Monsoons, hurricanes, fires and the coronavirus storm really kicked a lot of business owners in the bank account. How did your business pivot during the coronavirus shut down? Did you have to shutter your doors? Did you manage to make the changes necessary to retain clients and keep your bank account healthy enough to keep the lights on? If so, congratulations! We do have tips for weathering the coronavirus storm (whether it continues or if you’re faced with other “storms.)
You need to have plans in place — if you didn’t — to weather both literal and figurative storms — as 2020 showed us. Unprepared business owners may never recover. Working with Rex Richard will help you be a prepared business owner. Reach out to him and talk about coaching and business survival skills.
Weathering The Coronavirus Storm
Do you have a physical location out of which you have to operate? What did you do when you couldn’t access it — whether because of Mother Nature or the coronavirus? Did you have another location from which you could work? Did you have to send employees home to work? Did they have the equipment they needed and did you have the infrastructure to help them work productively?
Entrepreneurs need to find ways to deal with entrepreneurial intangibles. Getting knocked off your path because of things beyond your control. Are there items your business plan didn’t address because you just couldn’t have ever imagined them? Hello, again COVID-19.
Here are steps to implement right now to help maintain an even keel and thrive in the midst of a storm:
What is the business vision? Can you still see it even during a storm?
Does the mission for the business and the way in which you deliver your products and services clear?
How much input does your team have to keep your mission and vision tangible in everything they do?
What are the individual roles and responsibilities your team has in the midst of a crisis?
Are you standing up front and center in the midst of the storm? Are you doing all you can to inspire and hold yourself as accountable as you hold your team? You need to lead by example.
If you didn’t come out the other side of the 2020 storm with your bank balance in the black, you need to take steps now to help you weather the next storm and you just know there is one brewing.
It’s not always possible for a person to say, “I quit!” then jump into being a business owner. You need to make plans. I recommend having enough money in the bank to cover your living expenses for several months. Don’t focus on paying the bills if you’re focusing on starting a business — it’s putting a lot of stress and pressure on yourself. I have tips for how to start your business without quitting your day job. You have probably heard of a “side gig” and that is the approach I am talking about.
I do caution you though, that at some point you will need to “give your notice” at your day job and make the move to full-time entrepreneurship IF you want to be fully self-employed. You will need to jump in and take the chance on yourself.
Start Your Business Without Quitting Your Day Job
Here are some ways to make the most of the resources you have available and scale your part time side gig to full time entrepreneurial endeavor.
Don’t give it away for free. By “free” I mean truly for free or by pricing your goods and services so low that you may as well be giving it away for free. You need to value your gifts and you need to charge for them. Potential clients will de-value your products and services if you’re not charging appropriate fees for them.
Know the value of the products and services you’re offering. See what the competition is charging. Determine what you need to make a living then price your goods and services accordingly.
Be a freelancer in the field you want to start your business in – if possible. If you want to be a full time writer, take on freelance gigs. If you want to be a full time dog groomer, become an intern or freelance or groom your friends’ pets. Gain experience and use that toward furthering your goal for becoming a business owner.
Focus on a niche. Don’t think you have to be everything to everyone… you can’t. Find a niche and make your mark.
What skills can only you perform in your business and what skills do you need to contract out? If you’re an accountant and are not well-versed in copywriting or social media or making graphics, contract those marketing tasks out.
Decide what you need to have to make you feel like you can make the leap into full time business owner. Is it money? Is it a specific number of clients? Once you know your must-haves you will have the freedom to let go of the full time job.
I worked with some clients in 2020 who saw their businesses boom! I worked with others who saw their businesses bust. There were still others who were treading water and are still in business but they know they need to do something, anything – everything! – to stay that way.
How To Get More Out Of Your Workday
I have put together some tips and advice for you to make your workday as productive and effective as it can be. It is easy to get distracted and to go down a social media rabbit hole, but to grow your business you need to stop those practices, and implement some of these.
Reward yourself with social media time. Do your social media tasks, then sign out. Turn off notifications. Once you have completed what you had on your to-dos for the day – hop online and have fun! It is so easy to say, “I’ll just get online for ten minutes… then an hour later, you are still there.”
Get up early. Rise early and take care of marketing, planning the day and week. Get work done before the phones start ringing.
Don’t check your email first thing in the morning. “Train” your clients to understand that you don’t answer emails until… say, 10 am… unless it’s an emergency. Once you get into email, you are giving up control of your day.
Get up and get away from your desk. Take a couple of mental vacations a day to clear your head and boost productivity. You need to get up and get moving for mental and physical well-being.
Work on your most difficult tasks when you are at your peak. Some people thrive at 5 am, others at 5 pm. Know when you do your best work and concentrate on it then. Use your non-peak emotionally productive times to do marketing or admin tasks.
Look to automation and move your tasks to be on autopilot. If you can batch schedule your social media, for example, you can get it all out of the way on a Monday and then you only need to spend minutes a day interacting with followers.
Write. It. Down. If you don’t write down what you want to accomplish – from small tasks to large goals – they won’t get done. Days, weeks, months will slip past and some of your goals will remain unrealized.
Set deadlines for tasks and projects. A vague, “write a white paper” will likely get moved from day to day and remain unfinished because you didn’t give it a deadline for completion. Without a deadline, a task takes on the role of seeming unimportant.
Delegate and outsource what doesn’t make you money. Also, know what your hourly rate is and decide whether you, at your hourly rate, need to be on Twitter and writing blog posts. If you can delegate and outsource at a lower rate so you can concentrate on your core values – do that.
Don’t waste pockets of time. Imagine what you can get done in several fifteen-minute pockets of time a day. Four fifteen minute pockets equal an hour. Don’t waste that hour.
In a perfect world, every client you work with would be a dream client. In the real world, that isn’t the case. We have tips for how to deal with difficult clients, because there may come a time when you simply don’t want to “fire” them and we understand that.
If you are working with a client who is – shall we say – a challenge, you need to have coping mechanisms for those interactions. You also need to ask yourself, “why am I working with this person?” That is truly one of the first questions to be answered.
How To Deal With Difficult Clients
Think about some of these questions when interacting with your difficult client.
Are you working with a couple? A partnership or more than two people in the business? What are their underlying issues – is it truly a disagreement about business principles or is it their own personality conflicts that are driving the challenges? You cannot “fix” their personality issues, but you may be able to read the room and determine how to pose your questions and comments to address all concerns without making them butt heads.
What if you have a client who isn’t angry, but who just can’t make up his or her mind? In this case you feel like you’re running around in circles. Your client decides on Monday to do A but on Tuesday he decides he now wants to focus on B. How do you keep up? Make sure you keep detailed notes. In many cases this type of client will wake up and think that you aren’t doing your job because they aren’t moving forward – in reality it is their indecision that is keeping them stuck.
They cross boundaries. It is easy when you’re coaching or working with someone to have them think they are now your “best friend” and will take advantage of that imagined relationship. They will call at off hours, or drag out conversations or email and text with questions outside of coaching sessions – they’re getting free help and that isn’t fair to you. You need to set boundaries. You need to set expectations. You need to not answer the calls and remind the client of your contract with her and offer to sell her more time if she feels she needs it.
Until you decide to cut ties with a difficult client, you may need to step back, take a deep breath and start over.
As we are into the second week of 2021, we want to talk about how to write a business plan. Many of the clients with whom we work, either don’t have a business plan, have it “in their heads” or truly have written it on napkins or sticky notes.
Don’t let the intimidation of a business plan and its compilation stop you from writing one. When you set a manageable goal and give yourself deadlines and seek guidance in its preparation you will find it’s easier than you thought. More importantly, your business plan is a roadmap toward your success and who doesn’t want that?
How To Write A Business Plan
As a business owner you NEED to have a business plan. No matter if you’re a solopreneur, working in a partnership or have a large company – a business plan is a must-have document. As a business coach I know that the clients with whom I work have said having a business plan helped them grow, launch and sustain their businesses – and that is the goal, right?
Here are my thoughts on business plans
It’s not about the name on the top of the document – it’s about the discovery you find when you create it. You will be asking yourself, or working with a coach who will ask, questions that delve deeper into your financial and growth goals.
Don’t think you have to write the business plan all in one day. You don’t set aside an hour, or so, a day until it’s done.
Make sure you set up an appointment with yourself on your calendar and make the business plan completion a priority.
Look online for business plan templates and outlines. Work with a business coach to complete your plan.
Ask for feedback and input from trusted colleagues or your coach.
Don’t let the preparation of your business plan become what seems like an insurmountable task – it’s not. Look at your business plan as your roadmap for success – it is!
