4 Steps to Work Through Business Challenges
Has your productivity and cash flow been affected by COVID-19?
1. Acknowledge them - ‘You can’t fix what you don’t acknowledge.’
Make a list of all the challenges that:
Keep you up at night
Are recurring
Consume your time
Stop you from doing business
Don’t overthink it, just write down what comes to mind.
2. Business Plan Alignment - ‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.’
To help determine what challenges need to be addressed will depend on your business plan.
Your business plan can be as simple as having the following:
Vision
Goals (both financial and non-financial)
Action Items (tasks to achieve goals)
Download your free simple one-page business plan – that doesn’t need to be overcomplicated, but a working document that you can use and refer to for your internal purpose.
3. Categories and prioritise - ‘What matters should get attention.’
Through the process of completing your business plan, you can determine whether the challenges are affecting you achieving your goals and need to address immediately, in the near future or not at all. Why put your energy and time towards something that is not aligned with your business goals.
To break this down further, you would then identify if the challenge is something you can address yourself or have others support you.
4. Ask for support - ‘A problem shared is a problem halved.’
Support can come from a number of sources. Support can come from a number of sources, you might be internal (staff) or external.
This help can be in a formal or informal setting.
Depending on what you need help with will determine the type of support you ask for and who you seek it from. It could be that you need someone who can provide any one or a combination of the following:
Sounding board
Someone seeing things from a different perspective
Someone not emotionally attached to the business
Expert advice (knowledge you don’t have)
Additional resource (time that you don’t have)
Running your own business doesn’t mean you need to do this alone. There is so much support out there for you. Start with your local support through the Venture Melton Business Network.
In summary, to work through your challenges:
1. Acknowledge them
Write them down
2. Business plan alignment
Vision
Goals
Actions
3. Categories and prioritise
Important and Urgent
Important but Not Urgent
Not Important
4. Ask for support
Internal or External
Formal or Informal
Androulla Sakkas
Business Performance Consultant
EmpowerBeyond