What To Do When Your Business is Stuck.
I have been here many times before.
I can’t quite put my finger exactly when and what I did or how I felt when I felt my business was stuck but I definitely know when for some reason, suddenly things started to go wrong and we were in financial trouble.
How great would it be if you knew before you got stuck or the moment when you got stuck, so you can unstuck yourself?
It would be great.
But here’s the thing. A lot of times, when you own your own business, especially if it starts as a passion project, you have blinders on. You don’t see left and right, you only see one thing in front of you, which is … your business and how you are going to move forward. You know what needs to be done, what you need to do, sometimes you even know how you are going to do it, maybe all you have to do is to get more clients, inject money into marketing, hire more people, do more work. We know what is in front of us and around us, but we often forget what is behind us.
Our source. Our initial intention.
Right before the end of the year, I was experiencing a surge of opportunities through my new side hustle. I had an Etsy store selling digital printables, an audience for the Strength Logo that I was creating and a go ahead from a reputable state school that was willing to give me the opportunity to offer my designs to all 700 of his students. I was excited and somewhat in disbelief of how quickly it became something tangible in which started with as just an idea.
The first week of 2021 started and we were still moving forward. The college director was still connecting me with his students and was optimistic that the Strength Logo that I created would benefit all 700 students in this coming year, especially since they are starting to do more in person schooling.
Then the next week arrived and … silence.
I didn’t receive an email back from him or from his students. I followed up and still no response. Then the moment came when he informed me that he changed his mind because of the budget cuts that were happening.
I felt stuck.
Things were going so well but now I felt like I had to start over to look for other universities and be prepared to offer the same thing and brace for the rejections that may come with it.
Outside of business and into our lives, it is common that we feel like this not only in our business but also in our relationships and career. We feel like everything is going well and moving in the direction that we desire and then suddenly we feel like we are stuck in one position having to wonder what can we do next. We often doubt that the decision we make going forward may not be ideal, different than how we felt when we first started. Sure and confident.
Look back to where you started
One of the things that helped me get through this was to look back to why I first started the project. What did it look like and why did I make the decision to put my work out there? For me, I created the Strength Logo because I wanted to empower others with a logo. I felt that having a unique logo that represents what I was good at, have helped me in tough times when I didn’t feel confident about myself. This helped me determine what I needed to do to move forward.
When you see where you started, you will realize how simple your intention was and with that intention, you will find the way.
Be Resilient.
Being resilient means doing something even though you are afraid of the outcome. It is not about being tough, or pushing beyond the boundaries of what your body, your mind or your wallet could do. It is telling yourself that you can do it when you are afraid of human fears like rejection, embarrassment or failure. Being resilient helps you become unstuck because the first step that you make towards that something, even if you are afraid, will reveal a new step that you didn’t think about.
Focus.
The easiest thing to do when you feel stuck in your business, your relationship or in your career is to distract yourself. It is uncommon that along with distracting yourself, you are also creating a wall between you and the actual issue that is blocking your progress. In relationships, the Gottman Institute for marriage and relationships calls the behavior of ignoring your partner because of an ongoing issue as “stonewalling”. I’d like to say that in our own business or creation, we also often create a “stone wall” between us and our creations. When the business, the artwork, the project blog or website that we create feels stuck in our mind, we decided that we don’t want to think about it for a while. Your creation continues to communicate with you by giving you new ideas, new pathways for you to move forward but you ignore it. You ignore all the ideas, resources, possibilities because you don’t want to think about it and then before you know it, it becomes a neglected project.
Often times, when I am in a spot like this, I do take a few days off. And there has been times, many times where I decided that it was not for me and I stopped making updates on my blog or Etsy store completely because it was too much work, not really what I wanted to do or worried of what other people may think about it.
But my project and my ideas would never neglect me. It will continue to be in my mind, telling me of new avenues of thoughts that I didn’t think about. If you focus on it, and listen to it, you will find a new path.
And most of the time, if you follow the path and continue to focus on it, even if you are afraid or simply don’t feel like it, you will find or learn something that you didn’t expect.
So just give it a chance. Give it some focus, even if just a little.
Get Help.
It’s easier said than done. Giving a chance and continuing to do work when you don’t feel like it, or when you are afraid is easier said than done. Truth. Definitely. And the struggle is real. I have been in this position many times. I probably have about 4 blog sites in Word Press, Squarespace, Weebly and Wix that I never published. I just created them because I had an idea, created and decorated the website because I enjoyed seeing the final product, but I didn’t put it out there. Why not? Because I was afraid. Because I felt that once I publish it on the web, that people would judge it, or nobody would see it and it would fail. And I would be a failure.
Do you know who knows that you are not a failure? You. But also … your coach or your best friend, your spouse, your kids, your parents or your support system. Sometimes we are our own worse enemy. The person that is your best cheerleader and your best bully is the same person … you.
You need backup.
You need someone that will be on your side when you are not. In many addiction programs, you have a sponsor to help you get through your itch. But when we sail through a new project that we envision or dream would replace our monthly paycheck, most of us would go for it alone. Even though this can be successful for some, but definitely not for all.
I have a coach and I don’t always stick to one. Because the obstacle that I encounter changes depending on the situation that I am in. I had a finance coach to help get me out of debt and build my emergency fund. I had a spiritual coach to help me communicate to the universe with the right language to attract more good things into my life. And I have a business coach that helps me get on track and keep on track for the work that I want to do and what I want it to produce.
Don’t go at it alone. Get someone to help you, guide you and encourage you so that when you forget, lose track or are afraid … you will have someone to talk you through it.
In truth, when you realize it, no business or creation is ever stuck.
The only thing a business, a project or a creation is, is an idea.
It’s an idea that sparked in your mind and you decided to turn it on. Like a plant, you decided to water it, fertilize it, talk to it and give it some sunlight. You do all that by improving it, talking to more people about it, planning for it and most importantly by thinking about it more and more.
Here’s the other thing.
Your idea is never stuck. Just like the grass that grows from the earth, the only place it can go is up. And it will not let anything stop it.
Foster your idea, as it grows, let it go. Fear not what others may think or say about it, but let it move to the direction that it wants to regardless of what you think about it. Ride the waves of your business as it goes up or down or steady. Believe that your idea belongs to you and only to you and if you foster it, if you cultivate it, it will become fruitful.
