28 | Muddling along?: You Might Be a Tim: The ‘M’ Breakdown

Ever feel like you're just muddling along, barely keeping your head above water? Today, we explore the unsettling reality of a "zombie business"—a venture that's alive in name only, staggering through the motions without true momentum or growth. Imagine paying your bills, skimming by each month, but never actually getting ahead. If this sounds painfully familiar, this episode promises a path to reignite your spark and get you back on track.

Tim, our small business hero, has hit a rough patch, and I'm here to help him—and maybe you—escape the cycle of stagnation. We'll unpack the common pitfalls that lead to feeling stuck and offer actionable, optimistic advice to break free from the grind. Whether you're a small business owner or just someone in need of a fresh perspective, this episode is a treasure trove of inspiration and practical tips to turn your zombie business into a vibrant, thriving venture. Tune in and take the first step toward a more fulfilling journey.

If you are self-employed or run a small business and feel more like you're self-annoyed then get in touch, visit the website www.theannoyinglyoptimisticshow.com where you can submit a question or problem and start your journey to becoming self-enjoyed! 

The majority of 'business advice' out there isn't aimed at self-employed or micro businesses, following it leaves you frustrated and chasing quick fixes. I specialise in tools, systems, techniques, inspiration and help specifically designed for YOU, the person who has to do it all, who doesn't have a team of people, unlimited resources or the time to spend months learning complicated techniques. 

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Hey there, listeners, it's your annoyingly optimistic host here bringing you another season of the Annoyingly Optimistic Show. Welcome to Season 2, voicemails to Tim. Now let's meet Tim. He's been running his own small business for almost three years now and let's just say he's hit a bit of a rough patch. You know how it is Sometimes you get so stuck, you make yourself busy and just avoid finding the real problems. Well, that's Tim. So, as a good friend, I decide to leave him a daily voicemail, if I can't get hold of him, filled with nuggets of inspiration, insight and wisdom and downright brilliant ideas to help get him unstuck Every day. In just under 10 minutes, I'll share some tips, tricks and a healthy dose of optimism to get Tim, and maybe even you, back on track, because, let's face it, we're all a little tired, in need of help and muddling through. So here we go. Oh wait, never mind Tim's being busy. Here's the voicemail I left him today. Hi, tim, me again. Hopefully you managed to catch my last two voicemails, um, about being tired and in need of help, because today I'm going to dive in to muddling along.

Speaker 1 1:08

Now. Those first two, I know, resonated. You sent me a message and thank you for doing that you know that you could see yourself in this. You can see how you've inspired Tim as a framework and in order to put this in so that other people can hopefully benefit as well. So when you're tired you feel a weight on you. Everything becomes more of a struggle. You lose some of that spark. In trying to fix that, you then start looking for help because you know you need help, but you don't know what help you need. You don't know where to turn, so you start scattergun approaching and kind of key big things which then don't work. You don't know where to turn, so you start scattergun approaching and kind of key big things which then don't work, don't seem applicable. You assume that's just your lack of understanding which then adds to the pressure which makes you more tired.

Speaker 1 1:55

So the third part of this, the end, the muddling along, is almost it come, it comes after the other two, but it's it's almost a akin to kind of not giving up, but it's akin to kind of when those two pressures build, you just kind of go and you just plod along and another way of kind of describing it, which is a term I had years and years ago and it's one I still use every day and it does apply and it really kind of focuses this idea of muddling along is that many people end up with a zombie business. With a zombie business, um, because and what that means is a typical kind of zombie film is you're staggering along, wobbling all over the place, pretty directionless, and you're already dead, but you haven't actually realized it yet. You know, and what this often manifests in is that you can pay the mortgage, you can pay your bills, you can get from month to month, quarter to quarter, year to year, but at the end of the year there's not really anything left. There's not really much can pay the mortgage, you can pay your bills you can get from month to month, quarter to quarter, year to year, but at the end of the year there's not really anything left. There's not really much tax to pay. You've just kind of scraped through. You're abundantly aware of the things that you couldn't afford this year, the things that you wanted to do that didn't do, and everything else.

Speaker 1 3:21

So it's, you know, it is that kind of muddling along, that is, that there's no real momentum, there's no real forward push, there's no real growth, and I don't mean growth in terms of becoming bigger, but I mean growth in terms of what is it you want in your business, your profit purpose that we talked about before, so that you're working less hours, you're making less money, you are exciting your customers more, you're using your business to do whatever it is you want to do, but there's not, that's not happening. And again, money is always a key aspect to that and one of the other symptoms of the muddling along. And again, this comes after you've delved into that help and it hasn't worked. And it's added on to that, that tiredness, pressure you get to muddling along. And one of the key aspects of muddling along apart from those things that I said about just just struggling to get to the end of the year and then just doing it again and again and again is we start to look for, in our desperation to cure this tiredness, to our dissatisfaction with not being able to find solutions for the things that really we really want help with.

Speaker 1 4:32

We start chasing magic bullets um, one of my, my pet peeves. We start chasing the latest quick, one trick, one you know what button can I press in my business that just will change it and transform it? And so we move from chasing some of the big help things to just basically trying to find the smallest little time consuming hack in inverted commas that we think will suddenly change the course. And so we then invest time excitedly. It gives us a bit of a search oh look, how to change your business in 10 minutes, how to master, you know, insert certain types of you know marketing here in in 15 minutes. We chase all these, these quick hits. What they do is they get us excited, they give us a clear well, there's a one, two, three step here. It must be easy um, throw some money and time at it and guess what? It doesn't work.

Speaker 1 5:32

And then you're right back to where you are, except you're a little poorer, both in time and money. And so you get back to muddling along and this really, you know, completes this vicious circle, because that just makes you tired, it zaps you with energy, because it was another thing that you've wasted time and money on, and that increases the pressure that you've got to make more money. You don't sleep as well because you're worrying about that. So then you look oh, I'll go, I'll buy a book, a book, someone, I heard about this, I've heard about this person, or whatever and and you just go round and round in this cycle and this is, this is something that this is. You know, tim, you've enabled me to put a, put a banner on this.

Speaker 1 6:17

Shine a light at this in this idea of Tim, which is tired, in need of help and muddling along, because those are the three things and they're almost a counterpoint. You know that, um, the, the, the words you've heard me say a lot over the last couple of years, which come from my annoyingly optimistic view and the way I kind of approach things, and they are a rallying cry. But the problem with a rallying cry is that when you're feeling tired, in need of help and muddling along, someone jumping up and down excitedly with a rallying cry, immediately there's a disconnect there in terms of, oh, they don't know what I'm dealing with, they don't know, or that that sounds really nice, but where I am is different. And so in order to kind of make people, make you aware and make others aware that this tired, in need of help and muddling along, this is how most people are feeling as self-employed, it comes and goes. Some people are obviously very successful, some people you know that excess success comes and goes, but it is something that you know most self-employed people struggle with some of the time, a lot of the time, all the time, depending on where they are with their business. And if you can identify that, then you can start making those changes.

Speaker 1 7:41

And and the phrase, my rallying cry phrase which you've heard me say before, which is the antithesis, almost, of Tim, which is worry less, make more and be brilliant. You know, and for me that is all about reducing that worry by having the right knowledge, the right things at your fingertips. Make more is about understanding what you really want out of your business and make more of that, whatever it might be. And everybody always wants a bit more money, but if you chase something more than that, you will get more money back from that. And be brilliant because self-employed people like you, tim, that that have this passion and started this business because of a real drive, you've got to keep hold of that. You've got to carry on being brilliant, because that's what got this started and that's what will make this thing as amazing as it can be.

Speaker 1 8:36

So that's the kind of the rallying cry, but tired, in need of help, and muddling along is so that you understand. That's what most people are going through. That's how they're kind of seeing things not necessarily all of them, you know you can be in various kind of stages, but as soon as you identify with those, that's where a lot of the help and advice out there just doesn't quite help. You need the focused help. And again, that's what I'm dedicated myself to is helping self-employed people to basically make these changes, to basically understand what they need to do to be less Tim, tired, in need of help, muddling along and more Steve.

Speaker 1 9:18

Now, the next one voicemail I leave you will be talking through Steve and what that's actually about. Now, again, you can kind of see because I've kind of set it up a little bit, but it's it's the start of a framework to basically start identifying some of these things, identifying some of the steps that you can take to actually reduce the feelings of tiredness, reduce the feel that you're in need of help and reduce the feeling of that you're just muddling along. And by working through that you can start to basically systematically be less Tim, unless, of course, like you, tim, you are Tim, in which case be as much Tim as you like, but we'll be Steve as well. So I hopefully hope that has kind of put the last piece of the jigsaw together to understand what this muddling along, combining with the need of help, combined with the tiredness, and if you resonate with one, two or three of those, then I'm here to help and that's what I really, really want to get across to you by putting something that is dedicated to you. The help that I put there doesn't work for bigger businesses. It doesn't work for five, 10, 15 employee businesses. It doesn't work for ones that want to expand and franchise. It doesn't mean it can't work for some 10, 15 employee businesses. It doesn't work for ones that want to expand and franchise. It doesn't mean it can't work for some of the individuals within that, but it's very, very much centered around the individual like you and the things that you can do to basically make that better. So I hope that's been helpful, tim, and go back and listen to Tired, in Need of Help and Muddling Along this one, and next time I'll be talking about Steve, so I'll speak to you soon. Bye, tim.

Speaker 1 11:02

And that's it for today's episode of Voicemails to Tim on the Annoyingly Optimistic Show. Now, remember, tim might be busy, but we're all in this together. Whether you're tired, in need of help or just muddling through, tim is here for you because, well, tim is you. Yes, you heard that right. Tim isn't just my friend. He's a reflection of all of us who are struggling to make it work. T-i-m stands for tired, in need of help and muddling through. So if you're feeling like a Tim, you're not alone For all those ambitious listeners. If you've got a burning business question, a quirky thought or just want to see if you can leave an even weirder voicemail, head over to the website voicemailstotimcom. Submit your question and maybe, just maybe, you'll hear your idea in a future voicemail to Tim. So until then, stay annoyingly optimistic, keep pushing forward and remember if life gives you lemons, leave a voicemail to Tim. So until then, stay annoyingly optimistic, keep pushing forward and remember if life gives you lemons, leave a voicemail about it.