Tip of the Week: Optimism Improves Reality

It has been pretty difficult for most small business owners to stay positive lately. They’ve had to deal with more in the past few months than many have in their entire entrepreneurial careers. Today, as businesses are gearing up to get back to work, we thought it would be helpful to explain some ways that you can stay positive. 

Include Your Staff

This is as big of a crisis as any of us have ever dealt with. You need to have your staff on your side if you are going to get through this situation. Some ways you can make this happen include:

• Keep everyone updated. Transparency can be looked upon with a lot of respect. You don’t have to share anything with your people, but making an effort to keep them in the know will work to keep them engaged. Some things, however, don’t foster any optimism and should probably be kept to yourself. 
• Set the tone. As the boss, your staff looks to you to lead. You, like millions of other business owners, have never had to deal with anything quite like this, but staying out front and positive will keep others from letting pessimism creep in and negatively affecting their opinion of their work. 
• Trust your people. If you are one of the lucky businesses that have been able to work through the pandemic, you’ve probably learned that trusting your people is of the utmost importance. You may have gone into this situation skeptical and afraid, but the world has changed and your business will need to change along with it. 

Making Necessary Adjustments 

If you haven’t had to deviate from your strategy, you are in the minority. This situation has caused a lot of businesses to fail outright. Those that prosper have changed course somewhat. Here are some tips to help you make the adjustments you need to make during this turbulent time.

• Assess your business. With things slowing down, it gives you time to completely assess where your business is at. Do you have the necessary liquidity, is your technology and your procedures up-to-date? Doing a full assessment will go a long way toward building preparedness. 
• Make the hard calls ahead of time. After your assessment, you will be in a better place to make difficult business decisions proactively. Inaction or ignorance could cost you everything, so staying out in front of your decision making is key. 
• Adjust using new tools. Technology can be used to create new workflows that get your products and services out. COVID-19 has been good for innovation, consider doing a bit of that for your business.

Keep Your Chin Up

The most important part of staying positive is to keep a healthy frame of mind. Some tips to do so include:

• Ignore Negative Opinions. This can be harder to accomplish than you may think, but one way to keep from being overwhelmed with negativity is to cut yourself off from all the talking heads out there. They say ignorance is bliss, and finally there is a situation where that saying is an actual strategy. 
• Help. Helping other people can bring a lot of positivity for both the people that need help and for you. The best way to stay positive is to help others find positivity.

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