The other day I was chatting with an advisor of mine about a few recent frustrations I was having, and he brought up the idea that every business has a personality. That sounds bizarre, right? Your business having a personality, as if it was a live person. The interesting thing is, EVERY business (especially small businesses) does have a personality, and that personality is based off of you. This can be both a good thing and bad thing depending on YOU. In my case, I found this out the hard way. Allow me to elaborate…
Feeling burned or un-motivated out? Your business does too.
If you're feeling like you're stuck in a rut or a little burnt out, that feeling will leak into your business. I didn't quite realize this until I looked at a couple months of business this year where I wasn't feeling fulfilled, and things were in fact slower. I noticed (after the fact) that it was effecting my employees, too! How YOU feel affects your work, which affects the rest of the company and people in the company. It was MY issue of not feeling motivated (it happens to EVERYone) that was causing the vibe/personality of my business to shift.
I spoke with my advisor about how someone who worked for me wasn't doing their best job anymore and I could see it in everything that they did. I knew and felt that it was related to me but I didn't quite understand it until he said "Sayeh, your business has a personality just like every business. You didn't want to be in the office for some time, and everyone around you felt it too." I never SAID I didn't want to be there. I actually had meetings and other things that required I be out of the office. But it didn't matter that I wasn't saying anything, there is a certain feeling, a vibe and my overall personality that is reflected in my company and everyone around me felt it too. If the boss doesn't care or want to be in the office, why should anyone else?
Obviously if your employees aren't doing their best, then your clients/customers will feel it. It's an unspoken thing: when you're less focused, your business will suffer even if other people are running it. As I began to notice that my employees didn't feel like coming in, I saw that all their work was suffering, too. Client and customer emails were replied to a week late, orders shipped out late, to-do list tasks were long overdue. Balls were being dropped and it was reflected in our sales and any customer complaints that came our way.
It all started to click in my mind that it started with me, then happened to my employees and then effected my bottom line. Once it reaches that point, that's when business owners start to take notice and start to make changes and shifts to fix things. On the plus side, you can do things that keep everything running smoothly and your business booming, but again it takes on your personality. You don't really realize this until someone points it out, but fixing things and changing the vibe of your business isn't as hard as it seems. I'll show you in a follow up post the things that I did to get back on track and stay there.
Did you know your business has a personality? Let me know in the comments below!