The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
For Survival In A Small Business When running your own small business it is usual to have standard procedures and set ways of doing things. It's called business efficiency. After all, it's the logical way to do things and we've always done it that way and it works. The problem is that in a small business, it's easy to form habits and become set in our ways. We resist change and so do our staff (if we have any). The small business plods along okay as everything steadily changes around it. Then day-by-day, making a profit gets a bit tougher. Customers become more demanding, competition increases and it becomes harder to make a living. We all know what happens next, even if it does take a few years, until the inevitable end. The fact is it doesn't need to be like that. As a small business entrepreneur, the best way to ensure continuing business success and job security is to embrace CHANGE. It doesn't matter how big, or how small, a business is. Without change the tendency is for the small business to become sluggish, even bureaucratic. It's easy to lose the sharp business edge and become slow at making decisions and taking action. Then there is the tendency to avoid any situation that might hold even the slightest element of risk. The best advice to any small business entrepreneur is to keep your mind open to change all the time. Welcome it. It's only by examining and re-examining your opinions and ideas that you can progress. Become A Champion Of Change It is better to become a champion of change rather than a victim of change. Change is difficult for all of us and that's why we all have a natural tendency to resist it. This can be especially true for the small business entrepreneur. Yet like it or not, we are living in one of the most exciting periods civilization has ever known. It is a period of astounding and radical change. An era of unprecedented rapid, accelerating change... the "Golden Age Of Opportunity"..." The Greatest Entrepreneurial Boom In History." The thing about change is that you really have no choice. Resist it and become a victim or you can decide to become a champion of change and capitalize on it. To become a champion of change you need to break out of your comfort zone and try new things before you are forced to.
