Reading the World

Most small business owners are so busy with their heads down and their butts up, working at improving their product, that they take little time to see what is happening in the world. There is tremendous pressure to conform to the traditional meme of "working hard". It seems counter-productive to take the time to stop, look, and redesign how the business engages with the marketplace.

Ten years ago, working with customers that were within huge corporate structures, I could see this pressure taking its toll on owners and their employees. There was, and still is, a base assumption that a lot of talking is bad. The water cooler chats were discouraged because businesses needed their employees to work the 40 productive hours for which they were being paid. But a little talk around the water cooler can facilitate the transfer of information that spawns new ideas and adds to productivity. What does this phenomenon look like for small business owners?

Give yourself time to stand up and look around. This will ensure that you do not one day pick your head up and find that your offer no longer valid in the marketplace. Key indicators of a business that has lost its value in the marketplace are:

• Decline in sales.
• Loss of long-time customers.
• A need to reduce price even to make basic sales.
• Increased availability of equipment and talent in your field.

If you see these key indicators and you have 6 to 12 months before you run out of cash, the chances are it is too late to pull the business out of the nose dive without drastic change. See these indicators for what they are, the end of your business.

What can you do to avoid this? Be ready for change at all times. Build an agile organization. This will require that you:

• Read trade publications.
• Attend network events on a regular basis.
• Attend conferences annually (even in adjacent markets).
• Build relationships with perceptive people who can see changes in the marketplace.
• Experiment: design small shifts in how you do business just to see what happens.
• Diversify your offer so that there are many streams of income instead of just one or a few.

Small business owners typically get into business because they love what they do or are at least very good at what they do. Thus they often spend most of their time on the product. This can make it difficult to attend to the running of the business and to see that the mundane operations are also an essential part of longevity. I challenge you to think about "reading the world" as part of your work. You will soon acknowledge that it is a critical component to making your business a success.

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