SAVVY BOSSES BEAT

THE GREAT

AMERICAN SLOWDOWN

Unless you’re caught up with ushering in holiday retail and online madness shopping clamor, you are likely entering “The Great American Slowdown” holiday season, and taking that much-awaited business relief break for yourself.

This is not to suggest you divert from the certainty of increased family interactions. 

It IS, however, to point out that as a suddenly relaxing American business or professional practice boss (Owner, Partner, Operator, Manager, Entrepreneur, CEO, CFO, CTO, or one of those other corporate muckity-muck titles), you may well be missing your single greatest business growth opportunity of the year ahead. 

Speaking of “ahead,” putting your hands behind your head (and feet onto your desk) for longer than some deep stress-relief breaths — instead of simply shifting productivity gears (like your savvy competitors will surely be doing) can be just enough to send your happy business existence down the tubes. 

By not making the most of business downtime to give yourself and your business interests a thorough checkup, and revitalize your  business growth plans for 2019, you may well be short-circuiting what little entrepreneurial think time you will have once January hangovers and New Years Resolutions begin to fade.

Putting a stethoscope to your business structure, employees, customer base, ambitions, growth directions… and whatever “map” you may have in your head for how to get where you’re going needs to be your first step.

Remind yourself that once 2019 gets on a roll (usually around mid-January) it may be too late to take the time out to reassess, reevaluate, and adjust goals and directions.

NOW is the ideal time (or after Christmas, if you’re in retail) to take a step back from where you’ve had your head buried all year to inventory what worked and what didn’t, what needs to be adjusted, what needs to be dumped… and PUT IT IN WRITING!

What? Who needs that? I put stuff on my PC, notebook, laptop, smart phone… writing?! Humbug!

When you put important ideas, ambitions, guidelines, goals onto paper with (OMG) a pen(!), there is a major physiological difference. Ideas from your brain that go through your neck to your shoulder, arm, wrist, hand, fingers, and into a pen, then ink, and transfer to a piece of paper, you create a more personally binding commitment than with keying in any kind of electronic transfer.

Humans do not commit actions to words on a screen, but we do follow-through with a greater sense of determination, open-mindedness and commitment when we put our words to paper.

This doesn’t mean everything has to be rigid or etched-in-stone. Effective planning and goals still need to be specific, realistic, flexible, due-dated, and in writing to be effective!  

So, when things change–as they always do–in ways that impact what we are aiming for, we simply re-write our plans on another piece of paper and tear up the old one . . . and, like the battery-run rabbit, “keep on going.”  

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