There Will Always Be Something

I hear a lot of people say that we live in uncertain times, life is hard, business is hard etc. As business owners we do not live in a bubble and in the recent years there has been a lot of changes or issues in the external environment that impact us. In SA specifically we had low economic growth, high unemployment, rampant corruption/state capture, all of that was before the pandemic. In 2020 the pandemic hit, the following year were the riot's in KZN and Gauteng and now recently the war in Europe.  In our globally connected economy, no country or business is exempt from the effects of these events. 

Business owners might have been breathing a sigh of relief with the pandemic easing just to become anxious again about the impact of the war in Europe. Whilst one cannot for one moment make light of these events the very real danger is that business owners get into a perpetual state of paralysis i.e. we are always waiting for something to pass before we really set and achieve our goals. This is an extremely dangerous state to be in because time is our most valuable asset and the opportunity cost of time wasted on anxiety and procrastination is massive. The reality is that there will most likely always be something, so how do we build and run businesses that deliver on our financial and lifestyle goals?

The first thing is to accept that the probability is high that in future there will constantly be events that threaten or impact our businesses, but to also accept that waiting and sitting it out will not solve anything.  We have to start with the end in mind in terms of setting really clear SMART goals for ourselves and for what we want out of our businesses. 

This means being really clear on how much money you want from the business, how much time you want to work as well as what the business will look like when it is finished and how you will exit it at that point. Our goals should not change but as these big events happen we have to be prepared to change our plans on how to achieve the goals, sometimes these are small tweaks and sometimes we have to completely pivot the business. 

So, the bottom line is that we should not let these global events deter us from setting our goals and going flat out to achieve them every day.  We can not afford to wait for anything to pass and there will always be something!

By Hein Kruger

As a award winning ActionCOACH with 25 years experience in building business I am passionate about helping business owners achieve their financial and lifestyle goals, for a complimentary coaching session please reach out to Megan at our office today hbdm@actioncoach.com