To state the obvious, the marketplace has changed significantly. In general, most of us have achieved survival of our businesses through wise and sometimes creative "juggling" while keeping our core the same.
Whenever businesses are considering change, there are three phases that must be contemplated for that change to be strong, sustainable and successful: Analysis, Decision-Making and Action-Taking, and Review and Reinforce.
Physicist Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result or outcome. Sometimes when external factors suffer changes as significant as our economy has in the past few years, we must look deeper than just the actions we are taking. At times like these, we must question the very foundation of our businesses to ensure that, from the ground up, our businesses are as strong as they must be to respond successfully to the new marketplace that is rising out of these historical times. In order to give ourselves the best chance, we must allow the Analysis Phase to be comprised of engaging in objective and unbiased analysis of three areas: the external realities; the business platform and the internal fuel.
Strategy No. 1: Conduct an objective and comprehensive market analysis (general market and your specific industry) that includes future impact projections of several market-change scenarios. This is the portion that looks at the external realities and how these impact your business. For those of us who have been in business long enough to have pre-recession performance records and market behaviors as a benchmark, this analysis will be especially telling. For those just getting on the entrepreneurial train, conducting a general market analysis and impact projection, and making sure your business foundations reflect this knowledge, is still a solid idea. Some questions you must seek answers to: How are today's conditions different from those present during your "best" years? How is the term "best years" defined and why? What percentage growth did your business experience during these "best years?" What percentage of business decrease has your business experienced since then? What changes have been implemented since the recession started? What results have those changes achieved?
Strategy No. 2: In light of your findings from Strategy 1, review your business entity and structure. Are your vision, mission and objectives relevant to today's market realities? Are your business objectives S.M.A.R.T.—specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely? How will your objectives change to reflect the new information discovered through Strategy 1? Has your "north" changed at all and, if so, how? What must be the new direction that will take your business to better success—new vision, new mission, new objectives?
Strategy No. 3: Evaluate and redefine your attitudes (yours, your employees' and your business's). Give yourself and your business the gift of objectivity on this matter. It has been suggested that attitudes make for more than 75 percent of the indicators needed for success. It is also a fact that this recession has hit everyone hard in the areas of how we feel about work and our jobs. In-depth evaluations and appropriate re-alignment of attitudes could do wonders for performance—yours, your employees' and your business'.
These three strategies are a critical starting point on which to lay the foundation to build a stronger organization, and one that delivers better results and achieves higher profitability in today's market conditions. This is the year when small businesses will change the financial face of our nation. Lead your business into a future that is better than its past!
Jaime Yordán-Frau, Miami-Dade Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce member, is a certified executive and business coach with more than 20 years experience in business development and coaching success. Jaime now owns Pembroke Pines, Fla.-based practice, Integro Success Unlimited (www.integrosuccess.com).
