You may have gathered by now that I often speak about a business as though it is an entity with a life path and complex needs and emotions. Well, today I’m painting a portrait of a typical business’ life over time, and I would like you to ask of yourself: is your business thriving, or just surviving?
When you look at my highly technical scrawl, you’ll see that in business we are looking for results that increase over time. Let me clarify: by results I mean what you want me to mean – profit; unless you are running a hobby business which was never intended as a money spinner – here you might see the results increase in terms of flexibility, cost of goods or the number of hours required to run the business. In short, the natural state of a business: to grow.
This straight line is what we see if we’re squinting at a business we don’t know from really, really far away. For those of you who are business owners, the truth would already be clear to you – this line has a few bumps in it! These are what we like to call “decision points”. These are times when you and your business need to adapt to the current market conditions in order to keep progressing on that upwards line.
Within these “bumps in the road” there are actually 3 directions that your business’ journey could head in, as you see below.
Firstly, you might adapt, change, or sort out a problem and keep improving.
Secondly, you could keep pace with market change, but always feel like you are continuously playing catchup, just one step behind (in this situation you are tracking along the straight line)
Thirdly, you could fail to harness the power of the opportunity for change (because with the right mindset and attitude that is what these bumps in the road are – an opportunity) and head downwards.
As a small business owner one of the key advantages you have over larger businesses or organisations is the ability to respond to changes in the market quickly and decisively – the question is though, what are you doing about it?
Remember: “It is not the strongest, or the smartest that survives. It is the most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin
