Scrap Keep Calm and Carry On...
It's Time to Keep Focused
and
Be Proactive
As a business owner, what mindset can you adopt in times of widespread tension and anxiety?
… Whether it’s the threat of a country-wide recession, the sudden introduction of international flying and trading restrictions, a defining shift in your industry, or indeed the breaking news of a virus or pandemic…
What’s the best way to react when factors beyond your control threaten to impact your business?
Because that’s the million-dollar question we want to explore with you today:
How can you react in such turbulent times?
And we don’t mean just practically. We mean emotionally and psychologically too.
How can you react in such turbulent times?
How can you react?
The way we see it, as a business owner you can react in one of two ways. You can either:
A. Batten down the hatches. Scale back on your operations and tighten your purse strings wherever possible, keeping your head down and hoping to at least endure the worst of the repercussions.
Or you can:
B. Use this period to kickstart the projects that have sat on the back burner for so long. See it as an opportunity to analyse the bigger picture of your business and assess what exactly you could implement now to never be in a position of desperation again.
Because if there’s one vital mistake we see business owners making over and over, it’s being reactive rather than proactive.
Of thinking… Oh, well this has completely blindsided me. I can’t actively control the cause of what’s happened to me here, so better to retreat to the storm cellar until the worst of the weather passes.
Rather than… Oh, wow. Actually, although this wasn’t exactly anticipated it has also clearly highlighted that my systems and strategies really need strengthening. That way, if something like this happens ever again I *know* I’ll still have a healthy database of leads and revenue streams to lean on.
And do you know what we say?
Let’s scrap the ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ mindset.
We’re 100% team ‘Keep Focused and Be Proactive’.
Even if you’re currently kicking yourself for not being super-duper-psychic and implementing certain measures before the fallout, just think… it’s not too late to take action to adapt and evolve your business.
For example, it’s never too late to implement an updated CRM system or automation structure and open up new avenues of lead generation and community building.
Or, in fact, to use this period to press pause, rework your brand and put all the building blocks in place to relaunch and get your business out there in a much bigger way.
To put it plainly… if most businesses are scaling back and keep their heads down, this is actually an amazing opportunity for you. Not only will you be able to more effectively stand out from the crowd, but you will also be able to powerfully position yourself as an influential and defining presence in your industry.
You will essentially be the forerunner, cultivating connection and conversation with your target audience in a way your competitors’ simply aren’t.
What Can You Do?
During this period of quiet for other businesses, imagine how you can emerge with:
- A spanking new brand identity (meaning no more outdated or irrelevant messaging! No more cringy website! No more looking like you’re a throwback to the 80s!)
- Heaps of crazy creative collateral on tap (with your unique and ‘on point’ content making you a magnet for new leads. We’re talking ‘Mariah Carey hitting a high note’ attention-grabbing creative here.)
& - An ironclad, foolproof marketing strategy (aka no more flushing money down the drain with weak, poorly performing ads or misfiring marketing campaigns. Instead, you’ll know exactly how to secure those A-grade sales and scale your business! Bullseye.)
Become better equiped to reinvent yourself
As an added bonus, by taking this time to deep dive into your branding, you will be better equipped to reinvent your business. To now directly address your target audience’s changing needs. And by being able to pivot in this manner, the database of leads you’ve spent months – years – building won’t fall by the wayside.
Because if a regional or global event has impacted your business, you can bet your bottom dollar that it’ll have impacted your target audience too. Your target audience’s pain points will have shifted as a consequence of the fallout; therefore the solution you provide through your product/service needs to similarly shift if it’s going to remain relevant.
Remember that you need to ask yourself exactly how your target audience’s wants and needs have changed, and how you can adapt your offerings and communication to address this.
Ask yourself:
How can my business evolve and adapt during this time? What can I do to reinvent my current structures or systems and transform to tackle these new demands?
How can I ‘think outside the box’ in this situation? What are my audience’s new pain points and how can I work backwards to come up with a fresh solution?
Don't feel defeated
In periods of widespread or personal uncertainty, don’t feel defeated. Rather, consider these turbulent times as the perfect chance to pivot, rework your positioning, and connect more deeply and effectively with your audience.
Consider it the perfect chance to work on your branding and communication strategies; to figure out how to build an engaged and invested community around your business & understand exactly what messages you can present to your audience, to nurture their trust and loyalty and address their changing needs.
Realign your mindset to view these circumstances as a gift… how it’s opened your eyes to what areas your business requires some extra TLC and focused cultivation; how it’s helping to develop your own entrepreneurial mindset; how it’s giving you the time and opportunity to reinforce your internal structures, to set-up new automation processes and implement myriad lead generation avenues.
For the race is not yet lost.
In fact… in times of far-reaching uncertainty, many, many other businesses may not even attempt to jump the first hurdle.
(They’ll most likely be members of the retreat-to-the-bunker, passive party.)
But you?
You have the chance to leap that hurdle and win that race before they even poke their heads aboveground to see if the coast is clear.
And this is not adopting a blindly optimistic worldview here. It’s being – as our blog title suggests – proactive.
It’s these moments of discomfort or disturbance which break us out of repeating the same old cycles and open our eyes to new, more effective methods of doing things.
Sometimes we need to take a step back in order to leap forward.
And if that’s not enough metaphors and analogies for one blog, we don’t know what will be.
So take a moment, right here, to reflect on your reaction to our initial question…
How can you react in such turbulent times?
… and think about how you would answer it, now that you’ve reached the end of this post.
Will you Keep Calm and Carry On?
Or will you Keep Focused and Be Proactive?
We hope you’ll join us in being the latter… Here’s to being forward-thinking, clear-headed and motivated to succeed!