IF YOU CAN MAKE IT BETTER....DO IT!

My life as a Business Coach is extremely gratifying. I love to see my clients break out of survival mode and experience life by thriving and growing daily. I love my job, most of the time. But in the last couple of weeks I’ve had to deal with some people that are extremely closed and inflexible no matter how painful it is to them. Stubborn, bull headed, closed minded and scared of failure and sometimes scared of success. Even though I am always frustrated with these people I still will work with them because I believe in them and their passion for what they’re doing even if it is unfocused. The situation reminds me that it’s much like that annual holiday experience of having to kiss that big old, blue hair, aunt with too much perfume and a long hair coming off her chin. You don’t want to do it but you just have to.

To be honest working with clients like this just drive me nuts. Why do over 80% of all new businesses fail? I’m beginning to believe that the cause is simply a lack of willingness to change and adapt and improvise and adjust to the ever so rapidly changing needs of consumers. I do a workshop seminar entitled: Don’t Just Survive but Thrive in any Economy! We discuss 7 primary factors to consider when planning for your ongoing business success with the key premise being:

“If you keep doing business, the way you’ve always done business, then you’ll soon be out of business!”

You must be agile and open to change. You must have the mentality of change. With rapidly advancing technology that affects every part of our life, you must believe that anything is possible. That one unknown person with a great idea on how to do something, anything better can and does change the world. But you have to believe it. A friend of mine recently sent me an email on this subject. Here are a few examples that he points out of how an idea about how something could be done better has changed our world;

• Smart phone have virtually eliminate the point-and-shoot camera market
• Netflix & Red box and iTunes have eliminated the movie rental store
• Amazon has led to the demise of the brick and mortar bookstore
• Wikipedia destroyed the hard copy edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica
• And ironically, Facebook has all but crushed the need for high school reunions

We must know if our strategies to build your business (if you have any in the first place) are working. Build on them if they are, cut your losses as quickly as possible if they aren’t. But never, and I mean never get locked into a process that you are not willing to change, adjust or drop. The fact is that running and growing a business is hard work and the sure way to fail is to not be willing to admit that an idea or a process or a strategy is not working. That’s just ego talking and a sure quick and painful end to your business. Oh you can always blame an advisor or blame the economy or higher prices or lower demand, but today that just doesn’t fly. Consumers today have too many options and choices and the day of being the only option are gone.  The fact is that somewhere there is some kid in his dad’s garage tinkering with an idea that will change the world and could instantly make your product or business obsolete.

The only protection that you might have is continually looking for ways to change your world through your own innovation and continuous improvement.

If you struggle with how to grow faster and how to change your thinking call or write me today. As a Master Business Coach, this is what I do and I’m open for business.

As always, Be GREAT!

Coach Dan