Over the last couple of months, businesses have been through a lot of ups and downs. With the country slowing re-opening, many are wondering what to expect next.
Everything around us seemed to be moving very fast until this pandemic struck, and it all came to an immediate halt. Family-owned businesses run for decades were forced to close shop. Students just graduating with massive amounts of debt are suddenly dropped into a work force that was essentially non-existent. The businesses that did remain open are struggling and scared for what the future holds for them. It seems that it will only get worse and not better.
But this crisis is only detrimental if we let it be. And it will begin to work in ours favors if we let it, as well. If we look at all of this not as this big bad thing, but as a chance for opportunity, we can begin to make growth happen.
Challenges are just that: a challenge. I’m not going to tell you anything will be easy. However, I do believe that good can, and will, come from all of this. A lot of change will be necessary along the way, and old systems will be replaced by new ones, but that is where the opportunity lies. The old system that our economy has been functioning in for a while was one that was crushing the American dream to the point where many entrepreneurs and business owners felt overworked and like they couldn’t succeed without using every ounce of energy they had. To take a step back for a second and analyze your business is a gift. That opportunity to look at what isn’t working and where and find out a way to make it is one we should all take advantage of.
Too often in our recent economy have people been more concerned with shareholders of their business rather than their stakeholders. Shareholders are the people who make a profit off of whether or not your business is doing well and gaining revenue. But stakeholders are the people that make your business what it is: your employees, your customers, your community. When you are more concerned with pleasing your stakeholders over the shareholders, your business is building a sense of culture that will help it last beyond any crisis. It might even help you to begin creating a new market in which to continue building and thriving.
We are in the midst of history in the making and we can choose to look at it as this terrible, awful thing, or we can choose to be a part of that history. Think about all of the good that has come from this. All of the reforms in healthcare, in laws and regulations, in the economy. These issues and topics may have not been looked at in the past, but now we realize that a lot of how we run things need updated. The same is true for each and every struggling business right now. The playing field has almost been leveled in a way that gives everyone an equal chance to redefine themselves and how they conduct business day-to-day. We have to get creative, but this is our chance to really succeed and make a name for ourselves in an inevitably ever-changing world.
Pre-pandemic, things were moving almost too fast and in the wrong direction. Our forced perspective in this time of adversity is something to take hold of and use in the best way we can so that the future we are moving towards is better and brighter than they were before.
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LINKS:
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Episode 63 – 5 Barriers that are Holding You Back from Building a Resilient Business
Episode 62 – Authentic vs Consistent
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