Getting stuck in a rut, unable to move forward and unable to visibly improve their present circumstances, many business owners become frustrated with what they feel is a lack in their marketing techniques, their skill or their business knowledge.
Moving ahead seems to be impossible and new ideas appear to be just out of reach. Energy is lacking and you seem to have lost your confidence. How do you regain your original curiosity in how you could improve your business and where do you find the resources to do it?
Try something new and different in your personal life. This alone opens you to new ideas, new people and new experiences, any of which can kick start a new approach to your business life. Artists such as painters, writers and musicians all know that in order to have new ideas, you have to broaden your life experiences, otherwise your well of ideas dries up.
Turn your ideas on their heads. Observing something from the opposite direction can lead you to examine more closely how well they would work and provide you with ways to improve your existing products or provide something completely different.
Look at your business through someone else’s eyes. If you were a total stranger and just seeing your products or services for the first time, what would you think? What would be missing and what would satisfy you the most? Take action on anything you find would make a big difference in improving what you have to offer.
Ask yourself if what is happening is really that important. Maybe this is just that time for your business to roll along at the level it is at for awhile. What may be happening could be totally inconsequential and just a normal stage of your business.
Be mindful of what is going on in your business from day to day. Take a closer look and decide if what you see as a lack of creativity is really just downtime. Balance is a key factor in any business and often the more you try to focus on what is wrong, the harder it is to find, it if even exists at all.
Decide when you need to take a break. There are times when nothing works and this is when you need to walk away from your business for several days. Take a weekend off, relax, don’t talk about work and spend your time with people who aren’t involved in your business, doing things that are completely non-business related.
It is possible to get out of any rut and improve any set of circumstances if you realize that not everything in your business revolves around being creative every day. Most of the work in your business is just that – work. While being creative within your business is enjoyable and helps your business to improves, don’t forget all of the other day to day things that you do that lead to business growth.
© Chris Draper, DemGen Inc. 2014
image courtesy of bedlammag
