Excitement, anxiety, confidence, stress……some days I feel each of these in my business. I suppose the only constant in business is change. Change in staff. Change in processes. But most of all – change in our feelings.
The process of discovering why we feel a certain way is important because it is our feelings which drive our attitude, energy and business decisions. How does my feeling affect my mood? How does my mood affect my choices? Why do I feel this way to begin with?
I’ve written previously about the ‘Growing Pains’ of business and it is useful to identify the ‘feelings’ that accompany each stage of business growth.
There are generally 8 x stages of business growth which drive different feelings:
1. Excited (to start)
2. Frantic (any client is a good client)
3. Angst (I now have something to lose)
4. Good Times (things are flowing)
5. Payback (euphoria – business has given me something back)
6. Frustration (systems and processes that served the Business so well are starting to work against it)
7. Stressed, Disillusioned (business requires a different set of skills to what I have)
8. Choice point, otherwise known as the ‘waiting room’. Do I invest in my own skills/the business and grow, coast along or exit?
Think about how you are generally feeling to gauge where your business sits on the chart above. What stage or feeling do you most identify with?
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be going into more depth for each of these stages, feelings and ‘growing pains’ of business.
Finally, we are holding a workshop in late July to assist business owners in making the best possible decisions at each business stage. The July Conference is being held at the Cruising Yacht Club, Sydney on the 27th of July. More details will be made available shortly.