If you've kept your business afloat for a few years, you should be congratulated. You've surpassed a good percentage of your peers. And yet. Sometimes even successful entrepreneurs find themselves, or their business, in a rut.
This may entail struggling to grow your customer base, being out of ideas for innovations, or just feeling bored doing the same thing over and over. It may also be the case that some of what you're doing isn't working as well as it always had. Here then, are some tips for jump-starting your business.
1. Jump in the Time Machine
One of the ways to move forward is to try to recapture the zeal and wide-eyed enthusiasm you felt at your business's inception. Go back and look at notes and documents from the earliest days. If you have a formal business plan, look at it. Looking at photos from that time might even jog your memory. In any case, pair those old ideals with new ideas, including your hard-fought wisdom, and you should find great results.
2. Get Coached
What if a trip down memory lane doesn't do it? What if you need a fresh set of eyes? The business coach may be a your friend.
The UK business Fourth Day Public Relations found a business coach beneficial for a variety of reasons, including pushing them to work harder for new business and to have higher standards for meetings with potential clients.
3. Go Away
Another way to acquire a new vantage point or a fresh perspective can be to take a vacation. The health benefits and medical necessities of vacations are probably well-known enough to not need repeating here, but they do include a decreased risk of heart attack.
I've found that coming back from a vacation finds me in a place in which questions or problems that seemed muddled now looked crystal clear. Situations that seemed frought with obstacles seemed a lot more possible. Further, my vacation-calmed mind was much more creative.
4. Make Your Family Go Away
Once you've gotten away for a period of time, you'll need to get back to work. Have the spouse take the kids to the local beach or mountain or relative's house for a week or so, giving you some peace and quiet during which you have nothing to consider but work. A lot of what I've discussed so far has revolved around clearing your head and gaining a new perspective, we now have to discuss the hard work of hard work.
Remember, we're trying to clear some hurdles here, perhaps expanding an audience, introducing new products, or in some way elevating things. Doing something to clear a little time and space for yourself is pretty important here. Even if you find a way to get out of some obligations or find some other time-savers, having the distractions of families will be an impediment in jump starting things.
If you keep doing what you're doing, you're going to get what you've got. Keeping everything status quo, distractions and all, will psychologically keep you in the rut you've been in.
One way or another, you have to take concrete, decisive actions. Just coming up with some ideas and going for them probably won't be enough--the rut must have come from somewhere, which means it needs something to chase it away. Whether through addition or subtraction, you must change your situation.