Turning Problems Into Possibilities
September 9th, 2021 // 10:05 am @ Scott Manning
One of the core principles we teach and implement with our Doctors and their Teams (and as result they implement with their patients within their practice), is moving from problems to possibilities in everything they do.
In short, the concept is most people stop at problems. They figure out whatever issue exists and explain it to their customers. In other words: what is wrong. This negative approach doesn’t put a person’s mind in a space to make a decision.
Instead we want to move past problems, though using them as motivation and a premise for a need, to create and establish possibilities of what can happen. In other words: what someone deserves.
This moves to a positive mindset. It becomes exciting since it doesn’t come across as something someone “has to do” but would “want to do” because of the benefits they gain.
All of that to say we won’t be talking about it as it relates to selling or an experience in your business for your customers, rather I want to talk about this with you about your business overall and the perspective you have about the bigger picture of what you are doing.
Last week, we talked about three ways business owners make mistakes from being cheap, distracted, or bored; to summarize it into three simple words though the implications of these are far reaching.
Instead of leaving you with just these three problems, let’s turn them into possibilities for your businesses growth and your opportunity to reach a new level of achievement by using them as motivation, just as I described earlier.
First, the idea of being cheap presents you with a different approach that can be taken. What I want you to do is flip it upside down and ask yourself not how can I “save money” or “lower overhead” but…
1. Where can I invest more in the most valuable parts of my business that enhance customer experiences, sales outcomes, and give us the ability to increase prices to become more profitable overall.
2. Where are we wasting money, time, resources in things that don’t matter and that don’t impact one of the three things listed above.
Those become very broad questions that are worthy of asking on a frequent basis. Additionally, what I covered last week, every single time you catch yourself trying to save a buck you must ask yourself is this enhancing or detracting from my ultimate objective and making what we do more or less valuable to the customer.
Next, we talked about getting distracted and focusing on the wrong parts of the business and as a result losing sight of what is most important to you.
There is only so much to go around so you have to prioritize. If resources were truly endless then you could grow your business in an unlimited number of ways. You’d just place it all on black because win or lose you could always go back to the unlimited resources and play again.
Instead, life and business isn’t like that. It’s quite the opposite. While opportunities are abundant, time is not and the point of the business is to make a profit and move the money out of the business and into your life sooner rather than later. Reinvesting into your business just for the sake of it is foolish. It needs a purpose in order to generate a return.
This is why you have to be smart and follow these the three ways to stay focused on that which is most important…
1. Make sure that your core principles and the fundamentals of your business are checked regularly; which requires time scheduled for assessment and reflection.
2. Always prioritize everything in your business so it is transparent to the entire team. Everyone needs to know what is most important and most valuable to the business in order to stay focused, set deadlines, and achieve goals.
3. Finally, have the tough conversation with yourself and anyone else who wants to throw money, time, or resources at something that doesn’t tie back into number one or number two. Ultimately, anything else will distract from the objectives and mission you have.
Of course, it was the founder of McDonald’s, Ray Kroc, who famously stated that he doesn’t worry about competition because, “they innovate faster than anyone else can copy.”
However, don’t confuse innovating with needlessly chasing bright shiny objects. They were not distracted by what their competitors were doing and instead they were focused on their core principles and the fundamentals of their own business.
Which brings me to the three ways businesses become stagnant as owners become bored.
As entrepreneurs, it’s easy to enjoy the game, the chase, the pursuit and once you achieve something by ascending to top of the mountain you realize that you aren’t completely satisfied and you want to move on to the next mountain.
This is your prerogative and I believe ambition fuels life but no one else gets to decide what yours should or shouldn’t be.
In your business, to avoid being complacent or falling victim to your own success, you want to stay humble and hungry by having a purpose and passion bigger than just your business as a whole.
And that’s your homework for this week…
What is your driving motivation in your life and business?
What is your purpose and passion for your customers?
This is about committing to challenging the status quo and being different but at the same time balancing that with knowing that you are focused and staying true to yourself while fulfilling something meaningful for the greater good that you feel proud about.
This will fuel and drive you through the times when the money is there or the money is not there, when you are overwhelmed with customers or in need of many. It is this clarity that provides perspective when you need it most.
We are all human, so just “more of the same” will at some point not be enough for you and it’s better to stay ahead of that than to deal with it once you realize you are already there.
One of the most adept and significant things any business owner ever comes to realize (and it takes discipline and mastery so rare few ever experience it), is the ultimate mountain top that they want to reach as a business owner and entrepreneur.
Once you know what that is for you, reaching it without as many detours and wasted time is only possibly if you avoid these three businesses mistakes by turning them from problems into possibilities. I’ll paraphrase the great Zig again: once you reach this view from the top, you move from success to significance!
We’ll head to that very pinnacle next week.
Category : Blog
