7 Ways to Get Your Business Out of a Hole

Have you ever been up in the mountains in the winter?  You are in your car, enjoying the winter wonderland pristine beauty. The road is covered in snow and everything  is going well until you put your foot on the accelerator to move forward and nothing happens. Your wheels spin, your car won't move and you react and accelerate again and again and still nothing happens. In fact, you are now even more stuck because as your wheels keep spinning the hole gets bigger.  You grumble, get out and have a look and kick the wheel a few times and feel frustrated because you want to be moving forward but  you are stuck in a big hole.

Many business owners also feel like they are digging a bigger and bigger hole and not moving  their business forward.  I talk to people everyday who are drowning under their piles of stuff to do. They are busy  working hard and getting nowhere fast.  People tell me they feel overwhelmed, stressed, frustrated and behind. They do all the work that needs to be done in order to keep things staying in the same place.  Whole days can be filled up with just doing the "jobs" that don't really move you forward but just keep things status quo. Does this sound familiar?

Getting stuck is not really the problem. The problem is knowing what to do when you get stuck.  Continued acceleration in your car makes the hole deeper and in your business, working harder and longer hours takes you farther away from  the solution. In fact you need to stop, get away from the work and tasks, and be "present" with your business in a new and different  way. From that fresh perspective  your business will communicate with you  about what needs to happen.

How many of you have put a fully developed vision of your business in writing?  Most people don't even know that that is. Many people have a mission statement because that is the first thing you did even before making any money. That's the fun part and then it gets thrown somewhere and forgotten, or maybe it's  on your wall nicely framed but no one looks at it.  

I talked to a business owner yesterday who was having constant challenges with her employees attitudes. I asked her if they had agreed with the mission statement when they were hired. She admitted that she had never even shown it to them.  Even she had forgotten about it. She was too busy working on all the tasks of the business. She's been in business for three years and has no written vision at all. She was so busy doing daily jobs that there was no time to stand back to work on her business, goals, vision, mission and new systems.

What keeps you spinning your wheels is the constant working  in your business, doing all the jobs that need doing. It makes the hole bigger and bigger until it feels like a huge challenge to get your business vehicle moving again because you feel drained and disconnected to your original passion.

How to get out of the sinking hole.

1.  Carve time each week to look at long term projects and goals.

2. Schedule time to check in with your coach, mentor or mastermind group as support is essential in staying out of the hole.

3. Create  systems so you can delegate work to employees or contract people.

4. Begin to think like an entrepreneur. Create a detailed vision of your fully developed business.

5. Understand that you, as the owner, are responsible for carrying this vision to all of your employees and customers.

6. Take a few days off every three months to go to the beach or mountains and do strategic planning or develop new projects.

7. Keep breathing because when you do that you know you are still alive!