3 Steps You Need to Take Right Now.…if Your Business is Struggling to Survive

1.  Stop pretending things are fine.  They’re not.  Be honest with yourself and others around you.  If you have employees, they probably have a better grip on the seriousness of the situation than you might appear to have.  And when you wear the ‘brave face’ around them, they inherently begin questioning your leadership, wondering if you even recognize that Rome is burning.

This ‘honesty’ permits you to ask for help and suggestions from other people, your employees, advisors, peers, family, etc.  They can’t, and won’t help if you aren’t honest about the situation. Just like anybody else, you’re not expected to have all of the answers, just the ability to ask for advice.

2.  Dealing With Your Business Challenges.   Nearly always, your business finances are a reflection of problems and issues buried deeper within your organization.  Is cash flow bad? Then start asking questions and getting answers.  Why is it bad?  Are people not paying my bills?  Are my expenses too high?  Are we not selling our products/services?  The objective is to identify the specific root causes for each problem.

Once you begin identifying and isolating the specific challenges your business is facing, you’ll find it easier to conquer them one at a time.  The old cliche is appropriate, “How do you eat an elephant?”  The answer is, “One bite at a time”.   Identify the root causes of your specific problems, then begin solving them, one ‘bite’ at a time.

3.  Dealing With Your Personal Challenges. It’s so common for business owners to look up and wonder why their personal life has gotten out of balance over the years.  Many times we begin our business to chase that illusion of freedom and independance…working when we want, financial freedom, personal fulfillment, etc.  Then, after years of working 80 hour work weeks, we look up, and realize that our kids grew up and left home with barely an acknowledgement from us.  It’s so easy for us to get sucked down that black hole of “I’m doing this for me and my family”, when in reality, we – and our families – have been deprived of the one thing they’ve needed most….us.

When one aspect of our life gets out of whack and overtakes other aspects of our life… it’s kinda like washing your jeans in the  washing machine, and they’re a bit unbalanced….thump, thump, thump. How many thumps do you need before you take action to turn things around in your personal life?

Survival is the most basic of all human instincts.  But it requires positive action and decision making on your part.  Take advantage of the adrenaline rush from your own personal ‘flight or fight’ syndrome.   I wish you all the best!