Posts Tagged ‘getting out of a rut’
How To Overcome The Entrepreneur’s Rut
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
You may have heard of writer’s block, when writers are stuck as they try to pen new words. Writers are not the only ones who have this type of experience. For those who run their own business, there is entrepreneur’s rut as well.
Entrepreneur’s rut is what happens when you have been running your business and become a part of the engine instead of the spark that is running it. You are in a routine. You are accustomed to the daily grind and just float along, keeping things at the status quo.
While this approach may keep things chugging along for some time, eventually you will want to make your business better. So how are you going to do this?
The same routine day in and day out is not the only thing that leads to being in a rut. It can also be spurred on by family obligations, stress, and even old-fashioned procrastination, where you put something off so long that you can’t figure out how to do it when you decide it’s finally time to act.
Getting out of the "Entrepreneur’s Rut"
First, figure out what is causing it. Whether it is stress from the rest of the world or just being stuck in a predictable routine, you need to know the cause before you can fix it.
Next, you need to change your routine. Without making significant changes, you will just trap yourself in the same conditions that are causing your rut. A great way to do this is to take a little bit better care of yourself. For stress, yoga, exercise, a massage and even remembering to take your vitamins can make a difference in how you feel.
While exercise may not be your first choice of a way to get out of a rut, you may be surprised at the surge of energy you’ll get from exercise. Additionally, focusing on exercise is a way to clear your mind and open it to new thoughts and plans.
Rut-Busting
If part of your problem is stress from feeling overwhelmed by things to do, you should try to make your tasks more manageable. One of the best ways to do this is to create a task list.
You may not initially want to see everything you need to accomplish in writing, but it will be worth it. After you have made the list, prioritize it. Then you will be able to start checking things off as you get them done and feel a sense of accomplishment.
If you are in a job that requires creativity and you are having a block, take yourself on a date. Go out and do something fun, interesting, and just for you. This will get your creative juices going again and have your brain popping with new ideas.
No matter how exciting and intriguing your job may seem when you first start your own business, over time it can become just like anything else - the "same old thing". Sometimes it’s necessary to step away, sort it out and switch up your schedule to get over the hump.
Tags: entrepreneur, getting out of a rut, Growing Your Business, Leeia Ladipoh, staying motivated, staying productive
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How to Overcome a Jewelry Design Rut
Friday, March 7th, 2008
If you design handcrafted jewelry, it’s important to stay inspired with new ideas. If you constantly make the same types of jewelry designs without adding anything new to the mix, you can become bored with your jewelry business. Plus, if you’re bored with your designs, chances are your customers will be too. Maybe it’s time to make a few changes to rekindle the spark that led you to design jewelry in the first place. Here are some tips for getting out of a jewelry design rut so you can renew your enthusiasm for the jewelry business:
1. Take a break.
This is the first step towards breaking the cycle of boredom with your jewelry making. Sometimes you need to step away from your jewelry design business and get a fresh perspective. Take a few days off to relax and enjoy the wonders of nature. Travel out of town or indulge in a day at a local health spa. Sometimes this is enough to help you clear your mind and rekindle your enthusiasm for creating handcrafted jewelry designs.
2. Clean up the clutter.
If you’re trying to design in a work area that’s full of clutter, you’re going to stifle your creative ability. Nothing blocks creative ideas more than disorganization. Take a day off to organize and arrange your jewelry design components and tools so you can find what you need quickly and easily. You’ll be surprised at how much easier the ideas and enthusiasm flow when you’re designing handcrafted jewelry in a clutter free environment. Cleaning up your workshop can help you open up your mind to fresh ideas.
3. Make your jewelry workshop an area conducive to creativity
It can boost your creativity when you make your jewelry design area a more pleasant and relaxing place to design. Add a few tabletop water fountains to give pleasant background noise or pipe in some peaceful, new age music. It’s been shown that classic and new age music can actually stimulate creativity and promote positive thoughts. Add some beautiful artwork to the walls of your studio. Use the power of smell to motivate by adding an aromatherapy diffuser. Make your jewelry design studio a welcome retreat from the rest of the world and you’ll have more enthusiasm for the process of creating handcrafted jewelry designs.
4. Take time to read books and magazines for new thoughts and ideas.
Subscribe to the latest jewelry making and bead magazines, including Ornament Magazine, Lapidary Journal, Bead and Button Magazine, Bead Style Magazine, Art Jewelry Magazine, Bella Armoire Magazine, and Metalsmith Magazine. Spend a few hours each week flipping through these magazines while relaxing with a cup of coffee. This is a great way to recharge your creative batteries. Cut out photos of inspiring jewelry designs and make a collage to display in your studio for handcrafted jewelry design inspiration.
5. Form a support group with other jewelry designers.
Locate other jewelry designers in your area through craft shows and other outlets. Set up a monthly meeting where you can air your jewelry design victories and frustrations. It can be quite therapeutic to voice your feelings with a group of like-minded jewelry designers who understand your experiences. This is also a good way to set up joint ventures for marketing your handcrafted jewelry designs as a team.
6. Read about the history of jewelry designs.
Transport yourself back in time to when jewelry was designed with simple, primitive tools. Study photos of the jewelry and design techniques of primitive cultures. This can give you a new perspective and fresh enthusiasm for your own ideas.
If you’ve lost your enthusiasm for creating handcrafted jewelry designs, use these pointers to bring back the vigor and motivation that led you to jewelry design in the first place. It can boost your attitude as well as your sales.
Tags: advice, getting out of a rut, handcrafted jewelry, jewelry, Jewelry-Marketing.com, Kristie Leong, tips
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Keeping Motivated - For Your Business and For Yourself
Tuesday, February 5th, 2008
If you own a business, are running a business, or are self employed you are a motivated person, or at least you were when you got started. Many people are very motivated at the start of an exciting new enterprise, but that fades and they struggle to stay motivated.
Most people with the entrepreneurial spirit find themselves working through the following three phases of engagement as they pursue business ownership or self employment:
Phase1: Enthusiastic Beginner
As an enthusiastic beginner everything is fun. You have a great deal of passion, energy, and enthusiasm to learn all of the detail of your business. You usually are the first one to work and the last one to leave.
There is not a detail that is unimportant to learn and you take copious notes, set up continuity binders, and attend every meeting and conference your business is involved in.
You are there for the launch of your site and the first order, and you visit your distribution points and set up all shipping systems. You probably will want to write your own web content, be involved in all brochures and sales letters, and may even go out on sales calls and deliveries if applicable to your enterprise.
Phase 2: Disillusioned Learner
As a disillusioned learner there are things about your business that are starting to get on your nerves. While you still may be the first one to work, there may not be a smile on your face anymore. You look at your continuity binders, review sales materials, and keep up with your income statements, but it just isn’t as exciting as it used to be.
Many people in this phase question themselves and their motivation for being in business. It’s possible you may even be considering selling or finding yourself looking into other pursuits. The key in this phase is to focus on what you like, keep grinding away and looking for wins in your business. Review your mission statement, goals, and strategies to achieve those goals.
You may need to review your goals. Have a retreat off site for you and your key staff and plan where you want to be in 6 months, a year from now, 5 years from now. Look at your business plan and see how you are doing. Revise the document as necessary and gain alignment with yourself on what you want to achieve.
Phase 3: Peak Performer
As a peak performer you have found balance. Work, family, hobbies - you are not able to get enough of them all and are coming to work energized more days than not. You have a plan for each day and work that plan whether you use a check list or not.
Peak Performers know what they are trying to achieve and how they are going to get there. Goals are set, visible to everyone in the organization, results are tracked, and milestones are celebrated.
What Phase Are You In?
No matter what business you are in, what stage of life you are working through, or how great an entrepreneur you are, you will find yourself in all of these phases at one time or another in your career. If you stick to the key strategies, you will work your way through the difficult stages and spend the majority of your time as a peak performer.
Tags: getting out of a rut, Growing Your Business, larry Slusser, Starting a Business, staying motivated, staying productive
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Don’t Let Your Business Get Stuck in Its Own Groundhog Day!
Friday, January 4th, 2008
It’s the beginning of another new month, and it’s Groundhog Day. If the groundhog pops his furry little head out of his hole and sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If it’s overcast and he doesn’t see his shadow, spring is around the corner.
How many of you small business owners out there feel like that groundhog? You think that the success or failure of your business is dependent upon environmental factors completely out of your control. If the government brings this tax break in, then you will be profitable. If that competitor sets up a showroom down the street, then your business will suffer financially. When you feel powerless to change your surroundings, you eventually stop popping your head out of your hole altogether. It seems safer (and less likely to induce an ulcer) to keep your eyes focused on the day-to-day tasks that will always eat up all available time if you let them.
It’s important, however, to recognize that as a business owner, you do have control over most aspects of your company’s strategy and operations. Poking your head out of the hole and looking around at the external environment in which your business operates can help you to predict opportunities and threats before they occur. This allows you to be proactive rather than reactive in facing these challenges.
The movie "Groundhog Day" also has lessons for your small business (although I doubt that the Harvard Business School will incorporate the movie into their curriculum any time soon!). In the movie, Bill Murray awoke each morning to find out that it was still Groundhog Day. He lived through the same day and reacted to the events of the day the same way each time. It was only when he realized that he had to break out of his comfort zone and change his actions that his external environment changed and he was able to move forward.
You may be starting this new year with the hope and determination that this is the year that your business will reach new heights of success and financial well-being. This is the year that you’ll have to do your bank deposits with a pillowcase to fit all the money into. The year that the bank calls you and asks if you’d like to borrow some more money. But come February 2nd, you could wake up realizing that nothing has changed and your business is still on the same course it’s always been on. Your sales are still the same. Your customer base is still the same. The cost of your inputs is still the same. The lack of excitement about going into work is still the same.
And you will be destined to repeat the same results until you actively do something different. Until you change your company’s processes and the way it interacts with its environment.
Set aside time to poke your head out of the hole. I know that many of you are rolling your eyes right now, saying "I don’t have time to do that." Keep in mind that ultimately, it takes less time to run a sea-worthy ship than to bail out a slowly sinking one. It doesn’t matter where you carve out the time. You may choose to stop doing some of your less-productive operational activities. You may choose to get out of bed a half-hour earlier. But you need to find the time to strategize and to plan your business operations for at least the next year.
Start your planning by working on the answers to these questions:
1) Who are my competitors?
2) Why would customers buy from my competitors rather than from me?
3) What changes are going on right now in my industry that I need to be aware of?
4) How effective is my current tax planning strategy?
5) Do I have a plan for extracting profits from my small business?
Once you have made notes on the above questions, revisit your existing business strategy and make sure that it’s still consistent with the new environment. If not, make the course corrections needed so that you don’t have to relive Groundhog Day every day.
Tags: advice, Angie Mohr, getting out of a rut, Growing Your Business, Numbers 101 for Small Business
Posted in News & Articles | No Comments »
Don’t Let Your Business Get Stuck in Its Own Groundhog Day!
Friday, January 4th, 2008
It’s the beginning of another new month, and it’s Groundhog Day. If the groundhog pops his furry little head out of his hole and sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If it’s overcast and he doesn’t see his shadow, spring is around the corner.
How many of you small business owners out there feel like that groundhog? You think that the success or failure of your business is dependent upon environmental factors completely out of your control. If the government brings this tax break in, then you will be profitable. If that competitor sets up a showroom down the street, then your business will suffer financially. When you feel powerless to change your surroundings, you eventually stop popping your head out of your hole altogether. It seems safer (and less likely to induce an ulcer) to keep your eyes focused on the day-to-day tasks that will always eat up all available time if you let them.
It’s important, however, to recognize that as a business owner, you do have control over most aspects of your company’s strategy and operations. Poking your head out of the hole and looking around at the external environment in which your business operates can help you to predict opportunities and threats before they occur. This allows you to be proactive rather than reactive in facing these challenges.
The movie "Groundhog Day" also has lessons for your small business (although I doubt that the Harvard Business School will incorporate the movie into their curriculum any time soon!). In the movie, Bill Murray awoke each morning to find out that it was still Groundhog Day. He lived through the same day and reacted to the events of the day the same way each time. It was only when he realized that he had to break out of his comfort zone and change his actions that his external environment changed and he was able to move forward.
You may be starting this new year with the hope and determination that this is the year that your business will reach new heights of success and financial well-being. This is the year that you’ll have to do your bank deposits with a pillowcase to fit all the money into. The year that the bank calls you and asks if you’d like to borrow some more money. But come February 2nd, you could wake up realizing that nothing has changed and your business is still on the same course it’s always been on. Your sales are still the same. Your customer base is still the same. The cost of your inputs is still the same. The lack of excitement about going into work is still the same.
And you will be destined to repeat the same results until you actively do something different. Until you change your company’s processes and the way it interacts with its environment.
Set aside time to poke your head out of the hole. I know that many of you are rolling your eyes right now, saying "I don’t have time to do that." Keep in mind that ultimately, it takes less time to run a sea-worthy ship than to bail out a slowly sinking one. It doesn’t matter where you carve out the time. You may choose to stop doing some of your less-productive operational activities. You may choose to get out of bed a half-hour earlier. But you need to find the time to strategize and to plan your business operations for at least the next year.
Start your planning by working on the answers to these questions:
1) Who are my competitors?
2) Why would customers buy from my competitors rather than from me?
3) What changes are going on right now in my industry that I need to be aware of?
4) How effective is my current tax planning strategy?
5) Do I have a plan for extracting profits from my small business?
Once you have made notes on the above questions, revisit your existing business strategy and make sure that it’s still consistent with the new environment. If not, make the course corrections needed so that you don’t have to relive Groundhog Day every day.
Tags: Angie Mohr, getting out of a rut, Growing Your Business, Numbers 101 for Small Business, small business
Posted in News & Articles | No Comments »