How Are You Staying Motivated When Business is Slow?

PANIC!! Actually, don’t ever panic. If you’ve chosen the path of entrepreneurship, then you hopefully have a basic understanding that business will ebb and flow. Here are just a few tips to share to ensure you’ll be ready to get back to it when that business starts rising again.

  • Self-Care: Yes, Yes, I know. We talk a lot about self-care, but it’s important. If you’re not in tip top shape emotionally or physically, then how do you think you’ll be able to run your business? I’ll give you the answer, you probably won’t last long. Hit the spa, read a book, have a long overdue date night, re-connect with friends, re-start that exercise routine, whatever it is that you enjoy just get to it. 
  • Clean and Purge: Clean up this mess! I don’t want to see you until you’ve cleaned up your space. I’ll be by to inspect it, so no shoving things under the furniture. Get the clutter out of your business and your life. Remember when you were so busy you kept stashing stuff in that cabinet so you could get to it later and come to find out you really didn’t need to get to anything. You just needed a place to put it. De-cluttering will certainly help with the flow of energy. The kind of energy we need to come up with great ideas.
  • Assess: Look back on what you were doing in your business in the past six months to a year. What was working well, and what wasn’t? Look at your day-to-day, evaluate the resources you have available, and research various technologies you currently use and make sure they’re still a good fit. Technology is an area that changes so quickly. There might be something out there that will save you even more time and money. Not to mention it may better serve your client. Even if you don’t have the money now to invest in new technology right now you’ll be ready to pull the trigger when you’ve got some extra cash flow. Of course just make sure that when it is time to invest that you’re implementing the latest technology.
  • Blog: If you don’t have a blog for your business, then you might want to get on that. If you have one and it hasn’t been updated in awhile, then you better get on that as well. Take this time to write relevant content that you can post now and when you get busy again. I had a meeting get cancelled today so I decided to take this opportunity to post some content. I even had enough time to record and upload the video below. This is another opportunity to help generate new ideas especially when you’re doing a little research for a blog post.
  • Network: Now go outside and don’t come home until you’ve made a new friend! Seriously, just get back out there and let people know you’re around. It really can be as simple as attending a child’s birthday party, a barbecue, or a group date night out. Simple conversations with people can go in so many different directions. Somehow it just comes up about what it is you actually do, or you may overhear a problem that someone is having and you just so happen to have the solution. I’ve come into many business opportunities just by having small talk. One caveat here though. Be sincere and actually have a conversation. It may not necessarily convert into a business deal, but at least you made another connection. Plant yourself firmly in that grapevine. You never know when your name or business will come up in someone else’s conversation.

2 thoughts on “How Are You Staying Motivated When Business is Slow?”

  1. elizabeth scala

    Great post, Kevin. Very helpful content. I think that all five of those things are good things we could be doing WHEN business is slow. If we find ourselves in one of the ebbs (or flows) of business- instead of panic- we can check in with things that we may not have the time for when business is booming. So business is busy and the blog has been forgotten- well if business is slow we can spend two hours sitting and writing one afternoon- then post those blog posts out into the future scheduler, making great use of our downtime. I love that you have self-care in there… but my belief would be to do that when business is slow, fast, there, not- all of the time! As you said- how can we show up and help if we are feeling badly? Finally- you are right about getting out there and talking to anyone. Even the person we may never think of who could impact or uplift our work- that person knows someone who can! Thanks for the reminders, lessons, and words of wisdom. Much appreciated. Have a healthy day! Elizabeth

  2. innovativenurse

    elizabeth scala You’re so right about self-care even when things are busy. That’s why I followed up with this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Og-JUGl-n1Y
    A healthy day right back at you CoachScala

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