Small business owners and entrepreneurs continually battle against the competition, economy, finances, government regulations, employee issues, busyness, denial, distractions, and a host of other challenges. Such COMPLEXITY is simply the "price of admission" for being a successful entrepreneur. However, if you don't learn to manage such complexity, it will crush you and your business.
However, please don't become overwhelmed by all these issues. In fact, all these issues are not the real problem for you. The real problem is that most business owners DO NOT know how to think about and tackle these issues...that's the real problem. Entrepreneurs tend to lack the proper process to effectively think about and resolve their problems and seize their opportunities. They have so much junk in their heads at one time that they can't even think. Instead, they get overwhelmed and very often go into a state of denial. That's how neglected issues become raging, critical problems.
As your virtual business coach, I'm going to ask you to slow down, catch your breath, and have you realize that all your issues are not created equal. You need to learn to discriminate. You must put your issues and problems in the proper perspective and prioritize them. As your business coach, I want to help you manage the growing complexity of running your business.
Here is a simple but effective framework for you to identify, prioritize, and tackle all the issues you face. I would like to re-introduce you to an old buddy, the business planning model known as SWOT Analysis. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Relax, I'm not going to ask you to draft a new business plan. Instead I want you to better plan your response to your daily business issues.
But before you use this new application for SWOT, you need to: (1) Face the truth about where your business is right now (good, bad and ugly - what's working and what's not), (2) Gain clarity about where you want your business to be in one year and three years (paint that ideal future), and (3) Commit to close the performance gap between your current reality and your desired future. This new application of SWOT below will help you prioritize how you go about closing that gap.
In brief, you should look at how to leverage your strengths, neutralize weaknesses, seize the best opportunities, and eliminate the greatest threats/dangers. Here are a series of questions to help you get your arms around your issues using a SWOT framework:
STRENGTHS (assets):
What are your personal and business strengths, unique talents, money-making assets?
How can you leverage, maximize and multiply these strengths?
Which are your most-promising strengths to pursue now?
WEAKNESSES (liabilities):
What are your personal and business weaknesses and liabilities?
How can you neutralize, delegate or outsource these weaknesses?
[Do not spend too much time or energy working on your personal weaknesses as they simply become strong weaknesses]
OPPORTUNITIES (desire for gain):
What are the money-making opportunities you have right now?
Which are the most promising with the greatest return potential?
How can you go about seizing these opportunities?
THREATS/DANGERS (fear of loss):
What are the greatest threats/dangers facing your business right now?
How can you eliminate or minimize these threats/dangers?
You know have a simple process to help you think about and tackle your critical issues using this simple SWOT framework. If you regularly use this approach, at least once a month, you will be able to effectively manage your complexity. All the best.
Daniel M. Murphy
President, Co-Founder, Business Coach
The Growth Coach
Business Coaching Franchise System
Certified Business Coaches throughout North America