Business Success: Take you Foot off the Break
When your business is struggling, pressing on the breaks and holding back seems to be the best strategy but sometimes you need to let up on the break to regain control of your success.
We are often the most cautious when thing aren’t going well. Our first reaction to a weak economy or other downturns in our business is often to pull back, reduce expenses and prepare to weather the storm out. This is not a bad idea and those who miss identify a downturn and go about business as usual are often much worse for wear, and if you have business and a store getting the right shop front shutters can be essential for this. But how long do we hold back, how long do we keep our foot on the breaks. You don’t want to act foolish or be in denial of reality but you can’t cut you way to prosperity. Eventually you have to let up on the break and regain control of your business which can also be achieved by implementing new tools like the one described in this guide about understanding pay stubs.
Many years ago while driving in the rain I suddenly encountered traffic quickly coming to a standstill. Understand, this was before anti-lock breaks or at least before I could afford a car with anti-lock breaks or a car with good tires for that matter. As I slammed on the breaks my car began to slide. Moving forward and seemingly speeding up as it hydroplaned on the wet blacktop. The cars ahead were growing closer so I attempted to steer to the open lane on the right but without any traction the car continued straight ahead. I was slowing down but not enough to stop before a collision so I decided to lift my foot off the peddle and then I instantly regained control of my car and at the last second it jumped to the right avoiding a crash and coming to a stop without incident. I was then able to continue my journey down the road.
What “breaks” are you afraid to let up on? Is it the marketing budget breaks? Is it the hiring breaks? Is it the new market or new location breaks? These are all legitimate concerns but there comes a time when we need to take our foot off the peddle and regain control of our business and steer it in the direction we need to go.
-Todd A. Luhtanen
President at Talan SBS, LLC
Consultant and Coach to Small Business
