It happens to the best of us. Truth be told, it happens to all of us. The dreaded rut - at some point in your career - entrepreneur or not, you will get stuck. How quickly you bounce back will determine how well you do out here on your own.
Musings on the virtues of adversity and reminders such as that which does not kill you makes you stronger have always driven me to distraction. True, you may learn from your mistakes and hopefully never repeat them, however, I have always fared much better when things were going well than in times of adversity. In situations where I have excelled, I have been fueled by successful results, whereas only relief has followed the elimination of a threat, perceived or real.
There are many advantages to being an entrepreneur but those lovelies are not the object of this entry and let’s face it, troubles are a dime a dozen when you’re an entrepreneur, all of which are compounded by market uncertainties, the vulnerability of your business and the knowledge that failure, imminent or not, may affect not only your life but possibly the life and financial and emotional wellbeing of a spouse or dependents. It’s a well-known fact that you need stamina to be an entrepreneur, you need to be self-motivating and insanely disciplined.
And sometimes that can be overwhelming, you’ll get stuck and it won’t be the I’m-having-a-bad-day kind of stuck, it will be the kind of stuck that clings to you like white on rice for weeks and the kind of paralyzing stuck that makes you reek of desperation. In my considerable experience, the only thing that works, is fighting it, wallowing will only worsen a bad situation.
In times of woe-is-me like circumstances, I have found the following tips helpful:
1. Perform an audit. Examine what is ailing your business, stunting its growth or causing it to fail and take appropriate action to remedy the situation based on what’s important to you and your business.
2. Reach out. Get in touch with someone you trust in your network, it can also be a friend or family member but for the professional approach, I recommend that it be someone you believe will be objective about the challenges your business is facing. Having a sounding board is useful and just having a conversation can be helpful and may present new solutions to old problems.
3. Keep busy. There is a time for contemplation and a time for action, idleness can be a breeding ground for inertia. If there is an acute risk of peering in to walls and despairing for days, do something, do anything and keep busy, take care of dead-boring administrative tasks that you have been putting off, read up on relevant research, revise and improve your business plan. Menial or repetitive tasks can be soothing and rouse the old cortex to action.
4. Look to your peers. There are so many great entrepreneurs across the globe. And even though you may be experiencing a slump, others are still forging on and making a go of it, don’t be discouraged by their success or allow feelings of inferiority to triumph, instead study what has worked and is working for them and copy any steps, you imagine will help you put your current difficulties behind you.
5. Get moving! You want to get those endorphins flowing – it is a well-established fact that movement has positive impact on both body and soul. And as the song goes, I suggest you sing like nobody’s listening, dance like nobody’s watching, and love like you’ve never been hurt – your business may be your baby but it shouldn’t be your only one.
***
Musings on the virtues of adversity and reminders such as that which does not kill you makes you stronger have always driven me to distraction. True, you may learn from your mistakes and hopefully never repeat them, however, I have always fared much better when things were going well than in times of adversity. In situations where I have excelled, I have been fueled by successful results, whereas only relief has followed the elimination of a threat, perceived or real.
There are many advantages to being an entrepreneur but those lovelies are not the object of this entry and let’s face it, troubles are a dime a dozen when you’re an entrepreneur, all of which are compounded by market uncertainties, the vulnerability of your business and the knowledge that failure, imminent or not, may affect not only your life but possibly the life and financial and emotional wellbeing of a spouse or dependents. It’s a well-known fact that you need stamina to be an entrepreneur, you need to be self-motivating and insanely disciplined.
And sometimes that can be overwhelming, you’ll get stuck and it won’t be the I’m-having-a-bad-day kind of stuck, it will be the kind of stuck that clings to you like white on rice for weeks and the kind of paralyzing stuck that makes you reek of desperation. In my considerable experience, the only thing that works, is fighting it, wallowing will only worsen a bad situation.
In times of woe-is-me like circumstances, I have found the following tips helpful:
1. Perform an audit. Examine what is ailing your business, stunting its growth or causing it to fail and take appropriate action to remedy the situation based on what’s important to you and your business.
2. Reach out. Get in touch with someone you trust in your network, it can also be a friend or family member but for the professional approach, I recommend that it be someone you believe will be objective about the challenges your business is facing. Having a sounding board is useful and just having a conversation can be helpful and may present new solutions to old problems.
3. Keep busy. There is a time for contemplation and a time for action, idleness can be a breeding ground for inertia. If there is an acute risk of peering in to walls and despairing for days, do something, do anything and keep busy, take care of dead-boring administrative tasks that you have been putting off, read up on relevant research, revise and improve your business plan. Menial or repetitive tasks can be soothing and rouse the old cortex to action.
4. Look to your peers. There are so many great entrepreneurs across the globe. And even though you may be experiencing a slump, others are still forging on and making a go of it, don’t be discouraged by their success or allow feelings of inferiority to triumph, instead study what has worked and is working for them and copy any steps, you imagine will help you put your current difficulties behind you.
5. Get moving! You want to get those endorphins flowing – it is a well-established fact that movement has positive impact on both body and soul. And as the song goes, I suggest you sing like nobody’s listening, dance like nobody’s watching, and love like you’ve never been hurt – your business may be your baby but it shouldn’t be your only one.
***
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