Building Your Business Confidence
Have you ever had a time in your life when you didn’t necessarily feel like your confidence was as high as you’d like it to be? I have. In fact, I think we all have some times like this, especially when things around us are not going as smoothly as we had planned for them to go…
It’s hard to feel very confident when industry events put you in a position of losing money regularly. Unfortunately, negative financial returns can cause us to start asking ourselves some tough questions: “What am I doing wrong? How long can I hold on, given my losses and my current equity levels?”
I am sure you’ve heard the age old advice: “Be careful what you ask for. You just might get it.” With that in mind, let’s shift our focus to a much more proactive approach, because these negative questions can, indeed, take you to some very disappointing and depressing results. I have had the honor of being directly involved in the financial turn-around of numerous businesses during the past 19 years. However, in each of these circumstances, I felt it would be beneficial, rather than focus on how long this Client could “hang on,” to shift our attention to a far more proactive direction.
While the “dangers” of their financial situation were always in the back of my mind, I believed their business turn-around would require us to correct their course and get back on track. Oh, wait a minute. Getting back on course would require us to know what our destination actually was. It would require us asking: “What’s next? What do we want to achieve? What do we need to do in order to get there?”
My advice has always been: Slow down, Think & Plan. Remember, if this was easy, everyone would do it. However, it isn’t always easy, and so, people don’t do it. We all like shortcuts, but don’t fall into that trap on this task. I want you to be different. I want you to do better. I want you to succeed!
Rather than focusing on what can go wrong or how long you can hang on, focus on something totally different – what you want for your outcome! Following this strategy has served me well in these turn-around situations. I’ve seen businesses that lost $2.5 million one year turn a profit of $39,000 the next year. Was that phenomenal, in and of itself? Probably not, but even their banker had to admit that there was some hope going forward, which allowed them to work with us to get the business refinanced. They did go on to turn larger profits in future years, and this was a much better outcome for all those concerned, including the lender, as we moved forward.
What to do?
- Set your Goal.
- Know “Why” you want to reach this objective.
- Lay out the necessary steps to achieve this.
- Put dates for each of these action steps.
- Take Action and continually move forward.
If you follow this process, I assure you, it will build your confidence and prepare you to discuss these steps with your lender, simply because it will equip you with answers to the questions that she will be asking. What do you want to achieve, why do you want to do this, and what are the actions necessary to accomplish this? With the answers to these questions in front of her, we can both be more confident she will be better prepared to help you.
If you would like some assistance with this process, I offer you the following. On August 1, 2017, our redesigned website at Success Strategies, Inc. will be completed, so take a look at a new video series we call The Strategic Gameplan Series, which will be listed under our Financial Techniques at www.success-strategies.com. Check it out. It may provide you with the foundation you need for an entirely new game plan.
