EDITION 530 – No Quick Fixes
When a business is struggling, often it’s been that way for an extended period of time. It’s just that the owners, and predominantly the male owners, choose to ignore the warning signs.
Cash gets tight. Suppliers start to hound. The bank refuses the smallest credit application. They appear to happen in isolation, except they don’t. It’s just that those you rely upon, fire their respective starting guns at different times.
If you have a good advisor in your corner, they’ll be telling you that things aren’t right. That you need to change. That the course you’re on, is not the right course, and that you need to pivot, if you want a different result. Except, these same owners, and again the male ones, can be stubborn, and choose not to hear, what they need to hear.
Invariably the day arrives, when there’s a rejection from someone the business owner relies upon, that is the catalyst for change. The owner finally realises that before too long, the wolf will be at the door, and you’re living in a house of straw.
When owners arrive at this point, it’s my experience, over almost four decades, they’re looking for a quick fix. The angel investor. The one big sale. The next new client. An idea that finally takes off, that’s been percolating in the background for years. In reality, they’re looking for the Lotto win to extract them from their problems.
Except, there are no quick fixes. None. Zero. Zilch.
If the slide has been on for years, then any turnaround will also take years.
Even if the slide appears rapid, often it’s as a result of the “hidden slide” that’s been underway for a long time. Like the reliance on a single client, or a single product, to generate a large proportion of the business revenue. Too many business owners look at the today of business, and bask in the glory of that regular client or product, but don’t look to the tomorrow to see whether the world is changing and if so, how.
If your business is in the doldrums, it’s a day by day proposition to turn it around. What I mean is that you have to introduce and implement a course correction, daily, in order to achieve the different result the business needs. You can’t just have a spur of the moment idea, get all excited, then revert back to the way things have always been.
When you rebuild your business, or you repivot it, depending on whether it’s a choice or a necessity that is staring you in the face, there are only ever slow fixes. One change at a time. Refine that change. Bed it down. Observe the results as they’re coming in. Then move onto the next change.
If you’re looking for a quick fix, you need to stop the search. You need to focus on the minor tweaks, that in some ways look almost inconsequential. Often times, they are the ones that will lead to positive change, yet often slip under the radar.
This Week’s Tip
“More often that not, it’s something that looks innocuous, or appears a boring solution, that is actually the right one.”