6 ways to confront small business fears daredevil style |
Is it healthy to be afraid? A little bit, yes. In fact, when I start writing fiction novels again, I’ll be embracing my favorite genre: horror. I think conquering fear is an important life and business skill and one doesn’t live as healthy a life if fear isn’t recognized and confronted. Let’s tackle the business elements of fear today.
Before sharing the following video (embedded RSS readers, you might need to clickthru) of daredevil Robbie Maddison’s New Year’s Eve jump up and down a building, Allan asks: “how do you confront your fears?”
Among the many items in my RSS reader today, Allan’s question got me thinking more than the rest, thank you Allan. His question is especially relevant considering we are rebooting our nearly 15 year established small business in 2009 and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t somewhat fearful of failure starting (almost) over.
I’d like to take a daredevil’s approach to conquering our fears by doing the following:
- cut excess spending, if any, from our budget. There isn’t much to cut, but we need to preserve capital for spending on marketing our business, not on some gadget or toy. Yeah, sorry, Best Buy, you’re getting the backseat in 2009.
- plan to succeed but recognize failure as an option. Despite pulling off both stunts successfully, Robbie gashed his hand pretty deep. It wasn’t exactly as he had designed the stunts, I’m certain. The ideal result would have been no injury at all, but I doubt this will prevent Robbie from taking more chances.
- success won’t happen without action. If Robbie hadn’t climbed aboard his bike he never would have had any chance at success. Sitting back and waiting for more business to come to us than we wrote in 2009 isn’t going to make that happen. We have to go out and get it. Be proactive. We need to stick to our plan when we have one, tweak if necessary, and take action on that plan as designed.
- take reasonable risks. One might argue that Robbie didn’t take reasonable risk in his two jumps, but I know he and his team meticulously planned those jumps, evaluating the angles and the proper speed and many more details which only took seconds for the actual stunts to see pulled off. We’re going to have to take some risky moves in 2009. We already have by going down this independent path. Can we reboot our business within 18-24 months? I think so, but we’re not going to do it without taking risks along the way. My wife is less risk tolerant than I, which means I’m going to have to sell her first on why we should take risks along the way. If they aren’t reasonable risks she won’t buy off on them and that means we’re less likely to succeed.
- if knocked down, get back up again. I’ll admit not having the stones to do any daredevil stunts, but I am more than happy to fail at cold calling prospects in our business and having them shut me down again. And again. And again. It happens. I also realize that not every one of our marketing plans will be a success. Some will fail. Miserably. Health willing, I can get up again to try another day.
- reinforce strong business ties, don’t belabor losing weaker ones. We’re going to lose clients here and there, it happens. I don’t like losing any clients but realize that there are some cases where we do everything right and still lose. Instead of focusing too much on negative energy (why oh why did we lose client ABC?), instead we’re going to focus more energy on strengthening strong business relationships. This doesn’t mean not trying to learn from mistakes made and grow from them, just don’t spend too much dwelling on the negative.
Can you think of additional tips for confronting fears from either brand new small businesses or those starting over? Please share and let’s discuss.
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Re #1: don’t be afraid to spend on things that will make money in the long run. Business often cut back on personnel to weather bad times, but if the people you cut make more money for the business than you pay to have them, then you’ve just cut into your profitability by firing them. If a new piece of equipment will enable you to make more money than it costs, it’s likewise a good investment in any economy.
Comment by Sterling Camden — January 5, 2009 @ 3:22 pm PST
Agreed, Sterling. This harkens back to the post about what company benefits should be cut first. The Christmas party should be far ahead of cutting staff.
I wouldn’t define “excess spending” as for employee help or for equipment, however one way I’m avoiding spending for business-related costs is not buying an already built agency management system ($10,000+ USD) in place of building one myself. Might not be as shiny and have all the bells and whistles at first — and it might absorb some of my time that could be used for marketing — but we will have the ability to tweak to our precise needs.
Comment by TDavid — January 5, 2009 @ 3:57 pm PST
Being fiscally responsible is a great way to ensure your business is profitable and survives. Most CEO’s of big companies started out as accountant’s, so that shows you just how important watching your spending can be.
Comment by Taylor — January 8, 2009 @ 3:41 pm PST
In my experience, CEOs who were accountants make the worst company leaders. A CEO needs to be a leader with vision and inspiration, not a bean counter. The best CEOs I’ve worked with were the ones that started the company — and they started it because they loved what the company was about (not just for the money). Once that person leaves, the company is never the same, unfortunately.
Comment by Sterling Camden — January 9, 2009 @ 9:21 am PST
I wonder how much about “being a CEO” is the problem. One shouldn’t have to have or be any title and that seems like a common problem with big corporations. Too many people running around with titles, too many convoluted layers of management. I don’t much care for a bunch of titles, if you can’t tell. Just take care of your customers, give a damn, get the work done without too much drama or hassle, and you’ll be a great ___ (insert title) at any company.
Being a great leader, though, does take a few more skills than being simply a great worker. A great leader must be able to inspire other workers to care (almost) as much as they do about the business and communicate a clear vision for the company both present and future. Too many CEOs of companies out there are getting compensated far too well for what they do for the people who actually do the great work at companies. If all/most company leaders were only bonused on the business results and carry smaller employee-scale salaries, I think the motivation to make company better would remain in focus.
What’s happening with the auto company CEOs is crazy. Private jets, perks, and we pay the bills. Screw that.
Comment by TDavid — January 9, 2009 @ 9:34 am PST
Agreed. I liked Steve Jobs’ approach when we came back to fix Apple: his salary was $1 annually (of course, he made a lot on paper off of his stock, but that’s only because he did his job well).
It boggles the mind that some of these CEOs are paid millions to run their companies into the ground, while the people who actually have the power to make the company successful get their ideas smacked down and are paid barely enough to make their monthly bills.
I own my own company, but I don’t have any employees — my only compensation is the profit I generate for myself. But if I owned a company that needed a CEO or other officers, their compensation would be based solely on profitability. That might not attract many applicants, but it would ensure that those who did apply believed in the company’s future success.
Comment by Sterling Camden — January 9, 2009 @ 9:49 am PST
s/when we came back/when he came back/
Comment by Sterling Camden — January 9, 2009 @ 9:49 am PST
Work out where (which jobs / which customers) your PROFITS come from.
Most companies only know where their TURNOVER comes from, not appreciating the difference.
Track customer satisfaction. Identify with your customers.
These were the things I learned from my own SW house.
Comment by Eunoia — January 14, 2009 @ 1:21 pm PST
Work out where (which jobs / which customers) your PROFITS come from.
Most companies only know where their TURNOVER comes from, not appreciating the difference.
Comment by küfürlü nickler — May 24, 2009 @ 6:53 am PST