Law 9 - Stay Adaptable

In this episode of the Business Owner Breakthrough Podcast, host Pete Mohr emphasizes the importance of staying adaptable in small businesses. As a small business owner, one of your biggest advantages is your ability to pivot quickly and adapt to changes. Pete shares his experience with shoe stores during the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes they had to make to stay afloat. He reminds listeners that being adaptable doesn't mean constantly changing for the sake of change, but being willing to make changes when necessary to improve service to clients.

Here are a few things Pete covers:

• The benefits of being a small business owner in terms of adaptability
• How to stay up to date with industry developments and network with other professionals
• The importance of being proactive and flexible
• How to foster resilience and maintain a positive attitude in the face of change and adversity
• The worries, wants, and wins framework for staying adaptable

It’s time to take action: 

As a small business owner, take some time to reflect on the worries, wants, and wins of your business. Consider what changes may be necessary to improve your service to clients and stay competitive. Remember to maintain a growth mindset and be open to learning from successes and failures.

Today’s Download:

Simply go to 10 Laws for Moving from Owner to Operator to get your free downloadable ebook for your copy.

Are you looking to make some changes in your business and your life in 2024?  Head over to speaktopete.com and book a chat with me to see if we're the right fit!

Transcript

Unknown: 0:35

Welcome to the 10 laws for moving from operator to owner series here on the business owner breakthrough podcast I'm excited about this series we're going to explore the key principles for transitioning from operator to an owner mindset in your business. Each episode will focus on one of the 10 laws and provide practical tips and insights to help you apply these principles in your business. If you'd like a downloadable PDF for the 10 laws, slide on over to simplifying entrepreneurship.com forward slash laws to download your copy. By following these 10 laws, you'll be able to move beyond the day to day operations of your business and focus on the long term growth and success. Whether you're a solopreneur or leading a team, this series will provide the tools and insights to transition from operator owner and take your business to the next level. So join me on this journey of growth and transformation. If you'd like to chat with me about how I can help you get started on this journey, simply go to speak to pete.com That's speak to pete.com and book in a chat to see if we're a great fit. Now let's get started. Well, we're almost there law nine of the 10 laws of moving from operator owner is to stay adaptable. Isn't that one of the very best benefits of owning a small business. You don't have to deal with the bureaucracy, you know chain of command of great big organisations, you can literally shift on a dime. And sometimes we need to COVID taught us that right? I'll use shoe topia, as an example, our shoe stores and we were closed for 22 weeks during COVID. An eight week block another eight week block and a six week block. We had to make quick changes. We had to layoff team members changed the way we operate our business move to more online presence, change some of the way we do the online services so that people could pick up at our door, all sorts of different things. But we were able to do that relatively quickly because we're small, because we are adaptable. And because we're okay with changing bigger organisations don't like to change. And typically smaller organisations not saying they love to change, a lot of people don't love change. And one of the things that I've been known as is a change agent. And I like change. And sometimes that scares people too. So you don't want to change just to change. But you want to be adaptable. You want to make the changes when change is necessary and be able to take the action to improve the service to your client, right? We talked about technology, we talked about all sorts of different things along the way. But go back to the Pareto principle that I talked about in a previous episode, the idea that we need to shave off 10% Because you know what, what might have been our key products for the last five years may not be anymore, we might have to adapt that right. What people wanted isn't necessarily what they want now, or will want in the future, we need to be able to adapt, staying up to date with industry developments and networking with other professionals being willing to pivot your business strategy is needed. It's so important to be proactive and flexible, you'll really be better equipped to stay competitive and maintain your edge. When you are working on your business, not in your business. This is your guiding star and understanding what it is that you need and your business needs to do to move ahead. If you're operating your business every day and making all those small, low level decisions. You can't be on the lookout for the changes that are coming as easily. You need to craft yourself some time and think about the strategy and work on the different areas of improvement for your business. It's maintaining your growth mindset, right? open to learning from the successes and failures. And I'm sure you've had failures I certainly have. What have we learned from them? How are we going to adapt our business so that the next time this comes around, we can just walk over it basically the bridge is already there. We know how to get around this, and we can move ahead with continuous improvement. Another idea sort of around this is fostering resilience. When we cultivate resilience in the face of change and adversity, it really means staying focused on your goals and maintaining a positive attitude. Even when things don't go according to plan. We all know that in small business things don't always go according to plan. By staying adaptable and resilient. You'll be better equipped to weather the storm and come out stronger on the other side. I always like to think of things in frameworks and when I think about staying adaptable, I think about the worries the wants and the winds of my isness What am I worried about? And I give some strategy thinking and time to that what changes might be lurking in the future? What are the wants that I'm looking for? What do I want out of my business? What do I think we can do with it? And what do I want my business to provide me as the owner of the business. So think about the worries around the future of your business, the wants that you want in the future of your business, and think about the wins. What are you currently experiencing wins on now? And how can we make those even better, and list the actions that will move you ahead for your worries, wants and wins. And this is the idea of staying adaptable because you can change these things. But if you don't spend some time thinking about these things, then your business is just going to continue on the way it is, it's just going to be the same as right. So you need to give yourself some time to think about your worries once in wins. So that you can start the process of looking for what it is you need to change within your business making those small process improvements. Remember Kaizen from the previous process episode, or it can also help you align your accountabilities and empower your team because you're starting to think I'm worried about this, I need to find somebody else who can learn more about this. Or I'd really like to have more freedom over here and I need to unload this. All of these things allow you to make the shifts and changes and the adaptability is within your business so that you can move from operator owner in your business, because that's what it's all about. It's the 10 laws of moving from operator to owner and this is number nine. One more to go next week. We'll see you then and until then make it a great day. An ironic media production visit us at our ONICK media.com