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.

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.

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.

When you are the lead dog in your business and life you are more often than not living by design.  How do you become the lead dog in your business and life? 

Step 1–You must take action.  Sounds simple yet we can come up with all the excuses in the world to not take action. 

Step 2–And, the only way to take new action to have your small business successful is to become committed to a new vision of your future. 

Without a clear vision of the future you want, you will be a wandering generality.  You may bump into success and happiness temporarily only to have them disappear a short time later. 

Think about this.  Once the future is finished in your mind, then the present becomes absolutely clear.  You know exactly what you need to do.  Therefore, the first step is to get a clear picture of what you want your small business and life to look like. 

See your small business successful.  Envision what your small business running successfully will look like.  Another good step would be to commit it to paper.  Regardless, to be the entrepreneur successful in business and life you must change your thinking. 

And, as long as you learn the discipline of changing your thinking you will be the lead dog and you will have a small business successful for you, your customers and your life.

Too often when we are self-employed we focus on outside circumstances and things.  In a way, we let them lead our lives.  One of the steps to business success is to be a business owner who knows how to filter the good from the bad.  What I am referring to is your ability to let the good stuff in and to keep the bad stuff out.

Think about it.  Most of the information you receive is because you allow yourself to receive it.  One of the keys to leading yourself to have small business growth and to growth in  life is to look at what you are allowing into your mind.  I have worked with many business owners who see remarkable improvement when they start filtering out the negative information that comes to them.

After all, if you have no control over something there is very little need to keep being informed about it.  Certainly, it is okay to know that it exists.  But, to continually focus on something that you can’t control creates two negatives.

1.  You feel a sense that you are powerless.  This will actually keep you from leading yourself and your business forward. 

2.  The second thing is that once you receive negative information and keep bringing it up it is like bringing up something from the past that you can’t change.  When you can’t change something it will rob you of the initiative to move forward in your business and your life.

You may ask why is developing this filtering mechanism important to your well being.  Remember two things. 

1.  In small business coaching and coaching success I have business owners focus on the fact that their mind is a muscle.  You can lead yourself well by feeding your mind with good positive thoughts. 

2.  Secondly, owning your own businesss andleading yourself in your business and life is not as much about managing time as it is about managing energy.  Time management work is important.  But, the results of time management will be reflected in the level of energy you maintain.

When you are focusing on the present and the future, and the positive they can bring, then you will have the energy.  More importantly, when you have the energy you can carve out the time to do those things that will allow you to design the business and life of freedom and abundance you desire.

Follow the steps to business success and you will lead yourself to the business and life you desire.