How’s business? An honest assessment

How many times have you been party to this classic exchange?

“Hi, how are you doing?”

“Fine, thanks.”

End.

“Fine, thanks.” Those two overspoken, nondescript words can mean any number of things:

• Crappy

• Tired

• Just okay

• Cat died yesterday

• Got dumped

• Got a promotion

• Got a new car

We frequently avoid sharing how we truly feel in brief greetings. We’ve learned to stuff all the great and sucky things that happen to us into a tiny little package called: “Fine, thanks.” We’ll share our ups and downs with our closest friends and family, and that’s it. Or depending on the day and one’s inclination, Facebook.

If you own a business, you’ve likely participated in a similar exchange:

“How’s business?”

“Oh, good. Business is good.”

Again, the response can mean a whole host of things:

• I’m overwhelmed

• I feel like I’m in a rut

• My time’s crunched

• I’m feeling burned out

• I’m overloaded with paper work

• I don’t have enough quality time with family

• I’m exhausted

• We had our best month yet

• I just hired a great team member

In some cases, it can genuinely mean that business is good—all cylinders firing as they should. But more commonly, small business owners are consistently feeling frazzled for one reason or another.

Time for an honest assessment

You might not want to bare your business soul with the next person who asks you how business is, but just sitting down yourself for an honest assessment is a great exercise—especially if things aren’t as rosy as you’d like.

Let’s try this again: How are things with your business?

Take five minutes, pull out a sheet of paper and a pen (or use the notepad on your phone), make a list of anything and everything that currently frustrates and excites you about your business, and braindump. You can analyze it later. Just five minutes. Go!

It could be that your list is quite short. Or you might have outlined a short novel.

Some examples:

• The office is a mess

• A certain staff member is always late

• Clients don’t pay on time

• I’m spread thin and short staffed

• We can’t seem to grow beyond 80 clients

• We’re not making enough money

• Too many clients for this space—need to expand

• Equipment never gets put away properly

• We never get around to updating website and social media

• A certain client’s consistent negativity is draining

Once you’ve put the issues on paper, your next exercise is to start thinking through how to solve them. Start by ranking them in order from most to least frustrating. Then take item number one and chew on it for a bit.

• Why is it so frustrating?

• What’s the root cause?

• Is a lack of process letting this occur?

• Can you change something today or this week that will help to remedy the situation? If not, break it down into smaller steps over a longer time horizon. Take the first step now.

It’s not always easy. In some cases, you might need to fire a client or a staff member or devote a significant amount of time to rethinking and implementing new systems. You might even need to consult with a mentor or other advisor who has direct experience with the issues you’re facing.

Go through the exercise of eliminating your frustrations now—not only will you see some immediate relief, you’ll find it much easier to address any that surface in the future. Before you know it you’ll get to a spot where your business brings you far less frustration and far more joy—one of the reasons you opened in the first place!