Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Tips for becoming resilient in business




Being able to shrug off failure and criticism without it taking over your life is one of the most important parts of being successful in business. Whether you are running a business or trying to climb up the corporate ladder, resilience is definitely a trait you want to work on. It is what keeps you going even when faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles. The old saying goes: “If at first, you don’t succeed, try, try again”. But this is often easier said than done. These tips for becoming resilient in business will hopefully aid you in your quest to take the business world by the horns.

What is resilience?
Resilience essentially refers to how flexible you are, and how easy it is for you to bounce back from the difficulties of life. It also refers to our way of dealing with pressure and whether we remain calm and collected in situations of extreme stress. Resilience is not only useful for business, but for life in general. Besides helping you be successful, it can also lead to inner growth. Some people do come about it more easily or seem like they are born with it. However, all is not lost if you are someone who finds it hard. There are tips that can help you develop your resilience. It will help you remain more optimistic, even in times of strife, as well as deal with stress in more effective ways.

Here are some effective ways to build resilience in business

Reframe your thinking
Sometimes when you come across a problem it can be exceedingly difficult to see the forest for the trees so to speak. You are focusing all your energies on solving it, yet somehow it remains in place, without moving an inch. This is incredibly frustrating as it can feel as if you are banging your head against a wall. One thing that would occur to a resilient person in this situation is to change their thinking. Go out of the box or abandon the problem completely for a little while. Once you come back to it with fresh eyes, you will be able to succeed in solving it.
This can often happen when people are stuck in their ways or feel like there is only one way to go about things. For example, if you are building a website for your company, you may feel like you have to go a more traditional route when there are powerful companies that made amazing WP sites. Being able to think outside the box will make you a better problem-solver.

Take charge of your emotions
If we let our emotions run rampant, things can often seem much worse than they are! One of the ways how to be more resilient when things get tough is to practice optimism regularly. Optimism is actually a muscle and the more you try to think positively, the more it will happen. Having a positive outlook will help keep your emotions in check even when things go south. And having a cool head will make it easier to make important decisions.

Learn from mistakes
An important part of this is facing up to the fact that you could be mistaken. Being aware that you might not be coming at something from the right angle implies being okay with failing and owning up to it. Every mistake is something that you can learn from and remember not to do next time. Thinking about why some strategy failed so you would know not to repeat it is one of the ways to enhance your resilience in business!

Let go of being perfect
This is much easier said than done if you are someone who chases perfection in all areas of life. You need to convince yourself; however, that perfection is not attainable. No matter what you do, things are probably going to go wrong at some point. It does not matter how hard you try to keep it together. Accepting that already makes you more likely to bounce back quickly. Doing your best at any given moment is really all that any of us can do. At times finding an effective solution is more important than being perfect.

Build good relationships
Another way how to be more resilient when things get tough is to have a support system. None of us can really go at it alone, nor should we. Building trusted relationships with professionals who will understand when you are having trouble and provide a good sounding board can be an irreplaceable part of being successful in business.

Set clear goals and prioritize
Working on the ability to set clear goals for yourself is one of the tips for becoming resilient in business. It means that you are able to realistically survey the situation and then prioritize your actions based on evaluating various factors.

Celebrate little victories
Acknowledging that every win, no matter how small, took time and effort is one of the ways to build resilience. It helps you know in your heart what your brain already knows – every little thing matters. Everything you do gets you a step closer to achieving your goals.

Learn to say no
It may seem counterintuitive. However, learning how to say no is one of the effective ways to enhance your resilience. It works similarly to setting clear goals and consciously avoiding tasks that waste your time and energy. If you are careful about what you devote your time to, it means you think through things more carefully and are accepting responsibility for them already.

Build self-esteem
One of the ways to enhance your resilience is to enhance your self-esteem. Developing positive affirmations and writing your daily goals will help in enhancing your self-image. The better you feel about yourself and the more confident you are, the more resilient you will be.

Define your purpose
The final tip for becoming resilient in business is to find meaning in what you are doing and becoming effective in your sphere of influence. Being able to see the big picture no matter what it is; that is the sign of a resilient person! Knowing that there is a higher purpose you are striving for makes it easier to overcome failures when they happen.

Wednesday, July 8, 2020

PIVOT your business to recover from this economic downturn



Pivot is a shift in your strategy to test a new customer segment for your products or services. It could lead to positioning your company into a new market or vertical.

When you began this year, your business strategy would have been designed with the assumption that the external market factors and conditions will be almost the same as the previous year. The COVID-19 crisis totally changed this scenario causing a critical need to alter your strategy. Changing your existing business model is far less risky than doing nothing as you already know that inaction will lead to a failed business or a substantial reduction in achieving your sales revenue and profits. Thus, pivoting your business model to help in navigating a way through this economic crisis becomes foremost on the minds of business owners.

You could do a customer segment pivot to position your product or service for a new user segment that you were not initially targeting. It could be due to the reduced demand for your product or service in the current user base that you were focused on until this crisis happened.

Some recently successful pivots:
> Beverage & perfume brands are shifting to produce sanitizers.
> Fabric & garment manufacturers are modifying their factories to deliver masks and gowns.
> Industrial product manufacturers are altering their plants to make personal protective equipment.
> Device companies are revamping to produce health monitoring & testing products.
> Nutrient companies are diversifying into producing immunity-boosting supplements.

One of the most essential aspects of a successful pivot is to challenge traditional thinking and generate enough ideas to identify pivots that could make a difference in your industry. Some good areas to generate ideas for pivots would be to introspect target markets, potential partners, product differentiation, commercialization methods, unfulfilled needs, higher value creation, solutions broadening, delivery mechanism, repurposing resources, rethinking product-service mix, distribution channels, etc.

As observed by Jeff Bezos of Amazon, companies taking lots of small risks and failing will find the one or two efforts that will enable their business to succeed.

To increase your likelihood of big gains:
1. Do a pivot as early as you can
2. Be open to several iterations and evaluations
3. Re-use existing work that you have done so far
4. Solicit feedback from your current customers

At its simplest level, it could begin with two factors: DEMAND and ADAPTABILITY. This would lead to four quadrants for further analysis & decision making:

High Demand, High Adaptability: This is a high potential area as your product or service can be easily adapted to service this customer segment that has a surge in demand. For example: masks, gloves, sanitizers, shields, scrubs, personal protective equipment, grocery delivery, food delivery, health monitoring & advisory, sanitation services, online training, etc.

High Demand, Low Adaptability: This area does have high demand even though your current product or service cannot immediately be adapted to this need. You need to introspect and see if you could either zoom-in or zoom-out to develop some new products or services to cater to this demand. Based on your evaluation, you may decide to pursue or pass this opportunity.

Low Demand, High Adaptability: This you may be catering to already or can easily cater to with the least amount of modifications. Continue leveraging this segment for generating cash-flow to invest in the ‘High Demand’ market segment.

Low Demand, Low Adaptability: This is the least lucrative area to focus on. So consciously choose to de-prioritize your investment in this segment.

While doing the pivot, remember that a change in your business model will impact all sides of your business model including marketing, operations, people, sales, service, et al. By further analyzing and brainstorming using this framework, you could decide where to focus your resources, time, and money. Sometimes your analysis could help your business model to pivot from an erstwhile high-margin, low-volume business to a low-margin, high-volume business. Selecting the best option and deciding to implement it can help in re-energizing your organization to achieve your goals.