As a business owner, it can be stressful when things don’t go as planned. Nothing is flawless. It’s easy to lose traction when things go wrong, but you must remember that everything happens for a reason.
Most business owners can attest that there have been times when things happened differently than expected. Yet, these unexpected things turn into success. In the end, it’s all about your perspective. You can turn any problem into a positive solution if you know how to look at it. When things don’t go as planned, shift your perspective by using these strategies.
When things don’t go as planned, Get Clarity.
Most people have “clarity” issues. Business owners get so invested in what they want to sell that they forget that customers have to want to buy it. This is where marketing really comes into play.
People only pay for four main things:
- health
- money
- experiences
- relationships
Your job as an entrepreneur is to determine how to market your product in one of these four pillars. However, statistics show that 98% of entrepreneurs fail because they cannot get clarity on their product or how to present it to clients.
When things don’t go as planned, it’s often due to a lack of clarity in the situation. You have to share your passion with your audience in a clear way that demonstrates how your offer is valuable to them. If your product is different from what your audience wants, you have to be willing to change it. But you will only know what to fix if you have clarity on your product, audience, and the market.
Get outside help to see the situation clearly.
Sometimes you need help seeing what’s right in front of you. When you are too close to a problem, it’s hard to see. When things don’t go as planned, it’s easy to wallow in failure. This is why an outside point of view can be critical. Everyone needs a coach sometimes. Getting an objective eye to evaluate the issues you are too close to can help you get direction on where you need to go.
When things don’t go as planned, pivot to find the solution
You have to find a solution when things don’t go as planned. It’s as simple as that. You can get stuck in feelings of stress and anxiety, or you can take the punches and keep rolling with it. Once you know the problem, the only thing to do is shift or pivot to make it work. Sometimes these movies can be beneficial, and sometimes they lead to more pivoting, but either way, there is only one way to move, which is forward.
Having a backup plan is vital when things don’t go as planned. Nothing in life goes exactly as planned; your ability to pivot makes something successful. The young Mary Jane in the new Spiderman series says, “I always plan for the worse, so if it happens, I’m prepared for it.” This should be everyone’s motto in business.
Things to remember
Get clarity on the situation. Understand that you don’t know everything and get help when you don’t. Allow outside points of view to help you gain clarity if you can’t find it on your own. Don’t sit in failure. Pivot to find the solution. Fail fast and fail forward.
