With economies floundering around us and losses being made on different fronts, the entrepreneur who wants to make a profit and a difference is bound to have a lot on his mind. Sometimes the challenges of the enterprise can rub you up in odd places. Sleepless nights, your mind on your money and your enterprise. What do you do if your plans do not work, or the climate of the economy changes against your favor? How do you handle let downs and disappointments. Well the basic thing is to try hard to prepare for eventualities. Even when everything is going right you ought to ask yourself occasionally: what if the whole thing begins to crash? What if my competitor gets an edge over me? Suppose I run out of cash? You are not being paranoid when you think this way, you are being prepared. Never underestimate eventualities; businesses do not get on like a house on fire for ever. It never is always rosy and you know that even roses have thorns. No matter the situation the business is in, the staunch entrepreneur must maintain a positive mind. The basic philosophy of the good entrepreneur should be " I will find a way even where there seems to be no way". "No matter the circumstances, I will not lose money, even if I do not make profit". These may sound like mere slogans but they ought to be guides and principles that entrepreneurs should live by!
No doubt, the business world is tough. And if you are a business person you ought to see it as war! The enemies are many. In some environments the competition will kill your business if they have half the chance. In many other business environments, the conditions for doing business are either hostile or down right impossible. So one powerful tool the entrepreneur needs is a tough analytical mind. To toughen your mind you need to take note of the following:
No situation is totally hopeless: 1Create a mindset that believes an answer to the challenge or problem exists. All you need to do is find it. The search for an answer can be a trying process. More than anything, we need to be able to concentrate at this period. The answer is usually hidden, but somewhere we can find it. 2. Eliminate the crippling concept of hopelessness. We should never believe a business situation is hopeless. If we lose hope it will shut our minds down and we will not be able to think forward. Even if the situation is totally irreparable we ought to have hope that our exit strategy would leave us with enough assets to start over. 3. Highlight your needs. We have to consistently ask ourselves what we want from the situation so as to have a proper focus.4. Tools are always available: what can we use to get to where we want to be? Sometimes tools are crude and beneath our usual expectation. But there are times when beggars cant be choosers 5. What makes the situation positive? There is always something good to look out for, no matter what. There can never be total disaster. Focus on the merits of the circumstances and it would give you confidence. Confidence in the face of trouble is a morale booster. How do they say it? Where there is life, there is hope.Look for opportunities even in the oddest of places. You would be amazed with what you will come up with. Here is a case study used for Marketing Students in the MBA class:
Two shoe salesmen are posted in succession to a country
where people do not wear shoes. There reactions are different:
•Salesman 1: “Get me out of here there are no
opportunities!”
•Salesman 2: “Send shoes of all sizes the opportunities
here are tremendous!”
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