Weathering the storm

Your business is thriving. Customers are raving about your service and you can't seem to keep up with the demand. It seems like things couldn’t be any more effortless.

Then it hits you; dead silence, slammed doors and the word we all hate, NO. You went from the top of the world to digging in the trenches again. How on earth did this happen? How could you go from being unstoppable to wondering what you did wrong? I've learned over the years the necessity of this not-so-fun process. It's part of the growth and evolution of a business. 

Lets look at your business as a vegetable garden (who doesn't love a good visual?). You plant the seeds and water them, and with time nutritious and vibrant vegetables (customer relationships) start to grow. Then one day you go to the garden and see it has been overtaken with weeds (unhealthy relationships). What do weeds do? They take up space for new thriving plants and drain the nutrients from the vegetables. 

Your business isn't any different. There will be more time to nurture and cultivate fruitful relationships once you admit that you cannot help everyone. If you are putting a solid chunk of your energy into catering to customers that do not appreciate the value of your products or services, you are taking away from the ones that do.

It may be time to weed your garden to make room for the nutritious relationships that are just beyond the bend. During your slow time try to keep things moving forward with a few of these exercises:

• Identify characteristics of your best customers. Who do YOU want to work with?

• Take some time to focus on you. It's hard to work on your business when you're crazy busy!

• Reach out to fresh seeds. Do you have a list of people interested in working with you that haven’t come to fruition?

• Refocus. Look at your goals, dreams and successes. Are you on the right path? If not, what do you need to do to get back on it?

If your garden is full of weeds, where will you plant your next row of seeds? Don't beat yourself up during the down times. Instead, prepare yourself for the next round of bliss that lies just ahead.