There's dirt on my cucumber
- By Vicki Wusche -
- Feb 07, 2012
Have we all become lazy in business? Here’s a guest blog on how to avoid falling into the trap…
I got the shock of my life this morning, when preparing my lunch, I noticed that there was a lump of dirt – real mud – under the plastic wrapping of my cucumber.
Apart from a whole debate about food packaging I certainly had become accustomed to not having to wash my food because it was wrapped in plastic – it had been sanitised and I had got lazy.
I think that has happened to a lot of people in business over the past 10-20 years. Everything from business support to access to funding had become easy (relatively) and with that many businesses had acquired bad habits.
As an entrepreneur or someone planning to start a new business, we know that doing business the same old way will get the same old results. We have to develop and manage our business with a new way of thinking. We have to take responsibility for our own success. We know when one door shuts that first we rethink our offer and then represent it with more clarity or a better outcome for all partners and then if still unsuccessful we look for alternative solutions.
Everything is an opportunity for us to learn and be even more successful and this current and on-going financial crisis is no different. They say more millionaires are made in a recession than at any other time and we need to take advantage of that knowledge and experience.
Resources are more available as other businesses leave the market, because there is an over-supply of demand we can negotiate to meet our targets and objectives more easily (bearing in mind that other businesses still need to make a profit too). Time is another resource that many service providers have an abundance of – another opportunity to discuss with professionals like accountants and book keepers, solicitors, bank managers and the like, new ways of working. I have recently engaged a new accountant who is now my part-time financial director, he has the skill and the extra time – I get the benefits of his extensive knowledge. It has not cost me any more than my last accountant – we simply discussed how to use our time more effectively.
In a sense, what I discussed with my accountant was what I needed as a service and sometimes when we are running our own business we are so focused on meeting our clients’ needs we forget that we can be clients of other businesses too.
The success or failure of our businesses will be as a direct result of our ability to recognise opportunities, refine and adapt our business model to new ways of working, negotiate with all our suppliers ways of working that better meet the needs of our dynamic businesses (which in turn will help our suppliers adapt their businesses).
Don’t allow yourself to be spoon fed plastic wrapped produce, get out there and pick what you want – if it’s a bit dirty wash it yourself and make the best of all there is to offer.
Image by stuartpilbrow on Flickr
By Vicki Wusche. Blogs at ThePropertyMermaid.com and tweets at @VickiWusche
This guest blog complies to Virgin.com terms & conditions.
