Hitting a Wall in Your Business? June 2016 Meeting Topic

Many of our meetings involve discussions of strategies and struggles. We offer each other camaraderie, support, advice, and feedback on the daily work of being in business. This month, we got into something a bit bigger - what happens when you feel called to make a bigger change?

Sometimes business growth is fairly straightforward; you know what you need to do, and you just need to get on with it. But occasionally, you'll hit a wall. Patiently putting one foot in front of the other is failing to produce the results you want, or need. You're frustrated, and stuck. 

Signs it's time for major change:

• You're not bringing in enough money to support your personal or business goals, and your current strategies aren't getting you there fast enough
• Things feel too hard - you don't have any more patience or effort to give, and are feeling burnt out, or overwhelmed
• There is something about your work that you dread, and keep avoiding
• Your personal goals or needs have changed
• You're no longer feeling passionate or inspired by your work

What now?

Transformation in business is challenging, because it often involves giving up something, and sometimes we are really attached to whatever it is we're afraid to give up, or to give up on. And it can get even harder and more complicated when money is on the line. Some tips for navigating change that came up during our discussion:

• Look at what is thriving in your business. Find ways to amplify those aspects. (for help in figuring that out, remember the Pareto Principal, a.k.a. the 80/20 rule)
• Find something you can stop doing. Delegate something you hate, or that isn't in line with your biggest strengths. Discontinue a product or service that drains a lot of your energy, but doesn't add enough to your bottom line
• Ask your peers for help - sometimes they can see truths that you can't yet

Commit to transformation

Allowing yourself to struggle through necessary change can be kinder than keeping yourself safe in stagnation. Give yourself permission to take bigger risks, and permission to possibly fail.

For discussion in a group

• What wall or ceiling are you hitting?
• Where do you feel the most constrained by your current business model?
• What are you unwilling to give up? What would you love to give up?
• What do you want more of? Less of?
• What has impressed you about big changes you've seen other businesses or people make?

Let us know what big changes you are making! If you already made a big change, what felt true before the change that doesn't feel true now? What do you wish you had known?

A Little Thought Experiment That Might Change Your Business

When you have an established creative small-business, it is easy to get swept up in the day-to-day tasks, urgent orders, and seemingly never-ending avalanche of to-do lists. While obviously all this needs to get done for your business to continue running, it is equally important to step back periodically and examine the bigger picture of your self-employed life.

One of those bigger picture questions came to me recently while reading Chip and Dan Heath’s fantastic book Decisive. The book systematically destroys the common cognitive biases we all face when trying to make decisions, but also provides enlightening theory on decision-making, and actionable advice on how to make better decisions in your own life. It’s a great read for anyone, but is especially pertinent to the small-business owner, who is faced with countless decisions every day that they alone are tasked with making.

Image © 2015 Justin Gammon

One of the four “villains” of decision-making discussed in the book is Narrow Framing, i.e limiting the options we consider when making a decision. Humans have a tendency to narrowly define our choices when making a decision, so much so that most of our decisions in life are posed as merely a “should I do x, or not do x?” question.

The authors encourage us to break out of this narrow decision framing to come up with better solutions. One of the techniques they suggest is called the “Vanishing Options Test.” When struggling with a decision, pretend there is a genie who, instead of granting you 3 wishes, takes AWAY 3 options from you. As the authors paraphrased it:

“You cannot choose any of the current options you are considering. What else could you do?”

This simple technique forces you to come up with creative solutions that would have never occurred to you, had your first instinct choices been available to you. “Until we are forced to dig up a new option, we’re likely to stay fixated on the ones we already have… Removing options can ...do people a favor, because it makes them notice that they’re stuck on one small patch of a wide landscape.”

Reading through this section of Decisive, I was immediately struck with an idea for another thought experiment:

What would you do if everything in your business was destroyed?

Think about it. All of your inventory is lost. Your website crashes and is unrecoverable. You lose all your marketing, branding, and art files. No more business cards, line sheets, or show booth set-ups.

Would you rebuild your business the same way? Would you simply recreate your same products you lost? Would you make your website look the same? Would you even name your business the same?

When I’ve posed this question to fellow business-owners, almost all of them answer that they would change some parts of their business. Some would have different product. Others would change their branding. Some would throw it all out and begin in a totally different direction. The obvious follow-up question to someone who would change when forced to is …

“Well, what’s stopping you from changing now?”

We all are guilty of letting inertia and busyness make the decisions for us, but it doesn’t have to be that way. If there is something you would do differently if your business imploded and you were forced to start over from scratch, chance are you can make that change now, without the whole disaster scenario.

We get up in our heads about what we can and can’t do in our businesses. Tell ourselves that our customers won’t like this new line of products, or that it doesn’t fit into our current branding. But the truth is, you own your business, and you are your own boss. You can make whatever decisions you want. Sometimes all it takes is a little thought experiment in order to give ourselves permission to make our business what we want them to truly be.

Four Ways to Help You Reach Past Your Fears

We have all felt it.  That sudden intake of breath before we write the biggest check of our lives, when we sign a commercial lease for the first time, when we put our inventory and display into a suitcase and watch it head down the conveyor belt on our way to an out-of-town show, when we launch a new design round.  It happens a lot when you own a small business and make all of your own products. Here are a few of my tips for reaching past the fear and acting on your ideas.

A new bridal collection in development

1. Write down your fears

A big looming project, or an idea that takes you far outside of your comfort zone can create intense feelings of overwhelm. Oftentimes this happens because the new idea or project can take on monstrous proportions in your head. This trick is designed to take the fear out of your head and put it down on paper. Try this: write down your fear and then write down three reasons why it scares you. You might surprise yourself with the answers that you list.

Alternatively, you can speak your fear out loud to a small group of people you trust. Sometimes the simple act of voicing your fear can give that fear less power over you.

2. Set smaller goals

It sounds counter intuitive, right?  We are told to give “110%” or that all of our goals and desires should be big picture ideas.  But the truth is that all of our larger ideas require a thousand small steps to achieve them. By breaking our large goals into manageable tasks, we can spend a small amount of time each day moving towards the end goal. If you have a large, nebulous goal, ask yourself this - What is one thing that I can accomplish everyday to achieve it?

I’ll give you an example taken from my own business. One of my larger goals is to be able to vend at NY Now (formerly NY Gift) next August. Here is the drill-down of the steps I have to take to achieve this:

Larger Goal - to vend at NY Now in 2015

Objective - To build wholesale customer list and build capital to afford larger show

• Prep linesheets - July 2014
  • Take better photographs of work in preparation for regional show - May 2014
  • Save images in folder for NY Now - May 2014
• Develop clear marketing message - July 2014
  • Work with writer and graphic designer on new marketing collateral - April 2014
    • Incorporate into current email blast cycle - ongoing
    • Print postcards and business cards - June 2014
• Create a more dynamic display - by July 2014
  • Look at Pinterest for inspiration - May 2014
  • Sketch out layout and map out a test-run - June 2014
  • Purchase and build new display items - June 2014
  • Test run of set-up at SF Gift - August 2014
• Vend at American Made show in DC - January 2015
  • Use layout, linesheets, images prepared from SF Gift
  • Submit high-res images to American Made show for their marketing collateral (Due date unknown - August 2014?)
  • Print sticker with link to BrandBoom linesheets - December 2014    
• Develop new collection - May 2015
  • Design and create samples March-April 2015
  • Edit new collection - Late April 2015
  • Order castings and recycled diamonds - March 2015
  • Photograph new pieces- May 2015
  • Product copy, dimensions and pricing finalized by end of June 2015

All of the practices and tasks that I've put in place are broken into even smaller chunks than this (i.e. call photographer, find out crating and shipping charges, mail check, find Air BnB in DC, pack for show, etc.), but you get the idea. By making your tasks simple and achievable you can work towards that larger goal much easier.

3. Find something that scares you more

This one is my personal favorite. When faced with a potentially scary business decision, such as, should I contact that store that I feel is way out of my league to carry my products, it is common to feel some hesitation. When I feel that hesitation, I ask myself which option scares me more - doing the scary thing, or not doing the scary thing? Often time the consequences of doing the scary thing (here, getting rejected by the shop) aren't as scary as not doing the scary thing (not contacting the shop might mean losing out on a big sale, and if I lose out on this sale then my business suffers, and then I won’t have a business anymore, and I then I will have to go and get a real job and work in a cubicle).  When I reframe the consequences, the scary decision loses a lot of its power.

Creative Business League chowing down at our monthly meeting - photo by Alana Rivera

4. Create community

I can’t say this enough.  Having people around you who are like-minded, understand your business issues, and can treat you with compassion are your best assets for overcoming fear. Your community acts as a sounding board for your business and ideas. They are an ideal group to have around when you find yourself feeling overwhelmed with fear. Finding other entrepreneurs can be as simple as posting to an online forum or striking up friendships while vending at a local craft fair.

Do you have any other techniques for overcoming fear and blocks in your business?