SUMMER SLUMP?
LET’S GET TOUGH & LET’S GET GOING
Optimistic, but
cautious.
In my recent travels I’ve been asking folks both
entrepreneurial and “corporate” about their outlook and that’s what a great many
of you told me.
And that’s true for matters both business and personal.
Big
"that’s-not-insightful" DUH?
Well, it sort of
depends. Frankly, at first a great many folks responded with a cheery,
sugar-coated optimistic noise. Seems we all want things to be getting better.
We understand that a half-full attitude helps.
We understand that a half-full attitude helps.
But there are
lingering doubts. When pressed many of you reveal your cautious outlook. And
I’m going on the record with it now simply because, for many TGIM
readers, it seems there’s still a great deal of evidence of a less-than-robust climate
in the days immediately ahead.
You tell me: It’s
evident when you look at your P&L, compare notes with your business
colleagues, read the news, go shopping, or just talk with your neighbors.
Still, times change. And somewhat predictably so.
Any economic prognosticator can produce charts showing that
things financial rise and fall in cycles. Granted, just where in the cycle you
or your company or your family might be at any particular moment is often a
highly speculative matter.
But there’s still –
The universal given:
Hard times will end – eventually.
TGIM Takeaway: Although no one knows exactly when the upturn
will come for any particular segment, it will come earlier for you when you put
some preparing-for-prosperity strategies in action today.
Bonus factor: If
you’re one of the individuals or companies already prospering, if any ideas in
this roundup are above and beyond what you’re already doing, implementing them
in these harder times should prove extra valuable as the situation brightens
for all. So --
Let’s take the
upcoming Summer Slump season head on. Resist the urge to coast between
Memorial Day and Labor Day. There’s plenty to do starting immediately that will
pay off immediately and in the more prosperous future.
Here’s a roundup of –
Preparing-For-Prosperity
Summertime Strategies
● Keep it up. To
be there at the recovery you must survive now. If you’re reading this, the odds
are good that you’re at least doing something right. Keep at it. Keep striving.
Keep an optimistic outlook.
● Challenge
assumptions. Resist the urge to play everything safe by becoming
ultra-conservative. Clearly nothing is carved in stone these days. So nothing
can hurt a business or personal situation more than continued reliance on old
assumptions that are now proven unreliable.
TGIM ACTION IDEA: Failure to be open to new ideas will trap you
in a dead end. So, even in difficult times (maybe especially in difficult times) test established “truths” for your
life and your business.
Result: You’ll
either prove that they’re still true or you’ll begin to discover today’s better
way.
● Be guided by
numbers. Numbers are emotion-free indicators of where things were, are, and
may be headed. Even if you’re more of a “people person,” it’s now more
important than ever to use numbers to plot, compare, and analyze the
effectiveness of decisions.
Caution: This is
not a call to cut and chop and freeze and slash prices, expenses, and people
across the board when things like budget numbers don’t work out to the penny.
● Put on bifocals.
Don’t neglect the need to look long while you look short. The challenge is to
objectively assess the current health of your situation, then conform the
actions needed to pull through the immediately difficult times with those
necessary to keep moving toward long-term goals.
TGIM ACTION IDEA: When short-term results aren’t satisfactory,
don’t counter simply by freezing up or knee-jerk reacting in the next short
term. Instead, study and attack the underlying problems and plan to cure them
for the long term.
● Don’t undervalue
advertising, marketing or PR. Because immediate results from investments in
these “promotional” areas are sometimes hard to measure, they often get
short-changed when money is tight. Yet this may well be precisely the time when
enhancing a product or an image becomes more important, not less. Dramatize
your unique aspects and make them known and, at least, you’ll gain top-of-mind
awareness.
● Attract and keep
good employees. The future belongs to those who are ready to seize it. It’s
practically a universal truth that there’s a shortage of skilled workers for
any job worth doing. So putting a little effort into acquiring and motivating
good employees or “partnering” relationships now is hardly a risk.
Good folks are out
there now. And they’re looking for good partners. Be proactive in your
outreach. On the other hand, not letting valued partners know, by word and
deed, that you understand how their success and yours success is linked most
definitely is a mistake.
● Trim fat, and then
toughen muscle. No business or individual can survive in tough times (or
good times) supporting people or relationships that aren’t doing the job. But
that doesn’t mean you should cut more than the marginal performers (who should
be set free in any circumstances).
TGIM ACTION IDEA: Set standards and stick with them. Don’t
leave room for poor performance. Tell people, “Let’s get tough and let’s get
going.”
● Build skills.
Now, when you may have the time, make productive people more productive. Make
the most of their existing talents. Work at keeping engaged and keeping morale
high. Give people the training they need to build a solid base of skills for
future expansion. Make everyone more sales minded and customer conscious. Build
discipline and leadership skills across the board.
● Add to your skills.
Use any slowdown to personal advantage. Skills and knowhow you acquire now,
while you have more leeway with how you structure your time, will enhance your
success when business activity begins to build again.
TGIM ACTION IDEA: Add to your existing strengths but also allow
some time for shoring up weaker points. But most of all, keep current with
evolving new technology. The future belongs to those who are prepared to live
in it.
● Lead yourself first
– and you automatically prepare the way to leadership in a prosperous tomorrow.
Getting tougher. And
getting going.
See you in the winner’s circle.
Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing
P.S. “[Good
men] should not shrink from hardships and difficulties, nor complain against
fate; they should take in good part whatever happens, and should turn it to
good. Not what you endure, but how you endure, is important.” Seneca the
Younger (5? BCE – 65 AD) suggested that in a treatise of Moral Essays as translated by John W. Basore in 1928, another
period of particularly difficult times.
