Times Have Changed

As a small business owner, do you ever feel like you'll never know what it will take to change with the times and stay in business?

We all go through those tough spells of heart ache when everything in life feels impossible. Especially, in a small business owner's life when the world sits on your shoulders. You don't want to answer the phone and you don't want to pack your own lunch before work. Just last month you had all the motivation you needed to get through the day, but now days, it's feeling pretty hopeless.

You aren't alone my friend, I have been involved in a small family business for a long enough to know that sometimes being in a small business sucks. It's all on your shoulders and it's all up to you. How long have you been at work anyways?

Times Have Changed

Not only does the daily buzz of life in a small business get overwhelming it can be downright  de-motivating to continue your small business. The way of marketing and getting business has changed way too fast for most people. Lucky this new generation is to have grown up with the buttons, knobs, screens and keyboards. Most reliable service businesses that have been around for over 20 years, have owners that have been alive for 40. And most aren't quite sure how to keep up with all the changes just in the last 5 years alone!

We see the way that advertising works in our world, how Taco Bell meets Doritos and McDonalds has their little monopoly game and children's Happy Meals with the free toy. But how in the world do you make your small business more exciting and new?

There's so much talk about Facebook and this concept of Social Media Marketing, but where in the world do you start when you can barely even manage a website or email account?

I Can Relate

Well, hi. I'm that too-smart-techy grand daughter that comes over and helps you send a stupid email or pay a bill online because it's required. I grew up in a business that didn't want to change or grow. Times changed too fast while life was throwing wide, hard curve balls at the family. When it came down to crunch time down the road, the preparation had not been done to adequately improve the business to today's standards to stay in business. So here I am.

What If…

I can't help but wonder what would have happened if someone like me had come along and knocked on my grandparent's door and offered to help explain the basics of how the world of doing business has changed in the last 5-10 years so dramatically. If someone could have said, "I know you know nothing about Facebook, but this is what you need to know to get started and here is some information and resources to learn more. It's very important." Or someone to have to them that Yellow Pages Printed Ads are just, not the way to go anymore... To explain the importance of getting a structured website up and running properly for clients. 

Someone other than the business partner, husband or granddaughter involved.

What if this person was only around for a short time? No long term contracts or fees, just briefly visited to teach and inspire a small business owner once again?

Would you, as a small business owner, take that help to improve your business and inspire your life? Could you stand to be innovative and creative in your business plan and life dreams?

Would you?
Please, leave your thoughts behind and make a difference.

Read More...

In my journey through discovering the destination of my family's business, I picked up the book The E-Myth Revisited : Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It by Micheal E. Gerber. 

This book helped to give me guidance and learn about myself through my business. What the changes that needed to happen in myself and my future business, as well as how to do those things. It is easy to read and the narration follows a business woman and an adviser conversational relationship. It's really a huge step in opening yourself up to the possibilities of your business. And you'll know what you will start to have to do to get to success in your small business.