It doesn't get better than this! Whaaat????

Posted by: Scott Schaner

​You come up with an business idea. You then quickly assemble like minded people around you who want to give up great careers just to ride along with you, then you hire an entire great staff who never call out sick, and then, out of the blue, someone generous investor gives you all of the startup money you could imagine. Not only that, you found the greatest location to build your business and the land owner cut you a sweetheart deal just because she liked you! You might as well throw in that you won the lottery!
Then you wake up from that awesome dream! 
 
Or does this sound familiar:
Today, you had three call-outs sick because the flu is running around, you find that one of your employees has been stealing from you, albeit, only nickels & dimes, but it adds up.  Two other employees showed up late without notification.  You also are waiting on a delivery because you have some products that one of your customers needs but the delivery is late and they lie to you when it’s supposed to arrive.  Someone slipped and fell at the entrance of your office.  Your vendors raised prices unexpectedly and some new government regulations are now requiring extra filings and procedures that you don’t have time for.  Your accountant retired unexpectedly due to a health issue and then you're informed you that there is a harassment claim against one of your managers from an incident that apparently took place two years ago. 
Ok, it might be a little much on only ONE day, but it's what can happen on any given day in the real world.

As a small business owner, you wear many hats.  In many cases, you are your own HR department, purchaser, payroll department, marketing department, and the list goes on.
 
The point of this is that everyday brings a business owner new challenges.  How you mitigate your challenges may mean the difference between being proactively successful or falling into the ‘victim’ mentality where the mindset is weak and have no control over things that happen to you.
 
Here are some tips in being proactive on your road to success:

1. Know that stuff happens
2. Have a plan for every possible circumstance that may ever happen to your business and write them down.
3. Make sure your business insurance covers your business needs.  You don’t want to end up not covered for something critical only to find out that you never took the time to ask your agent about the details of your policy or that your agent didn’t take the time to make sure that your insurance fit your needs.  If your agent brushes you off on questions, it’s time to find a new agent.
4. Always have a powerful positive mindset.  You may not have control over some situations, but if you’re prepared, you’ll be in much better shape.
5. Don’t have a weak, victim-like mindset.  That weak mindset will not allow you to overcome obstacles successfully.  Those type of people always complain about how ‘things always happen’ to them.
6. Finally – Plan to succeed.  You cannot succeed without planning to succeed.