I have just realised that, in a couple of weeks, our little practice will be 8 years old. The time has just flown by. We have grown from 0 to 38 clients and are still growing and maturing. Some of our clients have been with us since the very early days, which is something I am pretty proud of. And those clients are our biggest cheerleaders and referral source. We are always looking to improve and adapt our processes while still maintaining our level of personal service and that seems to be valued by our wonderful clients. But, even though starting from nothing and building the practice brick by brick has been great, the autonomy and independence of making all the decisions in business has also been scary. In my moments of self-doubt, I worry what will happen if I make a wrong decision. I always think everyone else knows more than me and I worry about to whom I should turn for a sanity check? It seems I am not alone in these fears.
I was discussing this dilemma yesterday with one of our long-term clients. Until COVID hit, they had a thriving little business supporting both partners and their lovely family. Now, they are treading water, hanging on and waiting for things to improve. It’s been so difficult for them to feel positive while trying to come up with new cost-effective ways of improving their sales when foot traffic around their business has dried up. They have asked for advice on whether to spend money on a letterbox drop around the surrounding area to let people know they are back in business. And if they do, when should they start the drop? Or should they just wait a bit longer to see if the economy comes back? 2 years ago, they would have just decided, gone for it and made it happen. COVID has drained their confidence, as well as their bank balance, so they are now second guessing every decision they make.
When you are lacking confidence, I think the answer is there are no bad decisions; there are just choices. No choice can’t be changed so we need to take fear of failure out of the equation. My dad used to say “Your worst fears seldom eventuate”. I carry that with me in my times of self-doubt. In small business, it is much easier to adapt and pivot. So long as you are on top of your numbers and you are not spending more than you can afford, any investment in marketing and advertising will eventually improve sales and your customer base. If you are not seeing improvements in a specified amount of time, you can always try a different tactic. Change is what you can rely on so choosing to do something different when times are tough is always better than doing nothing. We need to trust ourselves and follow our instincts. We’ve made it this far so have already proved ourselves capable. Nobody knows our business like us.
As for me, when I worry about what to do, I always ask my partner in life. He may not always give me the answer I want, but he always sparks a conversation and constantly makes me laugh. You can’t ask for more support than that!
