It’s Almost Halloween: What Scares You Most About Your Business?

Posted by Chuck Kocher
On October 26, 2018

Business Development for large companies

Scaling Your Business

It’s almost Halloween and that’s big business in the United States. Forbes.com cites information from the National Retail Federation that claims Americans were expected to spend $9.1 billion on Halloween in 2017. That’s a scary amount of money! Something else that’s scary is if your business isn’t scaling up or growing the way you want it to—and you’re not sure what to do to improve your performance. What scares you most about your business? What keeps you up at night?

Putting a Face on Business Monsters
Not long ago, businessingmag.com posted an article entitled: What Are the Biggest Challenges to Growing Your Business? Here are their observations.

  • Allowing Growth to Overwhelm You
  • Staying in Touch with Market Trends
  • Not Taking the Time to Vet Clients and Suppliers
  • Cash Flow Control
  • Failing to Delegate Responsibility

There’s no question that those are serious issues that can cause a business leader to lose sleep at night. However, there are issues that aren’t even surfaced in that article that are even scarier. Do you have the leadership skills to guide your company through the things mentioned above? Do you have a specific vision and strategy for achieving your goals (including staying in touch with market trends)? What’s your plan for controlling cash flow? Do you hire the right people and developed them so that you can delegate responsibility?

Garlic and Silver Bullets Won’t Help
In the horror movies that are so popular around Halloween, there always seems to be some kind of trick that eliminates the threat from monsters. Garlic and silver bullets seem to work when battling vampires, but they won’t help you to overcome the demons of the business world. You need more than superstition to survive and thrive in the business world.

Rebranding your company isn’t going to help either. It may actually be needed, but it doesn’t get at your core problems. Simply beefing up your marketing won’t do the trick, either. It might help improve sales a bit, but that’s not enough. Making better use of your time as a leader is a good thing, but it won’t turn your business around. Just doing more of the same things you’ve already been doing won’t bring about the magnitude of change you’re looking for.

 

Here Are Some Things That Will Help
You need more than small tweaks to get big results. You require transformative change. You also need to change the way you think about your business and you need to transform the way you act—specifically in areas such as leadership, hiring, vision/strategy, execution, and managing your cash. If you don’t change the way you do those things, you can’t expect to change the results you’re getting.

I’ve listed some of the major things that trouble business leaders and keep them awake at night. But what about you? Have I talked about the business issues that scare the daylights out of you when you peer into the future? I’d love to hear from you about the things that make your hair stand up on end when it comes to your business.  Drop me a note and tell me what topic you’d like to hear about. I won’t offer any tricks to instantly solve your problems, but I would love to treat you to information that will help you scale and grow your business.

Photo by Gellinger

 

 

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