Business Conundrum #34
Q. “I am very good at what I do, and when things are going well, I feel very good about my business. But I don’t think I ‘do business’ well — I dislike the money stuff, I’m not good about putting myself out there, and I don’t like dealing with the business details. Isn’t there a way around all this stuff?”
PowerSmarts #34
A. I hear this a lot, and the answer is, yes. And no.
Most small business owners are good at what they do, and that’s the reason they start businesses — because they’re good at something, or they have a passion for something, and they want to do that to for a living instead of working for someone else. Nothing wrong with that — in fact, it’s terrific. You should be very good at what you do if you run a business.
However, the money stuff, the “putting yourself out there,” and the business details are part of it too, and you do need to pay attention to it — just maybe not in the way you think you do. You could make it a whole lot easier on yourself.
Let’s take the money part
You may have a bad taste in your mouth for the finances of business and profit because, really, the whole topic scares you. You don’t actually understand the basics of money coming into and going out of your business, so you just don’t look at it. And of course it gets worse, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. If you just took a peek, you might be excited by the possibilities, and even a little bit of understanding can turn into enthusiasm and interest. Even if your numbers look bleak.
What if watching your money on a very simple level could actually make it grow and boost your confidence — would that sound better? It could be that you’ve conditioned yourself to be fearful of the money side of your business, when actually, with just a few simple principles (very simple principles), you could come to enjoy this part. It just depends on how you look at it, and how open you are to looking at it differently. How open are you?
Then let’s look at the “putting yourself out there” part
You’re not good at it because you’re not yet comfortable with marketing yourself. Other people can do it, you may even do it for other people, as I did when I had my marketing communications firm, but it just feels ickier when you do it for yourself. It feels too much like bragging — how in the world are you supposed to talk about yourself? Maybe you need to look at marketing a bit differently, too.
What if marketing your company was only the process of getting people who wanted and needed your services to know about you? There are people who want and need your services, you know, and how are they supposed to find you if you don’t let them know what you do and how you can be found? What if you were looking for something you wanted and needed, and you couldn’t find it because the company you were looking for felt icky about putting themselves out there? Wouldn’t that make you frustrated? So, isn’t it your duty to let these people know about you? And can you do it in a non-icky way? Yes. Yes, you can. How open are you to thinking of marketing this way?
And how about those pesky business details?
Awful, huh? But what if little tweaks here and there in the details of your business could mean the difference between feeling like you’ve accomplished something . . . and not? Between money slipping between your fingers . . . and not? Between spending hours and hours spinning your wheels . . . and not? Between whether your business is successful . . . and not? If you knew how much better your business could work, would you be open to looking at some of those tweaks?
Thinking you’re “not good” at business probably means you haven’t really stopped to look at your business
My experience is that most business owners who say they’re “not good” at the business end of their business, really mean they haven’t stopped to draw back the curtain and take a look at the business end of their business. And that when they do, they find out it’s not so icky or scary or overwhelming after all.
They find out that, no, there’s no way to ignore the things they don’t like about running a business — but yes, there are some terrific ways to work with them (many not scary or icky or overwhelming) — when they just open up a bit, think differently, and give it a try.
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