You can control your own destiny!
It’s never wise to wait until external events spur you to action. If you wait until the signs are obvious it may already be too late. Far too many leaders play catch-up with their business or organization, especially these days. It’s as if people are afraid to act given the perceived economic uncertainty of our country and the world. However, this is the very time you need to take the initiative and solidify your future otherwise you end up becoming a victim of circumstance and succumbing to the same reality everyone else is worried about (and not really addressing).
- When everyone else is selling, it is a good time to buy.
- When other companies are laying off talent, find creative ways to hire them.
- Increase your investment in professional development for you and all your key staff.
- If your peers are cutting their business development budget, then you should invest more.
- Look for opportunities to acquire competitors who are struggling but have still have some value left in their business.
- Sell/divest non-performing parts of the business.
- Enter new markets and introduce new products.
- Invest in enabling technologies that will increase efficiencies and improve decision making.
- Ramp up your online presence.
All of this may sound counter-intuitive but it’s true. This doesn’t mean you have a license to make bad financial decisions, but it does mean that you still need to take risks to be successful in business. Don’t ever act like everyone else!
If your own financial situation is a challenge, then take aggressive action to get out of it.
- Strive to become cash flow positive. Don’t try and do it incrementally, but instead get there as soon as possible.
- Balance your A/R and A/P properly.
- Restructure and/or pay down existing debt responsibilities.
- Implement operational strategies that will allow you to flex your direct/variable expenses as needed, e.g., subcontracting) .
- Consider targeted price increases.
- Fire unprofitable clients.
- Rethink your labor model.
- Make your back office someone else’s front office through outsourcing or shared administrative functions.
- Minimize fixed/overhead expenses.
- Invest in your sales capacity. Never stop selling!
Make it a priority to operate from a position of relative financial strength ASAP. Don’t just hunker down and wait for the market to recover. It may end up being too late…
Courage still matters in business and in life. Many of us avoid tough decisions or talk ourselves out of taking risks. We strive for comfort where only pain and discomfort exists. It’s better to bet on yourself and your business (and accept the consequences), than to live in someone else’s shadow or become another fish in the pond of mediocrity. The business objective should always be to be ahead of rather than behind the market curve. Stop worrying so much about survival and build your own conditions for success. Create your own destiny!
Related articles
- Don’t Run Out Of Financial Runway (capacity-building.com
- Nine Tips to Spur Leadership Reinvention (capacity-building.com)
- Fifteen Common Business Mistakes (capacity-building.com)
- How To Take Control Your Business Destiny (thelargogroup.com)
- How To Control Your Business Destiny By Creating Your Own Luck (succeedasyourownboss.com)
- Owning Your Destiny (more.shaunhays.com)