Starting a Small Business
Perseverence - To Be.....or not To Be
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
“To be or not to be” is perhaps the best-known line from all drama or literature. It is, of course, from Shakespeare's play Hamlet. The Prince, Hamlet, is musing on is the comparison between the pain of life, which he sees as inevitable (the sea of troubles - the slings and arrows - the heart-ache - the thousand natural shocks) and the fear of the uncertainty of death and of possible damnation of suicide.
Please forgive me for attempting to introduce something a tad “left of field” into the domain of small businesses. However, my analogy is this: The first couple of years of starting a business can feel like a sea of troubles, slings and arrows from many angles, heart-ache caused from high expectation and low achievements.
And you may well be feeling as Hamlet did, whether it was all worth it; whether to continue with the seeming thousand natural shocks....or whether to end the business. This is a very normal situation for a new business to find itself in. But what are the vital signs of your business telling you?
If, for example, you are running a web-based business, are you measuring the number of users on the website? Is it an upwards trend or is it flat-lining. What can you deduce from the longest-term trend that you can see. If you are not measuring the stats, then make sure you start doing so. Google provides a free web-stats service called Analytics. It will give excellent, detailed stats on everything you need to know about your website.
If you are measuring takings (your turnover), again, what are the long term trends? Is there an obvious reason for things being the way they are?
Before you “pull the plug” on your enterprise, think carefully as to whether you've given it the real opportunity to establish itself. Is there a fundamental problem with your “business model”? If so, why not look carefully at that problem and try to deal with it head-on.
What have you learned so far in your enterprise? Perhaps you need to learn just a few more things before you've found the right formula for your business to succeed. Ask yourself also, have you been blinkered in some way, holding out on some supposed idea or principle, that the customers simply won't buy into (enough).
If, for example you've opened an organic cafe, and your average potential customer is simply not prepared to pay the premium for this, then perhaps you could alter your policy to be organic....on the items that are affordable but non-organic on the more expensive things.
Are you being a martyr to your cause? Is it really worth it? Business and martyrdom don't mix terribly well.......normally, as infact with most things in life, there needs to be accommodations made toward the customer.
These issues aren't a problem if you have a good profitable business, I'm really sorry to say that you might have to make compromises, if you're struggling. If your customers want tomato-ketchup on their organic falafel, then on the whole, I'd say, give it to them, and smile, and stay in bleedin business! Presciousness and sacred cows need to be minimised ......unless you're already doing well; in which case, there's no problem.