Small Business Failure

Why Your Business is Stagnating Part 1

Written by Jay Shapiro for Gaebler Ventures

Have things ground to a halt with your small business? Then something's jamming up the works good and proper. Have you ever considered that it might be you?

If you read the summary of this article and you're not offended and still want to read on then give yourself a pat on the back.

It's not easy when we find our business on a go slow. The good news is that acknowledging the fact will set you on the path to righting the problems.

First you need to make an honest appraisal of how long your business has been stuck in metaphoric traffic. If the jam has been going on for some time then the tips in this article will help you address the situation and, just by changing the way you think, make good again. If you are only newly stagnant then you can learn a lot that is of value too, and in good time to get things quickly back into working order.

There are three key assets of you that you bring to your business:

• Time
• Energy - both mental and emotional
• Health

In order to nurture your business effectively, you have to make sure you respect your time, energies and health.

Many brilliant and talented people capable of achieving great things find themselves stuck in ruts and feeling bad for not achieving the level of success and professional recognition they have the potential to.

As human beings we can easily fall victim to our own fears, habitual behaviors and mindsets and these can have a negative effect on the health of our business ventures.

The first step to getting things back on track is to acknowledge your fears and any bad habits and negative ways of seeing things that are characteristic of you. If you are honest with yourself you can then take radical action and change things for the better.

Some of the causes of stagnation are pretty common.

The problem is that once one area becomes inert, others quickly follow. Here are the main causes of small business stagnation.

Doubt in your abilities or feeling you don't deserve success -

It's natural to experience feelings of doubt occasionally. Everyone does at some point or another, it's only human. However, if you really begin to that you aren't up to achieving what you need to or don't deserve to do well then your attitude will color everything that you do. Do you recognize the following ways of thinking?

• "I keep my prices really low because I'm frightened of not selling if I charge too much."
• "I wouldn't be able to learn to use technology. It's too difficult."
• "I probably won't make six figures in this business every year, but I'm happy with $10,000."
• "I feel fraudulent when I'm marketing my services."
• "Won't people hate me if they think I want to sell something to them?"

Looking at these observations on the page really highlights how negative they are. But a lot of people have these kinds of thoughts circulating in their minds on a daily basis.

When that's the case, your energies can be drained. It's time to do some inner spring cleaning.

Jay Shapiro is a freelance writer based in the UK. Jay has a particular interest in the emotive aspects of the entrepreneur's character. "Alongside the nuts and bolts of business, the character of the person is often the ingredient responsible for success."

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