Analyzing Our Business: We’ve Been Doing This All Wrong.

When business is booming, most businesses take to the sky and allow their endorphins to sit at the cockpit, enjoying the flight. Nothing but clear blue skies ahead with no slowing down in sight because hypothetically they shouldn’t be preparing for landing or coming down anytime soon. This is what most businesses aim to work so hard for.

Business owners and operators want the story to blow up like every story we’ve heard, read, and seen, everywhere, from rags to riches and never looking back.

And when business is rough or lacking, that is when most business owners and operators shut the doors and lock themselves in a cave with their spreadsheets and magnifying glasses to try and figure out what is causing this business drought.

However, sometimes it’s a better idea to take stock and evaluate your business when things are going well. Why?

• The positivity allows for clearer thinking.
• We’re not in panic mode, attempting to change too many things at once.

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Breathe

Quickly stopping to take a breather and zooming out from your business is probably the best thing you can ever do. We are constantly zoomed in at 100x making sure every detail is taken care of and handling various tasks while simultaneously keeping a pulse on our customers, their needs, and our next move.

Zooming out means to get outside of ourselves and take a look at our business from a 30,000 foot view. It grants us a fresh perspective of the machine as a whole instead of the individual cogs. This is far easier to do when emotions are positive. Much like a relationship, you don’t want to have difficult conversations when tensions are high. It is easier to discuss and bring up concerns when everyone is well and happy. This allows for you to actually listen and observe objectively instead of leaning on the defensive and shutting down.

Taking stock as a whole allows you to see gaps that can be bridged and bottlenecks that can have their bandwidths increased or have new systems implemented to remedy. This will also give you a big boost of self-esteem when you see the forest from the trees and appreciate how far you’ve come. 

Ahhhh yes, smell those roses. Celebrate those wins. You deserve them.

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Flying High on Auto-Pilot

People generally subscribe to the age-old adage of “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.” Business owners take this proverbial pill like their daily vitamins and never skip a dose.

Most business owners only take a look at their systems and processes when business is on the decline or on the fence. Emotions are high and your thought process may be in an odd, negative, or defensive state.

“Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!”

The best way to proactively prevent these nosedives is to take your business off auto-pilot when business is great. Grab the wheel and examine your business when it feels like the good times will never stop.

When business is climbing, it’s an optimal time to take notes about what is working, what people are responding to, and what products/services are being purchased the most. During this climb you will have a great sample size of data to feast your eyes on. Have a look at your site analytics, what pages you have the most drop offs on, how your audience is navigating through the site, and optimize accordingly.

Here is where you make the adjustments and double down on the things that are working for you and getting rid of things that aren’t. If you choose to spend the energy and try to get low performers to work, that’s totally ok, but know that now you’re taking away precious energy from the things that are working. This right here is how you can transform good products or services into great ones.

Don’t ride a good thing into the ground by waiting until it is too late.

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Avoid Panic Mode

Unless you’re a skilled pilot, the nosedive will have you entering panic mode, frantically pushing every lit button on the cockpit dashboard panel to get something working in your favor.

In the bad times, don’t try to change too many things at once.

“It’s time to re-brand, new logo, new site, etc. Let’s also move to a subscription model and target our ads to a completely different demographic.”

Slow down. Zoom Out.

While these things are not inherently bad, making all of those moves all at once may be too much change for something that could be fixed with a small adjustment or re-focus. It’s difficult to make an objective decision when in panic mode. Making the changes during the good times helps sharpen your focus during the challenging times.

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Analyzing when times are good is loaded with perks. You’ll have all of your wins in front of you, filling you with gratitude, making room for more of the good stuff. It allows you to happily take accountability and make necessary changes, while also providing the perfect environment to brainstorm for the future.

Allow this feel-good snowball to get larger and larger and watch your business take off.

Have yourself a happy flight.

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