Creative Energy Officer

What is the one thing that’s holding you back from making more sales or taking your business to the next level?

Take your time to answer this. Get out a sheet of paper and write it down. Got one?

I have good news and bad news. The good news is you can take that piece of paper, roll it up really tight and…recycle it. Your biggest problem or obstacle that is holding back your business was not on that sheet.

Here comes the bad news. Find a reflective surface. Look closely, and you will get an image of the bad news. The bad news is: you. You are the problem.

You are not a victim of a bad market. You do not desperately need more capital. You do not lack the knowledge and skill to run your business. Your biggest problem is not your problem. It is only the budding flower of what lies at the root of the issue…beneath the surface.

While it can take on many forms, this root mass can be summed up in one word: fear. 

So, if the real problem lies beneath the surface, how are we to examine it? And what good does this do my business?

The first step is to fetch that sheet of paper back out of the recycle bin. This time, instead of seeing it as an obstacle, look at it as an opportunity to find out something new about you and your business. 

What is behind this supposed roadblock is an entire inventory that most people never fully count. If a business hopes to succeed, it must know every piece of its inventory. This includes the stuff that you can’t see in your storage room.

As a person who was part of a start-up-gone-down, the only way that I have found this inventory can be fully accomplished is by making my business life an open book with at least one other person—preferably someone who has what I want in life and business. 

All of this would be hopeless and academic if I had not gone through this process myself with one of my business mentors. He was able to take an objective look at how I was running my professional life and find more fears than I ever thought I had in stock. 

My fear of rejection paralyzes me from setting up appointments. My fear of what clients may think of me forces me to create unrealistic expectations on my behavior and causes me to overreact to the simplest of errors. There are more. Many more.

Sharing these fears with another trusted business adviser does not make them go away forever, but I begin to gain a new perspective on them. I become less attached to the fear and am able to relate to others in a more meaningful way since I know who I am more fully.

With this footing, it has been my experience that entrepreneurs can meet those same daunting problems outlined on that first sheet of paper and see them as challenges or opportunities for growth. They also point to strengths that I have as Dave Rendall so clearly points out in his manifesto.

The market will continue to be volatile…or not. Life and business will continue to ebb and flow. Sales will continue to slump from time to time. But, none of those things need to be seen as threats to your business. They are new challenges that can now be met with a better understanding of who you are, who you are not and why you are in business.

HOMEWORK

Take out that sheet of paper, but this time ask yourself:

• When am I quick to blame others for my perceived lack of success?
• How much power do I give outside circumstances in running my business?
• When do I limit myself from having the success that I know I can have?

If you get this all figured out, shoot me an email.  I could use your advice.

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Jeremy Nulik, Creative Energy Officer (CEO), St. Louis Small Business Monthly