Finding yourself stuck in a business is a common experience for entrepreneurs. Even experienced leaders and experts can struggle to find a path to move forward with their companies.
The way out of a situation like this is through an intentional shift. If you can leverage timeless principles to move your business forward, you can escape the gravity well you’re in right now and achieve your objectives.
Pause, detach, and look at the root cause
Just like in relationships that have problems, you’ll want to look at your business objectively by pausing and detaching, and then seeking out the root cause. This method is effective because it removes your emotions and preconceptions from the evaluation. Instead, you’re looking at your business for what it actually is.
Harvard Business School suggests being detached, empathetic, action-oriented, and reframing. You want to rethink the situation around your business and what you could perhaps do differently. Try not to blame yourself but instead look at the systems you’re using and how you could make them more optimal.
Reconnect with your why and business vision
Another reason your business might be stagnating is that you’ve lost connection with your “why” and your original business vision. If you’re constantly dealing with problematic people and putting out fires, you can forget why you started your company in the first place.
For this reason, remind yourself of what you’re working towards. Then marshal resources around this. Stop focusing on ancillary tasks that don’t move you any closer to your goals. At the same time, look for ways to 10x your original ambition, trying to make it more exciting so that it fits into the vision that you have for your life and impact on the world.
Once you start doing this, you’ll find that you begin to unlock new energy and ideas. You’re able to remove the impediments to your business’s growth and focus solely on the actions that are going to serve and benefit you in the future.
Find new inputs and inspiration
The next step is to look for new inputs and inspiration that can help you find the motivation you need to improve your company.
One of the best things you can do is attend in-person events like conferences and workshops, especially if you can go with your team. These tend to reinvigorate everyone and put you on the path to success. You can also consume new content, for example you can read books or listen to podcasts like the Stagnation Assassin Show. Consuming high-quality content like this isn’t wasting time but something that allows you to obsessively probe what you might be getting wrong and the reasons your business could be stuck.
Networking with other people with experience in your industry is also a good idea. They can usually point out flaws in your business model or operations and tell you how to change your current approach to be more profitable. They can also give you ideas if you’re stuck in a tough industry and you don’t know how to move forward.
Make sure you keep on experimenting with new channels, services, and formats. Don’t assume that your current setup is the right one, even if it seems logical on paper. You can never quite predict what the market wants.
Take massive action if necessary
Many company leaders are scared of taking massive action, but often it’s the only way to get out of a rut. Companies that turn things around didn’t just make marginal improvements to their processes; instead, they fundamentally transformed how their business model worked and how they interacted with their customers.
If you’re not sure what to do, hire some help. There are plenty of business consultants and professionals out there who can offer you real solutions for your strategy and growth targets. You could also look into revamping your current systems and processes. A simple audit of what you’re doing right now can find bottlenecks where they exist or errors in your production processes.
Many companies like to gamify this process. This is best done by tracking small wins and using accountability.
Prioritize self-care and energy management
During this process, you need to take care of yourself. Entrepreneurs trying to transform companies and get out of ruts often experience burnout. Frequently they work 10 to 15 hour days believing that more effort is what’s going to lead to solutions. The problem with this approach is that it doesn’t really work. When leaders get too tired or frustrated with building companies, they lose their creative spark and begin to simply try to manage situations, which isn’t the most productive use of their time.
Therefore, make sure you have daily recharges like going to the gym at lunchtime and sleeping at 10pm every night. Also, set yourself a strict cut-off time for work, usually a couple of hours before you go to bed, plus plenty of detox time and vacations. If you push yourself too hard for too long, it will ultimately backfire.
Evaluate what you’re doing right and iterate
As you change the way your company operates, you’ll need to continuously evaluate what you’re doing. Don’t fall into the trap of following vanity metrics like likes and shares on social media, which is what so many companies do. Instead, think about and record metrics that track your overall profitability and bottom line. Then consider what’s working and what you need to get rid of. Don’t be afraid to make difficult decisions. Your company doesn’t have to operate the same way as it does today in a year’s time. It can be fundamentally different if you want it to be.
Ultimately, your business is something that should serve you. History and experience teaches that entrepreneurs have the biggest breakthroughs when they come first. Buy with reflection with bold experimentation. They’re not afraid to try new things, and they know that business isn’t a one-shot game. Instead, it’s something that you can continue trying to win at through many different strategies.
