During the past four to five years, as business owners we have all faced unprecedented times. The Covid and post-Covid era, rising prices, supply chain issues, rising interest rates, the lack of qualified employees and the current inflation (paired with a pending recession) have all impacted the business world both big and small.
So how do business owners navigate the uncertainty of these changes, with many of them having been brought on by the larger economic environment? While there are no magic answers, here are a few basic suggestions that can help put you in a position to survive, and prosper, in this current business world we all live in.
Hope for the upside, plan for the downside. Have a plan
Today, if everything imploded, would you be able to survive? I’m an optimist. I believe in opportunity, innovation, a future brighter and more prosperous than the present. But I don’t let that belief, which is core to who I am, blind me or leave me exposed.
In business, it’s easy to let what could trick you into ignoring the very real possibility of failure. Every entrepreneur does it. They sit down with a piece of paper or a spreadsheet and start to add things up. They see prosperity, accumulation of wealth, a future much brighter than today. That’s good. Hope and optimism are the driving force in entrepreneurialism.
But caution is what leads to long-term success. Every business needs a plan and every great business has more than one. There’s the plan that lays out what happens when everything goes right, and then there’s the plan for survival when everything goes wrong. Use the first one to guide your investment and marketing. Use the second to protect your business.
Business founders and owners are optimists. Business leaders are pragmatists. Entrepreneurs and operators are both.
Work harder than anyone else
I don’t believe in luck, but I have learned that the harder I work, the luckier I get. Working hard doesn’t necessarily mean spending more time at the office. This isn’t about the appearance of working hard. This is about setting an example for everyone else. When you’re exhausted and have had enough for the day, send two more emails, make two more phone calls, do two more things. When you wake up and don’t feel like going to work, go anyway. Push yourself because, when your name is on the sign, no one else is going to do it for you and it gets really easy to lose your way.
The only thing you can always control in business is your hustle, and the people who hustle the most tend to be the ones who reap the greatest rewards. Don’t fall for the modern trap about work/life balance. For an entrepreneur, it doesn’t exist. We have one speed — all in — for everything we do. We measure our output in accomplishment, not account balances. Those who want to put in just enough time and work to reach a certain income will lose that income to someone who wants to work.
It will be hard sometimes. It will be exhausting. It will mean delayed gratification and personal sacrifice, but the work is the thing that will set you apart and the benefits will be obvious — things you planned toward and unexpected ones. That’s what I mean when I tell people that the harder I work, the luckier I get.
Work manifests opportunity and opportunities are captured through work. Work harder than you think you can, and it will help protect you from impending challenges and take you places you never imagined.
Expectations, communication and accountability
In this current economic work environment, employees are critical, and if not happy they will leave you for 25 cents an hour more. If an employee is fired and they didn’t see it coming, it’s the manager’s fault. Barring theft or some kind of gross incompetence, firing someone means you didn’t put them in a position to succeed.
If a business is struggling, it’s on the leadership. If someone in a company doesn’t understand their role, their job, their future within an organization, the blame belongs to the people responsible for putting them there.
I’ve been asked many times for my secret formula for management and the truth is that there is no secret. It’s simple. Be clear. Be available. Set expectations and check in often. You can’t manage more than a handful of people effectively. Management and leadership require attention and investment, not edicts or intimidation. Set expectations and make sure they are understood.
Communicate changes, concerns and compliments with equal ease and confidence. Seek feedback. Management and leadership are as much about creating effective and healthy relationships with employees and not about an org-chart. Ordering and dictation have no place in a manager’s playbook and certainly not in this current environment.
Pivot business practices to stay afloat
Now is the time to fully evaluate the services and products your business offers and ensure that they are still viable. Survey your customers and discuss their needs. Don’t hesitate to add or remove products and services depending upon the demand you find. Too many business owners get “marketing myopia” and think their products or services are better than anyone else’s. It might be true but that does not mean you get to ignore what is really needed in the market. Dig deep and find out.
It goes without saying that we are all facing unprecedented economic times and many issues that we can’t control. As business owners, we have to be prepared and follow very basic business principles as outlined above. Plan. Work harder. Manage your employees appropriately. Pivot with products and services. Do all this and it will help you keep your business going and take it to unbelievable levels of success.
