Moving Past Fear To Small Business Success
by: Michael Clark
One of my clients is in a transition stage with her business. Her practice has become so successful that she no longer has the time to do her administrative work or even the marketing work that helped her become successful. I am working with her developing a plan to hire administrative and functional staff that will allow her to continue to grow her business and enjoy her work life.
One of the issues we are facing which affects many business owners is that if she doesn’t have time to do what she’s already doing, where will she get the time to hire new employees, train them and do the marketing that is needed to justify the new employees? She keeps coming home to a pile of work and it has created a huge block to her growth. We just returned from a business trip where we learned new ways to grow the business and improve operating efficiencies. During the meetings and initially afterwards my client was incredibly excited about the possibilities. But then something disconcerting happened.
I’ve seen this happen before. In fact, it’s happened to me many times and probably has happened to you as well. As my client started looking at the work that she would need to do to match the new vision she had, she went from excited to overwhelmed. This was painful to witness. I want to see my clients succeed just as much as parents want their children to. Watching her, I saw the excitement fade and fear and resistance mount. As we condensed our notes from our business meetings, the resistance became stronger and stronger and I heard resignation in her voice as we talked about what was needed. The list we had created was long and contained tasks that comprised weeks of work. And in her current mood, she wasn’t about to do it.
As her consultant, it is my job to make this project work for her. What I realized was that she was in the middle of the classic change cycle. Whenever we go through a change, we go through this six stage cycle.
Loss—Whether good or bad, the change will bring about a sense of loss of what “was”.
Doubt– You doubt yourself, the project, the facts, the timing—and you try to find reasons to not move forward.
Discomfort— Or more specifically fear— This is the danger area. If you can’t move beyond the fear, the change will be impossible.
Discovery—The light at the end of the tunnel. Options and possibilities open up and optimism builds based on your new choices.
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Moving Past Fear To Small Business Success
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About The Author
Business consultant and professional speaker Michael Clark has been helping businesses including Fortune 500 companies such as IBM and Cellular One succeed for over 20 years. Michael is an authority on getting business owners out of overwhem and getting the most out of their businesses. For more small business success tips go to http://biznbeyond.com.
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