cause a successful business to fail.  Making your small business successful has several components.  Not only must you have a people plan but you must have “good processes”.

You may be saying at this point, this doesn’t sound very interesting.  I have watched small businesses grow, be successful and fail because the processes for doing business or how to approach business for continued growth were never addressed. 

 Lack of good processes is the second “elephant under the carpet.”How come they were never addressed?

You will hear phrases such as, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.  That’s the way it’s always been done around here.”  There is one constant and that is change.  You either must embrace it, or it will run over you. 

A good example is a business that starts out using contract labor.  It needs help periodically with certain jobs or tasks.  Independent contractors are a great way to do this.  The business grows and now it is demanding most, if not all of the working time of an independent contractor.  In fact, it is dictating hours and other things. 

Much as you may not want to, it is time to switch these people to employees.  Yes, it is more costly.  But, I can assure you, the cost is much higher if you don’t switch.  Yes, there are industries where independent contractors are standard practice.  But, there are many where they are not and I have watched many businesses operate under the illusion that somehow they will fly under the radar.

To have your small business successful, it is important that you get into the right process for doing things.  Pay your people as they should be paid.  You may save money in the present by treating them as contractors but you can easily lose your business in the end when the IR S comes knocking on your door. 

All it takes is one disgruntled independent contractor to start the process that could do you in.  In owning your own business and running your own business having good processes is critical to your success. 

Think about this.  You have good people.  You put them in a bad process or one that makes the business extremely vulnerable and what do you get?  You get bad or disastrous results.  To have a successful performance strategy address those “elephants under the carpet” that have to do with your processes. 

Do that and do it regularly and you will have a greater likelihood of having a more secure and prosperous business.

One of the concerns of most small businesses for the first few years is failure.  One of the interesting things is, even if a business is successful, the fear of failure can be huge.  Why is it when things are going well and cash flow is good would you be concerned about failure?

There are many answers but I would like to focus on one of the things I see in my practice as relates to failure.  In running your own business you can get caught up in the “doing” and let some “elephants under the carpet” develop.  A good example of an elephant under the carpet would be starting a business with partners and not having a buy-sell agreement and/or key man insurance.

When a person who is a significant contributor or a necessary part of the foundation of a business dies or suddenly becomes disabled it can be disastrous for the the business.  One of the keys to success in owning your own business is to make the business bigger than you or the key people.  The sooner you do that the better off you and the business will be.  If something happens to you where you are sick for and extended period of time, or disabled, then at least your business will be able to provide for you and those who are involved with it.

How come business owners put themselves in this situation?  They never get a vision of the business being bigger than themselves.  Somehow everything is going to work out.  Unfortunately, life has a way of throwing us some pretty big challenges.  Challenges that are unexpected.

The first step to small business growth and having a successful performance strategy is to have a clear vision and plan when it comes to people.  Be ready for the unexpected.  If you have a corporation make sure you have an exit strategy.  If someone isn’t working out and wants out it is best to have an agreement up front as to what the terms are. 

If you do that then you won’t, as a rule, be subject to expensive litigation.  And, I can assure you, litigation is one of the quickest ways to kill a small business.  Regardless of where your business is now it is critical to  create a “people plan” and address those “elephants under the carpet”. 

When you have your people plan not only will you feel better, but your business will be more secure.  You will give the gift of certainty to the people who work with you and support you.  And, you will be demonstrating leadership by showing you are concerned about their welfare by creating a more stable and predictable environment in case life does throw one of those big challenges your way.

How often have you gone to a funeral and you hear people say that this is a celebration of a person’s life?  If you are like me, I have heard that quite often.  And, there was a part of me that was always confused.  I have lost someone I cared about and therefore it is hard for me to celebrate. 

My mother, who I was close to, died last week.  Her funeral service was yesterday in Pennsylvania and I was in charge of conducting it.  At times I felt overwhelmed with emotion and a sense of loss.  It was a challenge. 

Afterwards many of the people came up to me and told me how much they enjoyed the service.  They used terms such as “feeling a sense of closure” and “freedom to express gratitude”.  Everyone got to talk about my Mother and what she had meant to them.  It was a remarkable experience that I will never forget. 

But, what the funeral service was truly about was embracing change.  It was about celebrating the past and moving into a future without my Mother, who had been a great, positive influence on me and many people’s lives. 

To have a successful small business you must embrace change.  Too often, when we think about change we procrastinate because we focus on all the difficulties in making it instead of the benefits that will come from making it. 

There are some businesses I have worked with over the years that have a “celebration” when a change in completed.  In one instance, the new accounting system got installed and they had a party.  They celebrated the death of the old system and bringing something new and better into replace it.

To have your small business successful it is good to have funeral’s for those things that should be dead and gone.  Those are the things that hold back a business.  We should celebrate change and focus on the positive that is going to be open to us as a result. 

A successful performance strategy for embracing change is to practice the art of detachment.  You must learn how to detach and do it regularly.  It’s hard to move forward at the pace you like when you are holding onto something from the past.  That past can become like an anchor.  Every time you celebrate the past you are pulling up your anchor and you are moving forward.  You are detaching from your current mooring which allows you to sail in a new or better direction.

When you dwell on the past you are anchored in it and stuck.  In running your own business you must take a look at what needs to die.  When you do you will be embracing change and moving forward because you will be bringing death to what is holding you back. 

Now there’s something to celebrate!

Friday morning at 1:30 March 27 the phone rang.  As most of us know when you receive a phone call at that hour it is almost never good.  On the other end a female voice said very tenderly, “I am sorry to tell you Mr. Scott that your mother passed away at 1:15 this morning. 

Immediately I was caught up in and sucked into a vortex of emotion.  Where things had been moving along well in my business and life they now began to swirl.  I am a small businessman, like many of you reading this post.  Owning your own business presents many challenges.  One of the biggest ones is how you handle what goes on in your personal life.

Before I had a chance to think my sister was on the phone.  We talked briefly.  I told her I had to go because I had to call the funeral home. 

I reached the funeral home and got things underway.  Friday was a day of many calls.  I was in charge of my mother’s affairs.  She had not been well the past few years.  Yet, her death came suddenly and unexpectedly. 

Emotionally, I have been riding a roller coaster.  Most of the time I have either been flat or down.  Today has been better.  I have received many great e-mail tributes that recognize her and her contributions to others.  I have felt more up.  Early tomorrow morning I will fly from Texas to Philadelphia and spend the next four days closing the book on the life of my wonderful mother. 

She taught me many things that have helped me in small business.  One of the things she would always talk about when I was growing up was coping skills.  She felt it was important to be as good as possible at handling adversity.  How well you coped with adversity would determine how quickly you could get back on track.  As we all know, in growing your small business, as in life, there can be a great deal of adversity that can knock you off course. 

Right now I am off course.  Don’t ask me about my marketing business plan or my performance strategy for success.  At the moment, I could care less.  Yet, because I have coping skills, learned from my mother, I do have a personal marketing business plan and a personal performance strategy for success. 

My marketing business plan is to take care of me.  I must let all this wash over me.  One of the things she taught me is to not ignore your feelings.  If you don’t deal with them and acknowledge them now they will show up later and can cause greater harm.  A stifled emotion is like a beach ball that you try to hold under water.  It takes a lot of energy.  And, eventually the beach ball springs to the top with great force.  When our emotions do that it can be destructive. 

My marketing business plan is to take care of me.  And, my performance strategy for success is to take care of myself by not plowing into more work.  In the long run I will accomplish less if I dive into work.  I will accomplish less because of all that energy I will be using to stifle the beach ball, my feelings, and keep them underwater will actually cause me to accomplish less and be less ready for opportunity at work. 

If you are facing challenges with small business growth or in running your business take a look at the beach balls you may be trying to keep under water.  I promise you they are holding you back because they drain you of energy and focus. 

Develop a healthy coping strategy by facing them and doing something about them.  You won’t believe how free you will feel and how much energy you will create.  Since my mother is no longer with us you can’t ask her.  But, if she were here that is what she would tell you. 

Develop your coping skills.  Get rid of your beach balls.  Eliminate or minimize your tolerations.  When you do you will more quickly get back on the road to business success.

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.

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.

In owning your own business, whether it is a sales, marketing, cash flow or personnel problem it seems there is a formula to solve it successfully.  Unfortunately, many formulas fit a specific situation and if applied in the wrong situation, may lead to small business failure instead of small business growth. 

For most of you who are self-employed there is an inherent love of learning.  This is good because in today’s world, where change is a constant, staying educated is a must. 

The danger in today’s business world, because time is scarce, is that you will spend time on education that is not helping you get where you want to go.  So here’s a little formula to help you decide and to invest your time more profitably.

Purpose + Motivation=Aligned Education.  Always be clear about your purpose for the education.  Be clear about your motivation.  If these two are in sync then you will be having the best education of all, aligned education. 

Why is education in alignment with your purpose and motivation critical to growing your small business?  Because then you are more likely to experience success.  Success=Education + Action.

When you get the right education then you will apply it.  Application is the key to moving forward and growth.  Of course, there will be times when you get educated and don’t act. 

This is fine.  But, if you spend the majority of your education time on things where you are more likely to act it will move you forward more quickly to the small business success and growth you desire.

When you enter into self-employment and the world of small business you are confronted with numerous challenges.  For the sake of simplicity I will break those challenges down into two areas.

1.  The Hard Skills.  These are the tasks you perform to have your small business grow and prosper.  These could range from accounting to executing a marketing plan.  And you can find many experts to assist you.

2.  The Soft Skills.  These have to do with people.  More importantly, these have to do with how you see your relationships.  How you see your relationships will determine how you relate to people.

Sadly, with such a great emphasis on the hard skills, the soft skills are very often ignored.  Yet, to have small business growth and a successful small business, the soft skills are the most important.

Ask yourself the following question.  How am I motivated to see people?

• Are they human doings where I just focus on their accomplishments?  Am I primarily concerned about how they will benefit me and my business?
• Are they human beings where I focus on who they are and acknowledge them for the good their presence brings to my business?

In working with hundreds of business owners over the years, I have seen the greatest strides in growing  small business take place when the owner focuses on the human being as well as what that person can do.

Owning your own business is a huge challenge.  And, as you grow, the biggest challenge, the one that can bring you success you never imagined, or failure that you never wanted to face, is how you are motivated to relate to people.

Get that balance in your motivation between what people do for you and appreciating them for who they are.  A good first step to change your motivation to appreciate people for who they are is to practice liking people.

You practice liking people by being a “good finder”. Find the good in others and focus on it.  More importantly, let them know about it.  When you give out this type of acknowledgement in slices, it comes back in loaves.

After all, people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

In a couple of other posts I have gone over some of the components that can bring you success in growing your small business.

1. Minimize drift and get specific
2. Develop new disciplines to support change and embrace it for growth
3. You must develop and write down clear goals for the near future and for up to 10 years and beyond.

This section on small business success and growth looks at your mind.  Your mind is a muscle.  What are you feeding it?  Yes, we can look at the books or magazines we read.  Or, the TV shows we watch.

Yet, the most important thing for most people that feeds their minds is their associations with other people.  Good relationships are an important part of a successful small business.

And, this is the one area where many small businesses fall short.  You can start focusing too much on what people can do for you and not enough on who they are.

People love to be acknowledged for who they are.  There are three ways that you must look at people to have the good relationships to have the small business growth and success you desire.

1.  See them as “Human Doings”–acknowledge and appreciate “what” they accomplish

2.  See them as “Human Beings”–acknowledge and appreciate “who” they are

3.  Combine the two together to get an accurate picture to build the foundation for great relationships.

When you do that your relationships are more likely to nudge you in the right direction to the success you want.  Too often, we look only at accomplishments.  We look at what someone can do for us and see nothing more.

See the whole person and in return they are more likely to lift you up and help you to the small business growth and success you desire.