Building your Business in Challenging Economic Times

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Building a business in any economy requires something from us - but when economies shift, our perspectives need to shift too, to match the new needs of the market.

This episode is designed to inspire you, encourage you, and give you a shift in perspective, because a challenging economy doesn't create weaknesses within a business; it just exposes the gaps.

So many people blame the economy, but when they do they they give away their own personal power and agency for growth! 

Today, I share my thoughts and mindset shifts that will help you grow even when times are tough, and how these skill sets will make business in any season amazing for you! 

Transcript

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We're back. Hello, everyone. Welcome to episode four. I'm so excited to have this conversation with you today. This is actually a re-recording, I'm re-recording the live stream that I delivered inside of a free Facebook group this week because it is such an important conversation. I love live streaming, but I also know that sometimes we just want the crux of it. You know, we just want to hear those most important parts. So if you've listened to the live stream, amazing. If you've joined me inside of my free baking business Facebook group, amazing. If you haven't yet, this is your invitation to join us. But also, I wanted a way to deliver this information to you and this, you know, this podcast to you in a really clean, concise way that you can listen to on the go. And there's no better way than having this chat with you here on the podcast. So hello, welcome. This is episode four, and I think this is the most important conversation we can be having right now because it's all about building businesses in challenging economic times. What a brilliant conversation to be having, right? I'm excited to talk to you about this. You might be like, why are you so excited? Right? But I bring a completely different perspective to a lot of other people. Um, I've been in this situation before when I opened my first business at the tender age of 21. Not only did it take a lot for me to actually learn the basic skill set of business, I learned through trial and error, and I really had to move, there was a big shift to the app, and I had to move out of my own way in order to do the things that I needed to do to grow the business. But then just as that business was growing, just as things started moving in the right direction, the global financial crisis hit us in 2008. And up until that point, I'd never experienced a time in the economy and in history where people had so much fear and so much panic, and there was very little spending. People were became very, I guess, scared to spend money. They were holding on to their money. Uh, the the housing market in America was crashing, and there were predictions that the same thing would happen here in Australia. The government actually handed out stimulus packages to help stimulate the economy and to keep people spending money. And it was one of the most challenging times that I'd ever experienced up until that point. And the thing is that that business that I just started, lots of people started panicking. I saw the same thing that we're experiencing now, lots of people closing down. Yet I was still able to grow that business four times over, and it grew into a monster. I was young. But the global financial crisis and the challenging economic times was not the reason why I shut that business down. The business grew four times over. I ended up having a team of 12 staff, multiple, catering from multiple locations, catering contracts, corporate catering, private catering, mobile catering, multiple day, multiple event catering, all of the things. So the things that I'm seeing online now about why small businesses are shutting down, I want to offer you a different perspective from someone that's been through this before, from someone that isn't panicking, from someone who wants to see the food industry stay in really high regard. And I want to inspire and support you in growing your business, maybe thinking about things differently, and to encourage you to think bigger, look deeper, and really, you know, ask yourself bigger questions about what is actually going on and who do you need to be as a business owner, rather than panicking about what might be going on, or unfortunately, listening to other people and taking on other people's mindsets or fears as your own. So I'm definitely not here to scare you today. I'm here to encourage you and inspire you and to you know offer a different perspective. And like I said, I've been here before and I really encourage you not to panic. So the first thing that I want to say is in spite of this, in spite of the fact that I want to encourage you and I want to um support you and I want to inspire you, I need you to know that it is hard. You're definitely not imagining it. Building businesses with challenging economic times is more difficult. Absolutely. You know, um, there's something that I said in an email the other day where uh a challenging economy doesn't create a weak business, it doesn't create the cracks in the business. What it does is it exposes us the weaknesses within a business, and it's really important to remember because when things are easy, when the economy is thriving, when people are spending money easily, it's very easy to build a business because it takes very little for the business to look like it's working. As soon as the economy shifts, as soon as people stop spending or start spending differently, as soon as consumers become more sophisticated or consider things for longer, suddenly the things that were glossed over in the past become exposed. Those cracks become bigger. And what happens is that the instability that was already there, that was covered over by a thriving economy, become exposed. And rather than fixing the cracks, a lot of people blame the economy and they shut down. And this is where I want you, and what I really want to talk about today, is because there is way more to growing a business than just having a thriving economy. And I want you to start looking around because at the same time as businesses are shutting down, other businesses are doing amazing, and there are still businesses that are thriving. Now, these businesses know something that the other businesses don't. It's not that people stop spending, it's just that their spending habits change. And sometimes they either become more sophisticated in their spending, they ask deeper questions about uh who am I actually buying from and what is it that I'm actually spending my money on. And they generally take longer to make those buying decisions. So we're not in a fast-paced economy anymore. The decision takes a longer time, and sometimes people require a little bit more information or guidance from you, the business owner, right? So, this is what I want you to know that even though a challenging economy will be challenging, right? It's challenging for a reason, it will require something from you. It's not easy. People still spend money, and if you only look at the economy as the defining factor of businesses succeeding or failing, there would be a hundred percent failure rate right now. And that's not the truth. The thing is that some businesses are closing down and failing and or um or not being able to make it work, and some businesses are still thriving, and that means that we have control, we do have control over circumstances, over our thought patterns, over how we show up, and we can work to create the outcomes that we want. It's just not as easy as in a thriving economy, but it doesn't mean it can't be done. So if you're ambitious, it's really important for you to know that if you're ambitious and this is something that you want to do, keep listening. You'll hear so many golden nuggets in this episode. I'm got so much I want to share with you, but also just know that it can be done. And in all honesty, you will be the exception. You will most likely be the exception to the rule if you keep thriving while others close down. That means that you have to put blinkers on so that you're not distracted by other people's thoughts, feelings, and emotions, and you're only making those decisions that best serve your business and your customers. This is really important because when we take on other people's mindsets, I can make us panic unnecessarily when actually there is nothing wrong with our business. So it's important that you look inside when things like this happen. Blinkers on, be super strategic uh around who you're receiving advice from and what you're listening to, and then look inside and look at your customers. Uh, don't make any business decisions that business decisions that don't revolve around either the market, where is the market going, what is the market doing, how is the market changing, and how is the market behaving, and your own customers. What do they need right now? What else do they need? How else can I serve, right? You are a customer first business. And when you build a business based around what your customers need, trust me, you can survive nearly any economic time. So here's what I want to start with. As life goes, things will change. You have to be okay with understanding one of the first things that you must learn as a business owner is that things will constantly change. There is no such thing as a stagnant economy. It's always volatile. Generally, it's volatile more often than it's stable. Um, and outside of that, it's changing, it's fluid and it's flexible. So if you become too rigid in your thinking, we've always done it this way, so we're only going to continue to do it that way. Unfortunately, that is generally a recipe for disaster and a recipe for um a closing business. It's important, even more important in an economy that shifts, that you are aware of those shifts. What is happening? How are people spending? What do they require? Where are those people? How can I reach them, right? So as time goes on, things will always change. And this is normal. The sooner you can normalize this, the easier everything else will be. But what I want to say is that even though things change, there are many, many things around business, the fundamentals of business that will always stay the same. At the end of the day, you do need a beautiful product, you need a great product or service that you offer to the market, and it needs to hold value to the market, it has to be seen as valuable to the market. So that's when you ask yourself, what do the market need right now? Um, you have to be able to build relationships. People will remember how you made them feel more than they will remember your product or your service or the communication that you had. They will remember how you made them feel. Uh, people, a lot of the times it's not what you say, it's how you say it, right? We've all said this before. It's not what you said, it's how you said it. Remember, these are the fundamentals of business growth. Having a beautiful product, understanding the market, building relationships, thinking outside the box, looking at different and creative ways to solve problems and create solutions. These are the fundamentals of business, right? So even though things change, the economy shifts, if we can get those fundamentals right, your business will your business will benefit from it. And what I want to what I want you to think about now is now that you understand the fundamentals of business, there are more. We'll go into them in our business bootcamp next week. So if you haven't read yet, go and register. Uh the link is adlaybakes.com.au forward slash bizmc. I'll pop the link in the uh show notes as well. Come and register, spend three days with me, and we'll expand upon all of these topics. But what I want to tell you is that businesses very rarely close just because of most of the times, there are two reasons why they close. The first one is not enough orders, right? Not enough orders. The orders aren't coming in, the you're spending money to stay in business, everything feels hard and heavy, and generally it's not viable to keep the business going. So a lot of people close down. If we look, if I look at why businesses close down, uh not enough orders is number one. The funny thing is that the other reason people close down is because of burnout. Too much orders, too many orders. Burnout when they are overbooked, overburdened, too much is going on, too much is coming in, and they're not able to keep up with demand. The funny thing is that both scenarios require something from the business owner that the business owner isn't giving, right? This is the thing that not enough orders require something from the business owner, and too many orders require something from the business owner. And in both instances, the business owner is not giving the business what it needs. If I, when I look on a lot of pages of people who say that they're closing down, nine times out of ten, there is no marketing, no direct marketing that is happening for that business. There are no systems in place. I can see immediately there are no systems for marketing or sales, conversions. There are no direct calls to action. There is no consistency around the product or service, there is no connection with the audience, right? Those things matter. They matter day to day, but they matter even more when the economy shifts, right? And on the other hand, those beautiful businesses that close because of burnout, I see the other side of it, that they are actually showing up. They have a beautiful connection with their audience. Their audience wants what they have to offer, but the business owner tries to take it all on themselves. They don't step into leadership. They don't ask, what does the business need from me now? How can I reinvest into this business to cope with the growth? Right? So both instances require something from the business owner. And both instances, I see them even in this economy. Even in this economy. So, what I want you to know, and there's some core concepts that I want to share with you in this podcast, is that even though the barrier to entry has never been so low, we have the beautiful and amazing technology advances that have happened over the last 20 years that make being in business super easy. The internet and internet shopping makes placing orders and taking orders even easier. Websites are very cheap. Canva makes graphic design so easy. Uh, emails and Gmails and Outlooks and all of those beautiful email providers are very cheap or free. The costs to run a business have never been so low. The costs to produce inside our industry have never been as high, though. It's never been as high to make the products that we currently make day to day. And what I want you to know is that a challenging economy will expose the weaknesses within a business. It's easy to build a business when the economy is good. Of course it is. Because people are flowing with their money. You know, money's flowing, people are making sales, they're not thinking too hard about what they're buying or who they're buying it from. A changing economy exposes two things cracks within a business, weaknesses within a business, places where the business owner hasn't been doing what it needs to do a lot of the times. Uh, and in both circumstances, whether there's not enough orders coming in or there's too much, um, and requires that shift in perspective. Where is the market heading? What do people need? Where are they spending their money, right? So, what I want you to know is that business is not passive. You can't sit and wait for the business to grow, especially in a challenging economy or a changing economy. You can't sit and wait for the business to grow. You can't wait for the orders to come in. You must write this down. Business is not passive, it is active. You must find a way to put yourself in front of your ideal customer. You have to find a way, especially if you run a home-based business, without a storefront, without foot traffic, you have an even bigger job of getting yourself out there and putting yourself in front of the people who are most likely to buy from you. And the funny thing is with this trend in online and um internet marketing and social media marketing, is that a lot of people go immediately to social media. Social media is amazing, but it has some setbacks as well. Because you can build a worldwide audience. But if you have a very local product, is someone that's halfway across the world from you your ideal customer or someone that is likely to buy from you? So I want you to consider where is my potential customer? Where are my potential customers and how can I close the gap between me and them? Who needs to know about me and where are they? And once you've answered that question, go deeper. Who else? Where else? How else? Who else needs to know about me? Where else could they be? And how else can they be? How else can I get in front of them, right? Business is an active pursuit. And when you actively go out to find the business and close that gap between your product and your perfect person, you are more likely to find people that will order from you in the long run, right? So business is not passive, it is active. The next thing I want to say is that making great product does not equal a great business. Unfortunately, it's so sad because so many people work on making a beautiful product and they get really creative and they work to perfect the look and the edges and the sides and the shape and the feel and the mouthfeel and the texture and the flavors. If only they put in that much effort into growing their business, honestly. Because when we work on perfecting our product, amazing, we have a beautiful product, but having a beautiful product does not equal a successful business. And you can have a beautiful product and still be in the camp of not having enough business coming in, right? Or you can have a beautiful product, there is demand for that product, you become really busy, and unfortunately, you burn out because you become overburdened with work. So remember that business is active, it's always going to require something from you. When the orders aren't coming in, you must look at how am I how am I putting myself out there? How am I closing that gap between my beautiful product and the person that this is perfect for? And if you do have a product and it meets a need in the market, then you start getting busier. Then you have to step into leadership, right? You have to ask yourself that question: what does the business need from me right now? How can I reinvest into this business so we can continue to grow? Can I reinvest in equipment? Do I have enough equipment to support the production of these products? And also, do I have a team? Your leadership is all about how you bring in people to support you. So knowing where do I actually need the support, that's a conversation for another day. I believe that we need support in all areas of our life, not just in business, uh, as we grow our businesses. And the more support we actually have, the more energy we have to grow our businesses. So reinvesting in people and in systems and in structures and in equipment is an amazing thing as well. So business is not passive, it's active, and it's always going to require something from you. And something else I want to bring in now as a core concept is that your product is not your business. I really want you to think about this because a lot of people start their business based around a product, right? We make a product, and what do people say? Oh my gosh, you should sell this. And then we start putting it out there. And yes, we can make some sales from it, but is this the only thing that we can ever sell? And two things can happen. One is that it takes off and we get really, really busy, and suddenly um we have to make this product in volume. There comes a time where you're going to hit a cap, a ceiling. There's not enough hours in the day, there's no many, not enough days in the week, and unfortunately, you can't physically make more product sometimes. Um, and the other thing can happen as well, where market shifts. And if you think that your business is your product and you only make your product this one way, and it has to look this particular way, but the market shifts, and they want something a little bit different, then your business will absolutely struggle. So I want to take this moment to ask you to disentangle, separate the business from the product rather than this is the product that I make in my business, right? Or I run a cake-making business or a custom cake business or a custom cookie business or a chunky chunky cookie business. I want you to disentangle those two concepts and say, I run a business that produces custom cakes. I run a business that makes chunky cookies. And you know what? When you disentangle those two concepts, business becomes much more flexible and fluid for you. And we will definitely talk more about this next week, about how businesses can grow in many different ways. And it's about not being rigid, about looking at your business as only providing one very specific solution. Instead, understanding that you're a business owner and you run a business that provides a product or service to a beautiful marketplace, and that you are creative and you can come up with many creative solutions to what the market needs at any given time. This is a beautiful freedom and flexibility that we have as business owners. All right. So remember your product is not the business. You run a business that produces products. All right. Keep this in mind. This is especially important because that rigid mindset can keep people stuck in business, especially when either the economy shifts, when spending shifts, or when market trends shift, right? So your product is not the business. You run a business that produces and creates or provides products and services to a marketplace. The final thing that I am Going to share with you today is that successful businesses are not built on luck. It's not luck. You know that saying, maybe she's born with it, maybe she worked hard, spent the time, learned what the market was doing, learned how to run her business. It's this, right? Maybe she's born with it, maybe she or he, they, took the time to learn how to run an actual business, changed their perspectives, thought bigger, thought differently, found mentorship, started taking advice from people who'd been down the road before them and who had actually grown the things that they wanted to grow themselves, right? So successful businesses are not built on luck, and they're not definitely not only built in a thriving economy. Successful businesses are built at all different times in history. They take something from you though. They take a commitment, a level of ambition, knowing that yes, it will be harder for sure. In this time, we have to be better. We have to be more refined. We have to think differently than other people. Because if we think the same as them, we're going to end up on the same path as them, right? So who are you listening to? Where are you getting your advice from? And how are you looking at this economic time, right? Successful businesses are not built on luck or economy alone. They do take something. You will probably feel like you're the odd one out. That is normal. So, so normal. Because if success was common, everybody would be there, everybody would have it. Unfortunately, that's not the case. I hope through listening to this though, you are one step closer and that you're feeling inspired to do bigger things in your business. And know that if you build a successful business in a challenging economy, remember how I said earlier that if you build your business in a thriving economy and then the economy shifts, it exposes those cracks. You have two choices. You can either work to fill those gaps and mend those cracks and refine and follow the market and ask yourself really smart questions about what the market needs from me right now and who am I showing up for? Who is my perfect customer? Who is this product specifically made for? It's not going to be for everyone, trust me. Um, and at the same time, if you do that, if you refine and you're the odd one out that actually learns to run a business in a hard, difficult, challenging economic time, a time where there is a very low barrier to entry and very high cost to produce, but you do it, guess what happens when the economy shifts again? You will be absolutely loving life because you will know and you will appreciate how lucky people are when they build businesses in thriving economies, because you would have built the resilience, the strength of character, the refinement, everything that it takes to build businesses in this economy. When the economy shifts again, which it will, we are in a cycle. Everything is cyclic, and we're probably right in the middle of the hardest part. But when it shifts again, you will be loving life because you'll know what the other side feels like. And guess what? If it ever shifts again, you'll know how to cope. You'll know what to do. You won't panic. You'll be like, I've been here before. It's okay, I know what to do, right? The first time is always preparing you for the second. You can take that, write it down. It's one of my core mantras. I hope that this episode has inspired you, right? Because this is what I'm going to leave you with. I'll do a quick recap, but this is what I want to leave you with. As a business owner, you have the full flexibility and freedom to become whoever you want to be. So I want you to ask yourself this question or these questions. Who am I being? Who am I choosing to be right now? Who am I choosing to listen to? Who am I giving my power away to? Who am I being influenced by? And if I am choosing to be influenced by a specific person or group of people, would I gladly walk down the same path as them? Big questions, right? Amazing. I want you to know that you are a rock star. You're building businesses, you're here at the end of a 30-minute podcast. Even to listen to a 30-minute podcast these days takes something. You're doing amazing things, and I want you to keep going. You're ambitious and you're driven, and you want clearly, you want to stay thriving in this economy. That makes you different from others, and that means that you have to do different things to others, right? Remember, the barrier to entry has never been so low, right? The core concepts I want you to take from today's class is the barrier to entry has never been so low. So you are right in saying that it is challenging. You are right in saying that it is saturated, right? Because when things are easy, lots of people are going to try them. Don't be influenced by that. The cost to produce our products in the food industry has never been so high. A million percent. The food industry is one of the hardest industries to build a business in. In fact, they say that if you can build a business in the food industry, you'll be able to build any business, right? So you're building an incredible, an incredible skill set that will last you a lifetime. A challenging economy does not break businesses. A challenging economy exposes cracks that were already there. So you've got two options. You can either fill the cracks, fill the gaps. Changing economy requires a shift in perspective, right? Two things here. Business is not passive. You can't wait for the business to come. You can't wait for the orders to come in. And also, a great product does not equal a successful business, right? You still have to learn how to run your business so that you don't get too few orders or too many, right? You want to be able to find that beautiful equilibrium. Remember that your product is not your business. You run a business and it makes products and services. And it's important for you to always keep your finger on the pulse of what the market, where the market is going, where the market is shifting, and who your perfect person is. Who is that perfect person for the beautiful products and services that you create? Remember that you are so powerful in creating absolutely everything that you want. It will take something from you. You will, it will require you to work harder. Um, but when the economy shifts again, guess what? You will be absolutely loving life. Amazing. I hope you've loved today's episode. I'm gonna wrap up with 30 minutes in. I hope you've loved today's episode. I hope I've shared something with you that's created a spark of inspiration in you. And if you want to expand on these topics, we'll be talking about all of these things and more next week in my free three-day business boot camp. Come and join us, adelaybakes.com.au forward slash biz. You do not want to miss it because I'm sharing things that I have used, practical things that I have used to grow businesses over the last 20 years through all sorts of different economic times. And just keep that in mind. Something I want you to write down is that the first time is preparing you for the second. So just know that shifts in economy are normal, shifts in the market is normal. And when you learn how to be flexible and fluid, your business will thank you for it. Guys, thank you for joining me for another episode of this podcast. I love bringing these to you. I'm so excited to bring you so many more. But for now, I will see you next week. Come and join us in bootcamp. You won't regret it. Bye, guys.