Free Your Mind

For many entrepreneurs and business owners, the current “distancing” creates a sense of impending doom. The lack of customers has caused layoffs and for some to close their business altogether, but is that the only reality?

While we cannot argue with facts such as the effect of more expenses than revenue, we must look beyond our current situation to what happens next. If we have to close, what is the re-emergence plan? What will our business look like in its next iteration? What will we do differently to lower the chances of this happening again?

I’m not suggesting that there are those who planned for this economic crisis, but those we read about or see in our communities that are not only surviving, but have not experienced any significant loss, either chose professions that are not dependent on the masses or had contingencies that allowed for flexibility and adjustments.

In either case we cannot be ruled by “Fear, Doubt, and Disbelief”. We must instead see the opportunities that are invariably present. How will the changes in how consumers’ conduct business over the next few months affect existing products and what new products, that were not thought of prior to COVID-19, will emerge. How can you leverage those changes to build a company that is of value?

So my message is simple and I hope encouraging. Your business can not live without your mind. Start feeding your mind with information of where you want to be and not where you are. Books like Purple Cow by Seth Godin; Feel the Fear Do it Anyway by Dr. Susan Jeffers; The Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim , Renee Mauborgne, et al. are greater to start reading now in preparation.
​
“for as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…” – Proverbs 23:7a