Think back to before you launched your business. You were brimming with excitement, focused on all of the wonderful future possibilities, positive opportunities and lucrative windfalls that were surely coming your way. Fast forward a few months or years, and after being bombarded with naysayers, lagging sales or a business that doesn’t quite live up to the picture that you had in your mind, you have lost that winning mentality. If this sounds like you, here are a few tips to help you get your business groove back:
(1) Knowledge = Confidence
When things aren’t going your way, it can be easy to get down on yourself and your business. One of the best ways to get your business groove back is by boosting your confidence. And one of the best ways to boost confidence is through knowledge and preparation.
So, start by figuring out which areas of your business you are falling short in or are most unsure about and seek out resources from those people and businesses that can help you understand those particular topics. There are a whole host of books, websites, newsletters and podcasts out there (I, of course, highly recommend The Entrepreneur Equation), all filled with whatever information you are seeking out. Learn as much as you can about what made them successful (as well as their failures!) and apply their strategies to your own business.
(2) Emphasize the Positive
After the initial excitement wears off, entrepreneurs can get discouraged by naysayers and perceived failures. We can dwell on one negative criticism, while ignoring the 100 compliments that preceded it. That one negative comment can magnify in your mind and bring you down, causing massive groove loss.
A great way to combat this is to emphasize the positive. Use your past successes and positive customer and employee feedback to bring you up during those rockier times, boost your confidence and get you out of that funk. And keep your sense of humor! Being able to laugh at yourself and your failures, while not taking it all so seriously will allow you to breeze through the tough times much more easily.
(3) Keep Your Eyes on the Prize
It’s easy to get bogged down in the day to day operations of running your business and forget why you started it in the first place. So, keep your eyes on the prize- meaning, your big picture goals. Think about what you want for yourself and where you see your business in the grand scheme of things. There is no such thing as too big of a goal!
Then, break it down into smaller tasks and milestones that you need to accomplish in order to reach those big goals. The small steps will be easier to reach, so as each smaller step gets completed and crossed off the list, it will give you a positive boost. And focusing on your end game and big picture goals will also keep you inspired to work harder and move ahead through those hard times.
What other tips do you have for getting your groove back in business? Please share them below.
Thanks to Michael Guberti of Teenager Entrepreneur, Dianne Daniels of The DivaStyle Coach, Inc., Heidi McCarthy of Customers First! and Grant Cardone of Cardone Enterprises for the inspiration behind some of these ideas.
