Are you feeling overwhelmed, bored, or disconnected from your business? Feel like no one can do things as good as you ever could? Maybe, your business just misses you, and it's crying out for attention, just like a toddler after nap time. In this eye-opening episode, I'll share my personal journey PLUS my steps to help you take back control of your business and reignite your passion. Discover how to identify the current "season" of your business and make strategic shifts to maximize your upcoming peak sales period. Learn the mindset shifts and team management tactics that will transform your business from a source of dread to a fulfilling venture. And how to embrace the challenges, to take away stress and overwhelm (and even the boredom).
---------- Preparing for Q4 and Peak Season 0:02
The Importance of Business Seasons and Control 3:42
Tina's Story and Business Overwhelm 5:29
Reclaiming Control and Business Reflection 9:14
Challenges and Changes in Business 13:51
The Role of Challenges and Team Dynamics 17:35
Taking Action and Reflection 18:13
Final Thoughts and Call to Action 21:38
Full article: https://salenaknight.com/your-business-misses-you-and-how-to-find-your-way-back/
(upbeat music) - Hey there and welcome to the Bringing Business to Retail Podcast. If you're looking to get more sales, more customers, master your marketing, and ultimately, take control of your retail or e-commerce business, then you're in the right place. I'm Selena Knight, a retail growth strategist and multi-award-winning store owner whose superpower is uncovering exactly what your business requires to move to the next level. I'll provide you with the strategies, the tools, and the insight you need to scale your store. All you need to do is take action. Ready to get started? (upbeat music) - Last episode, I created a podcast all about email marketing. And on that podcast, I admitted that it was a somewhat selfish episode because I knew that it was a key area of my business that we need to focus on. And so in doing the research for you, it was really research for my business and how we can connect better with our customers. And when we can do that, we build a better customer experience on autopilot. And of course, when we put all that together, we can increase our revenue. What I didn't know when I recorded that episode is that it would end up leading into a series of podcasts all about how you can use this time right now in the lead up to Q4 to put the foundations in place to leverage that upcoming peak season. Because there are no doovers. If you get this wrong, you could miss out on 30, 40, even 70% of your annual revenue. And I say that because I know from experience and I also know from all the retail and e-commerce stores that we work with and from the research that that period between October and January for a lot of retailers will bring in up to 70% of their annual revenue. And if that's you, then I'm sure that you can understand how deeply important it is to get your business ready right now to maximize those sales. And that is what I'm doing on this series of podcasts. Now, just like in nature, there are different seasons in our business. There are those summer bursts of energy which tend to happen in Q4 with Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Father's Day and the lead up to Christmas. There are also those months when it's a little bit slower where we take our time and we assess where our business has been and where we've been headed. And a lot of people look at those slower months as scary as something to be avoided at all costs because what happens is you get less customers, which means you get less sales. So when you're turning over less revenue, it can be a really scary place to be. But the reality is you cannot be on all the time. We do need that time in our business and in our lives to reflect and to reassess and to realign so that we are making the best decisions. And then there's the spring seasons. You know, that time for renewal of letting go of the stuff that didn't work and realigning our focus and getting ready for that peak burst. And that's where we are right now. We are realigning. We are fertilizing organically, of course. We are getting the garden beds ready and we are planting the seeds. Now, those seasons in business may not align with the seasons in nature wherever you are, but they are very distinct and they happen. And that is why it is so important to be in control of your business, to step back and take that macro view when the time calls for it. And then deeper diving into the nitty gritty, not just getting stuck in the day to day. This is especially pertinent to me right now as we have been putting the foundations in for serious growth. I've spent a lot of time reading and researching and I've taken a lot away from the books. From the book, 10x is easier than 2x by Dr. Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan. In fact, I have taken so much away from that book that I plan on doing an episode all about how it's changed my life and changed my business and give you some of the takeaways for you to implement potentially in your business. But if you want to go and read that book, I highly recommend it. 10x is easier than 2x. What do those new foundations look like as we ramp up to a new level? Because when you are stuck or if you have plateaued, it's really easy to just keep doing what you've always done. Turn off the boat. Don't take any risks. Just do a little bit more and you might move the needle forward a little bit. And this happens when that passion, that spark, that drive that you once had, the thing that drove you to learn how to build a website or stay up late drafting emails or replying to DMs, that thing, that light, the thing that spurred you on, that ends up dimming. And I'm here to tell you that if you feel like you've lost that spark either through over will or disinterest, your business misses you and it really, really wants you back. You might be just like a business owner that I worked with. Let's call her Tina. I worked with Tina and had some really great conversations. So if you are looking for a way to find your way back into your business, a way to find that spark, let me share what happened with Tina. Tina had been in business around eight years and she had an online store that was generating $3 million a year. Now, for many retailers, making $3 million a year is a dream. But for Tina, her business felt like a drag. Her days were spent fighting fires. She was always double checking the work that she'd asked her team to do. I mean, she had built this business where she had people doing things, where she didn't have to do all the work. But every time she asked them to do something, she felt she needed to double check all of their work. She was checking things off a list, but it felt like there was never enough time. And that to-do list never got any shorter. On top of that, the agency that she'd hired to do her ads was constantly asking for more money. But when she was looking at the business, the sales didn't seem to be skyrocketing in, like they promised. When she wasn't run off her feet, she was just plain bored with the business. She said to me, it just feels like more and more work, not that freedom that everyone seems to talk about. When does the freedom come? During the conversation, she looked at me and she said, "Sal, what am I doing wrong?" I thought when I got to this point, it would just be easy, but it's not. I am bored and overwhelmed at the same time. How is that even possible? Tina, my friend, I know exactly how you feel. And I'm sharing this story because I have been here, just like Tina, I have been in this position. And for me, I know I was not making the best decisions when I was scared or worried or overwhelmed or frustrated or when I checked out. Now, if you can relate to Tina's scenario, from my experience, this is the tap on the shoulder that you have been looking for. It is time to step back and take control of your business. Because right now, if that's the way you're feeling, you are not in control, your business is controlling you. And when this happens, your business is just missing you. When it misses you, just like a child, it is going to misbehave and try to get your attention, just like a toddler would think about it. What's going to happen if you aren't in control of your business because you are overwhelmed or you have checked out? Well, there will be no strategic direction. There will be no leadership and no pivoting if you need to. If you don't have a firm grasp on what is happening, then your team won't have either. If you have checked out, it doesn't breed a culture of overachievers and collaborators. Now, does it? You, my friend, are the barometer of your business. How you behave is how your team will behave. If you are overwhelmed, they will feel overwhelmed. If you are checking out, they will check out. Now, contrast that with what it feels like when you have been in control of your business. And you know this, your work feels fulfilling. You get excited about turning up every day. Stuff gets done in what seems like no time at all. And I find that time flies. You get filled with great ideas. I mean, you have so many great ideas that you end up, if you like me, you end up asking Siri to take notes or you're getting your phone out and typing them into the notes section of your phone. But you have the focus and the clarity and the wherewithal to identify which one of those great ideas should actually get implemented. When you're in control of your business, you feel energized and excited rather than drained and like there's just more and more to do. And when you're in control of your business, your team will pick up the slack without you having to nag them. You do your best work when you have clarity. And when you have clarity, you are confident in the decisions that you need to make, which of course, put you back in control. Now, first, I think it's important to look at what season you are at in your business. If you are ready to take back control, these are the steps that I shared with Tina and that I have done in my own life. And the first one is I really do think you need to look at which season is your business at? Are you overwhelmed? Because it is that slower recalibration period when instead of using the time to reflect and reassess and plan, you are stressing out, trying to implement 200 things because sales have dropped. Or are you bored? Because you feed off the adrenaline that comes with peak season and fighting all the fires. So when there are no fires to fight with, everything's going okay, you mentally check out. And that happens quite a lot because entrepreneurs, business owners, we love challenges. We love that adrenaline of needing to get things done, even though we complain about the fact that we are exhausted and overwhelmed. Thinking about which season of your business you're in, is it as simple as you're focusing on the wrong thing at the wrong time because you haven't taken that high level view of your business and mapped out your business cycle. What does that look like for you? Is your peak season the summer? Is your peak season the winter? Sit down reverse engineer. What those peaks and troughs look like for your business? Now, as I mentioned, for a lot of peak, for a lot of businesses, peak season is coming up. We have Father's Day, we have Black Friday, we have Summer Monday, we have Thanksgiving, we have Halloween, and then we have Christmas, maybe not in that order. But if you don't have the team and the tech and the resources to ensure that the season that you're in is going to run as smoothly as possible, or if you have just checked out, because you know that things will just plot along without your input, things will be okay, but the business isn't really going to grow, then it is time to reassess. So once you have looked at where your business is at, which season your business is in, which part of the annual business cycle, if you want to be technical, which part of the annual business cycle are you in? And how are you reacting in that time? The next thing that I like to look at is if you feel like you're constantly being dragged down, either through overwhelm or boredom, and that can happen. You can feel like this is just all too much because you're too busy or because you're bored. Then it is time to just reconsider what do you want from this business and what is your role in the business? And there is no right or wrong answer here. If you have checked out and you are done, then perhaps it's time to look at selling the business, but I will bet you that right now, your business is not in a saleable position. What is it going to be? Do you take a few dollars and just get rid of it? Do you just take what the cost of inventory is and a little bit extra? Or you have this opportunity to reflect and decide that actually you want a reasonable price. In fact, you want a great price for all of the effort that you have sunk into this business. You have put your blood sweat and tears and your money into it and you want a return. I mean, after all, that's what businesses are there for, to give us a return on our investment. And if that is where you are at, you need to sink your teeth back in. You have to get your business ship shape and sell it for top dollar. When I give business owners like Tina, this ultimatum, okay, you've checked out, you're done, sell the business. Do you want to sell it for parts or do you want to sell it for top dollar? It's amazing how many people actually do fall back in love with their business because they have that focus they need. They have the vision, they have that end point, they know what they want, they have the clarity, which gives them the drive to make changes. Remember, when you have the clarity, you will be more confident in your decisions. And when you know where you're going, it is easier to make decisions to get there. In fact, that ties back a lot to the book I was telling you about 10x is easier than 2x. As if you have this 10x mindset, what do we have to do to get to 10x rather than 2x? A whole bunch of just stuff that you were filling your time with just disappears because you contract to expand. All right, I will definitely do another podcast on that. So as I mentioned before, as business owners, what I generally find is that we love challenges. So when the challenges are gone or when the business becomes challenging, those are different scenarios, that's when the cracks start to show. So if your business isn't a challenge, what do you need to change? If your business is challenging and you're finding it overwhelming and frustrating, what do you need to change? Who do you need to change? You will need to change not only your mindset. And that's the hardest part, if I can be honest, is your mindset that is affecting where the business is at. But you'll also have to change your team's mindset because not everybody is going to be on board when you decide to throw everything back in. Or if you decide to step back, if you are in that quiet time and you are reflecting and your team are used to you, pushing, pushing, pushing and you're like, hold on, we're gonna be okay. We're gonna take this time to step back and reflect. And it's the same thing if you decide to jump back in and go all in. If you have checked out and now all of a sudden you're back in the business, then your team are going to, some of them are going to struggle and not everyone is going to be on board. What I find is when there is change, that you will have some people who embrace the change. If you put KPIs and targets in place, they have just been looking for structure and they are so important on board with their renewed energy. But then there are also people who, they just wanna turn up and get paid. They don't want to be responsible. They don't want to have to deal with targets or KPIs or performance reviews. You will lose people. Regardless of whichever change you make, change will always be resisted. And so some people will embrace it and some will resist this. When you make changes in your business, it doesn't matter which changes they are, your team will change. Whether you're bored or overwhelmed and if it's you're overwhelmed because you are struggling with the business being challenging rather than the business being a challenge. A challenge lights us up. A challenge gives us something to sink our teeth in. A challenge is something we look forward to and we love to brainstorm and work out the problems. Challenging tends to have that negative effect. Challenging is when you are struggling. That may not be the technical term, but this is what I find when I talk to business owners, the kind of languaging they're using is they love a challenge, but when something is challenging, it tends to be in the negative. And so one of the things, whether you've checked out or whether you're feeling overwhelmed is work out what it is that you like to sink your teeth in. When it is a challenge, which part of the challenge do you like? Do you like to problem solve? Do you like to get your hands dirty and get in and work with your team and brainstorm things? Think about the things that when you start doing them, you sink yourself into them, but also you will look up and just wonder where the time has gone. I know for me, sometimes when I'm on a roll writing, I just get stuck in the content. I get so embraced, and grossed that I will look up and an hour and a half or two hours has gone. So think about what are those things in your business? And if the answer is none of those things, well, then perhaps it is time to look at moving on. Use this time to put those sales in place to make sure that post Christmas, your business is worth more because you have put all of these things in place. You need to know what lights you up in your business. What I will say here is a word of warning is, don't get caught up in the constant need for validation, and that generally comes with fighting fires. If you are just looking to tick things off a box because it makes you feel good, then you're working on the wrong things. The things that you should be working on in your business should take time. They are the vision, they are the strategy. It is not micro-managing. And trust me, if you get away from fighting fires, not only will you be a happier person, your family will thank you, and your adrenals will thank you. So if you are ready to fall back in love with your business, because hey, your business misses you, and it would really love to see you happy and energized and with a vision and with focus and with passion, check in with yourself, and check in with your business. If you are ready to take control and be energized and excited again, here's my advice that I gave Tina. Grab a cup of tea, or a margarita, get yourself a notebook and spend some uninterrupted time looking at the season that you're in, looking at how you're showing up, and looking at whether you are in control of your business, or whether the business controls you. Work out what it is you want, and maybe that's changed. Maybe what you wanted when you first started out, maybe it was just something to fill in the time, or maybe it was to help lots of people. And maybe now you realize what you really want is to make a lot of money and sell this business at a certain point. It doesn't matter what the answer is. The answer, for me, is different to the answer for you. But take this time, take some space in your life, and think about what you want from your business, and what it should be giving back to you. And if that is changed, that's okay. So think about what challenges you. What do you enjoy doing? Quite often we think that what we really want is to have this business that works without us, and just sit on the beach, sipping margaritas. But here's the thing. Most business owners, I know, are workaholics. Like I said, they love the challenges. They cannot see it still. They need to take that energy and focus it on something that gives them results. And that is my advice to you. Take the energy that you have, and focus it on something that gets you results. Give your team challenges. Just like us, your team want to be validated. They want to feel like they can do a great job. So give them challenges, push them a little bit, set KPIs for them for you and for them, because businesses are not built on one person alone. You need to have a team around you. A great leader is not constantly depleted, and they understand the importance of having a plan and having the right people and having the vision to get there. Thank you so much for listening. I hope this episode has been helpful, and I would love it if you could leave me a review. So, that's a wrap. I'd love to hear what insight you've gotten from this episode and how you're going to put it into action. If you're a social kind of person, follow me at the Selena night and make sure to leave a comment and let me know. And if this episode made you think a little bit differently or gave you some inspiration or perhaps gave you the kick that you needed to take action, then please take a couple of minutes to leave me a review on your platform of choice, because the more reviews the show gets, the more independent retail and e-commerce stores just like yours, that we can help to scale. And when that happens, it's a win for you, a win for your community, and a win for your customers. I'll see you on the next episode. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
