Do your friends, family and your employees shy away from you? Is it hard for you to have a conversation with a staff member without them thinking, “what did I do wrong this time?” Do you have a toxic personality? It’s not a question many people want to ask themselves.
Do you have a propensity for toxic perfectionism? They go hand in hand. Perfection is certainly not a horrible trait, but taken to extremes can be detrimental to your health and the health of your business and relationships.
I’m not saying you want to put out shoddy goods or services, but you do sometimes need to adopt an attitude of, “this is good enough.” This is especially true if you’re seeking happiness and satisfaction in your business and your life.
If you have recognized that you have a perfectly toxic syndrome, what can you do to break it? Well, to take a step back… you need to recognize it in yourself before you can address it.
Do you have a toxic personality?
Are you competent and experienced but believe that is more crucial to success than perfection? As an entrepreneur, you can easily drive away staff and vendors if you’re striving to continually be perfect rather than competent. Competency may not be the only factor to your success but if you’re striving for only perfection that certainly holds you back. Instill confidence in your team through your actions, not through unreasonable demands for perfection.
If you don’t have all the answers and if you can’t see all the potential ways for success and failure, does that mean you don’t do anything? You don’t have to know everything — life and business are trial and error. Just because you write the paycheck doesn’t mean you need to have all the answers. It’s all right to say, “I’m not sure, let me find out.”
Do you believe that only perfect people can be business successes? That is a lot of pressure to place on yourself and those around you. Don’t let a toxic personality and a toxic drive for perfection stop you from achieving your goals and growing your team. Success means you may stumble along the way and that’s all right!
Do you have any limiting beliefs that are holding you back from success? How have you overcome them or are you still struggling to rid yourself of the perfectionism trap?
Do you ever feel like no matter what you’re doing, you’re just not moving the needle to keep your business growing? You may have heard dieters say they have “plateaued” in their weight loss efforts and that means that no matter what they try, they just can’t lose those pounds. If you’re feeling the same with your business, Rex Richard has 3 tips to move your business forward.
If you know you’re not in a business slow period — like a swimming pool contractor who naturally slows down in December in Northern New York — then it might just take a couple of tweaks to get you moving again.
How can an entrepreneur know whether the business has peaked and why? What steps can you take if you know you can go higher, but you just don’t know how to get around that roadblock?
Here are tips for breaking free of those plateaus:
3 Tips To Move Your Business Forward
What is your vision and has it changed? If it’s not as clear as it was, then you want to pivot. If your original vision changed, but you haven’t changed your marketing strategies or other growth metrics, now is the time to do that.
Are you networking and continually connecting? I know the pandemic put a stop to in person networking events, and some are still slow to resume, but you can do zooms, pick up the phone and have a socially distanced meeting if you’re not comfortable in public. You need to spend part of your day — every day — marketing.
Is your marketing message selling you and your services? Is your marketing messaging pointed at helping a potential client fix a specific pain point? Is your marketing so clever that a potential customer scratches his head and asks, “is this really something I need or that would help me?” then you’re being too clever. Be succinct. Be clear.
If the pandemic taught business owners anything it’s that much of their work can be done remotely and their staff — many of them — would prefer to continue working from home. At first, remote work was such a foreign concept that it sent employers and workers into a tailspin. If you wonder how to make remote work viable, we can help.
Employers wondered… will the work get done? Will the staff be productive or will they be taking afternoons off?
Employees wondered… where will i work? How can I get work done when I am at home? How will I draw a line between work hours and home hours when my employer knows I have everything at my fingertips to keep me engaged?
How To Make Remote Work Viable
The hybrid workplace has become more commonplace with employees choosing to come in a day or two a week and WFH the other days. This seems to give the employer peace of mind that the work is getting done. This situation also seems to suit the employee who relishes in person interaction and watercooler talk. Being in front of the boss is also a great way to stay front of mind when you’re trying to move up the company ladder.
If you’re still struggling with remote work, here are our tips:
Have a clearly defined workspace. Even if you’re on the kitchen table, claim it and work from there. At the end of the day, pick up, pack up, and transition yourself into home – even though you don’t have a commute.
Draw a line in the sand that your work hours are from X to Y and you’re not going to be on call 24/7
Make sure your family understands that you’re still working even though you’re home. They need to understand the importance of that.
Don’t give in to the impulse to clean the house, wash the dishes, mow the lawn or run errands. If you want to do those chores, do them before work, during your lunch or after work. Treat your workday as a workday.
Attend meetings. Get involved in zoom chats with fellow employees and staff. Stay front of mind by contributing to conversations.
Know whether your ideal workday involves staying home all day, every day. If not, let your employer know. Conversely, if you know you don’t want to be in the office full time, then talk with your employer and see what can be worked out.
This is still a strange new world in many ways and you may still be navigating it. Give us a call and talk with Rex Richard if you’re struggling to keep your business afloat in the new work from home world or about any business concerns you may have.
There is no denying it. Customer service is horrible. The pandemic certainly had something to do with and we honestly think that friendliness has gone by the wayside. No longer is the “customer always right.” In fact, the customer is rarely listened to or treated with any kind of respect. Truly if your business is struggling and your employees are not bending over backward to help those customers who are loyal and come back to you, you’re better off without them — the employee, not the customer.
When is the last time you walked out of a store and thought, “wow that was a great experience”? I don’t know the last time I had that. In fact, if I have to get so excited that I finally had a great experience, that shows the decline of our society and the way in which we treat people.
Customers aside — this is an example of how poorly we treat humans. Bottom line.
Customers are the lifeblood of your business and didn’t you truly see that as being true when the pandemic shut down so many businesses? Yes, I understand that it’s hard to find employees and that it’s hard to keep them and the employees you do find don’t want to be there so what can you do?
Do Your Customers Feel Appreciated?
As the business owner, it’s up to you to step up and make your customers feel appreciated because without them you won’t have a business. How can you show appreciation and put a smile on their faces? We have some tips.
Provide introductory offers. Businesses that offer introductory pricing or a first-time-purchase coupon are more likely to earn your loyalty. What can you offer a new customer?
Are there loss leader products or services you could offer at a discount or for free to reward the loyalty of a long-term or repeat customer?
Do you have free samples you could provide? If you’re a bakery, that’s easy. If you’re a service provider, offer a free pool cleaning or dog nail clipping, as a couple of examples.
Build a community and work with beta testers for your goods or services. VIP communities are easy to build and can garner great word-of-mouth referrals.
Stay in touch. If someone buys your product or hires you, stay in touch. Let them know what the onboarding process is and what the next steps are. Don’t leave them in the dark.
Say THANK YOU! Two simple words that carry a lot of weight. What do you to do show your customers that you appreciate them?
What can you do to appreciate your customers? Also, what can you do to reward and thank employees who give good customer service?
If you’re not an extrovert you can’t be a successful business person. What? Do you need to be extroverted to be an entrepreneur? You don’t. While you do need to be able to network, shake hands, host virtual get-togethers and talk on the phone, you can be an introvert or an ambivert and be successful!
Introverts can be great entrepreneurs, but their business style is different than the style an extrovert exhibit. The world goes around because of all the different personalities. In fact, a client of yours may work with you because you’re an extrovert or vice versa. Your personality may just mesh or clash and it could be because you’re an introvert, extrovert, or ambivert.
Do You Need To Be Extroverted To Be An Entrepreneur?
What are some of the benefits that extroverted entrepreneurs have?
Casting a wider networking net just because they are more likely found outside of the office, rather than sitting in the office.
Extroverts are also more likely to strike up a conversation in line with a stranger and that could lead to business conversations.
They more regularly interact with their teams.
They might be more charismatic than introverts because they are the life of the party.
What do introverts contribute to the business world?
They are focused.
The relationships they build are constructed over the long term.
They may be more niched and this could enhance their expertise.
They may be better listeners and ask more probing questions.
Build your team and fill it with xtroverts and introverts. Find team members who complement and contrast with you.
It is rare to find an entrepreneur who is 100% introvert or 100% extrovert — just as it’s rare for any person to be completely one personality or another. Everyone is nuanced and everyone brings strengths to the business table.
Are you an extrovert or an introvert or both? Knowing what you are will help you find people with whom to work that will help your business thrive.
