A Farmer Growing Her Business

Irene Diamond’s tip of the week. (Video posted below)

A Short Story About a Farmer Growing Her Business:

All too often small business owners find they are continually chasing new ideas or opportunities thinking ‘the grass is greener on the other side”.

We wonder why our business seems to never get much traction.

We begin to wonder if the reason our business is floundering is because:

• “I don’t know enough, so I need to take another class…”
• “I need to drop my rates because THAT is what is keeping the clients away…”
• “I need to find a better location to practice in, where people have money to spend on my services…”
• “I’m not good enough, so might as well quit and look for a ‘real job’… how silly to think I could be successful in business…”

Have you had any of these thoughts before?

Well, STOP IT!

The truth is:
You are probably ‘guilty’ of not following through on what you start. (Gulp- we all don’t do enough “follow thru” to some degree)

I see this all the time (& I’m guilty of it too sometimes!).

We start a promotion or an idea and keep at it for a bit, but then it doesn’t produce results fast enough or we see another ‘better’ idea to try… and we jump over to the new shiny idea. (If it brings you comfort to know — this is a sign of a typical entrepreneur!)

But jumping from idea to idea is a recipe for failure.  What you are doing is not really giving what you start a solid chance to take root and grow. Your baby willow tree business is just beginning to sprout roots and you yank it out and re-plant it in a new spot. And then that doesn’t ‘work’ so you try something else…

What We need To Do:
In fact, instead of continuing to try new things, once we have a solid approach, business model, and structure, what we really need to do is to stay the course and focus on perfecting what we already have planted Gain traction on what you have established.

We need to put our head down, focus, nurture and love what we have planted, through the growth process so it can take root. We can not give up on it too soon.

We should stop thinking things like we need to do a new marketing approach, or promotion, or to try something else, or metaphorically ‘move our business’ to a new location.

The practitioners who are seeing success are those who map out their business model, put things in place and gently tweak as needed. Water, prune, fertilize… and watch your business bloom!

Now, don’t get me wrong — of course there are times when you need to up-grade, modify, and improve your business.

I just caution you from being the typical entrepreneur who spends their days chasing shiny objects.

Your Action Assignment To Be Brilliant:
Take a look at what you already have planted in your business that you were ready to trash, and see what you can do to nurture it to bloom.

I look forward to reading your comments.
Be vulnerable – Are you chasing the next ‘shiny’ object or nurturing what you’ve already ‘planted?

Let us know below…