One of the most frequent questions I get asked by business people, whether it is when I’m on stage, with a client or at an event is – “how can we grow in a recession..?”
Even when I reached out to my network and asked for ideas for a title of a new event, EBook or workshop – the instant response was the same – “how can we grow in a recession..?”
So this Blog is a prelude to an EBook a Workshop and a Business Master Class event that will seek to answer this very question. If you’d like more details on these events, see the contact information on our website – or simply email me on davidholland@resultsrulesok.com
First, there are two harsh realities of business, the people that manage them and the environment in which they operate – I will explain both realities by telling a couple stories that I hope will bring clarity…
Harsh Reality # 1 – It’s not about the Recession it’s all about You.
When the market is buoyant, cash is available, companies are expanding and recruiting, confidence is up and life is good – businesses do well. In fact under those conditions, just about any business will do well regardless of how it is built, run and managed. All boats rise on the incoming tide…
When business is good there is a tendency (and I know this won’t apply to you) for some other business people to associate the business success with them; it’s their ideas, direction, inspiration and business intellect.
When business dips and the results stagnate or decline, it is these same other business people who blame the market (recession is such a convenient term), the Banks, the Government, Customers, Employees – in fact anything is blamed rather than the unfortunate Harsh Reality that they simply do not know what they are doing. More to the point, they never did – they were successful in spite of themselves, the historic strength of the market simply masked over the cracks in their ability and lulled them into a false sense of security; their self-belief and ego being massaged by the returns on the balance sheet.
So the first Harsh Reality is to recognise, or of course for others to recognise, that the Recession is just an excuse and that the results in any business are a direct reflection of the ability, knowledge, passion and skills of the people who run it – if you want better results, get better ability, knowledge, passion and skills.
The challenge here is that this is a potentially huge slap in the face to the ego of these other business people. Admitting that we need more knowledge and passion suggest that we are not as clever or grand as we thought we were and have to adapt our identity from being the “know it all guru..” to become the eager student…
Harsh Reality # 2 – It’s not about the Recession and it’s not about anyone else.
In the USA a business owner who happened to be a reasonably recent immigrant there was being interviewed about the success he had achieved in developing a chain of Coffee shops in a large east coast city. From humble beginnings, in spite of English not being his first language, and with little money he had built a successful and thriving business that was the envy of others in the sector.
The interviewer introduced him onto the radio show and the first question was.
“so tell us, how you built this thriving business in the middle of the deepest recession since the 1930’s..?”
His answer was perfect and in my view should be printed on not only the mind but the business cards and store fronts of every business owner.
“I didn’t know there was a recession, no one told me…”
This simple story explains exactly why some people have struggling businesses – they are told that things are tough, they focus on it and guess what; things get tough…
Harsh Reality #2 is that you absolutely must keep focussed on your business, not listening to the news, reading the headlines, or having pity parties with the poor souls who read the Daily Mail, Express, Mirror etc. There is only one page in a newspaper that is factual – and it is at the back, it reports the actual scores recorded in the football.
It could also be argued that the statistics on page 3 of The Sun are accurate but that is a different discussion…
Remove from your network all negativity, speculation and hearsay – this may involve not talking to certain people – and you know who they are; yes you do..!.
Put into your network bright intelligent enthusiastic people who believe in you, will help support and guide you. Build clarity of your vision, focus on you customer and the experience they have when the trade with you – focus on simply being the best there is and then it doesn’t matter what the market is doing, you will be doing great…
Sometimes ignorance is indeed bliss…
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