How Small Business Owners Can Stay Motivated and Re-ignite their Passion
Momentum is everything in business and this is certainly true when it comes to the mindset of every entrepreneur or small business owner. If a business is not moving forward, it’s either stagnant or moving backwards and, neither of these options is one you want to choose.
How can you avoid those negative options and re-ignite your passion for business?
The key to reigniting this passion is often found in the most basic principles – the ones that got you started in the first place. When you started your business, you probably had a general strategy and clearly set goals. Over time, the running of the business somehow got in the way. In this article, we will take a closer look at some of the most important factors and actionable tips that can help small business owners and entrepreneurs stay motivated in the face of challenging times:
How to Stay Motivated and Reignite the Passion
The hard part is to carry that motivation through from the get-go. It’s hard to find the momentum when the motivation isn’t there. The objective here is to find some actionable ways to rediscover that momentum and motivation again.
Adjusting Financial Goals
Financial goals should be set from the very beginning of every venture but, how often do you adjust these figures? These figures should be assessed and changed accordingly on a regular basis. The market is constantly changing, and you need to be realistic and flexible with your financial goals.
As market conditions change or profits increase for the business, you should consider increasing financial goals so that they appear more ambitious or challenging. As you may know, purpose can fade somewhat when objectives are vague or unclear. Without ambitious goals, entrepreneurs are likely to perform at a lower standard.
At the same time, many business owners fail to discipline their personal finances which can also have long term implications on the actual business. For this reason, setting goals for personal finances is equally important for business owners.
Tip: Download a budget app such as YNAB, which allows you to set financial goals and track progress or areas in your finances that you might want to improve.
Making Announcements for Accountability
As a small business owner or entrepreneur, you already know the great sense of freedom that comes with owning a business. However, for many people, this sense of freedom can also translate or nurture a lack of accountability. With nobody to hold you accountable, there is often a temptation to fall short of certain objectives.
For this reason, think about an outlet for business goals and somewhere that you can announce future objectives. Many business owners join mastermind groups in which they can share goals with other entrepreneurs, who will then hold them accountable. In case you might be asking yourself where you find such a group, many of the best groups can be found on social media such as Facebook or Meetup.
After all, when you commit to someone else, you are no longer alone in the matter. More importantly, you now have somebody else counting on you to reach an objective. Suddenly, this fear of disappointing others can turn into a motivation for owners to act with even more purpose.
Tip: If you cannot join a group for whatever reason, make a point of announcing weekly or monthly goals to followers or even friends on social media.
Practicing Mindfulness
As already mentioned, going back to basics can play a pivotal role in re-igniting your passion for the business. It sounds a little cliché but reflecting on the reasons for starting this business can offer perspective that is sometimes lost in what can be a very stressful process. Likewise, looking back to the beginning of your endeavour can amplify just how far the business has come, which can also invoke feelings that may have been lost along the way.
If you have a business that could have a positive impact on a specific community, this could also be a great time to explore the prospect of supporting a local cause or charity. Of course, this is entirely optional, and the main objective here is to practice mindfulness and remember all the reasons you decided to start up this venture in the first place.
Tip: Practicing mindfulness helps business owners develop self-compassion. For this reason, owners can accept or forgive themselves for bad decisions and focus on leading as opposed to becoming self critical.
Finding a Digital Mentor
For many small business owners, the prospect of employing a business coach in the real world is not the most desirable option. On the other hand, finding a mentor online can prove just as effective and best of all, it’s entirely free.
Now, that’s not to say you need to communicate with this “digital mentor” either. Instead, you can “follow” these influencers and use their work/theory/process as a benchmark for your own business. For example, many young entrepreneurs are enthralled by the words of Gary Vaynerchuck and use his videos to incite motivation. Neil Patel is a constant inspiration for owners with a focus on producing online content while Grant Cardone is an especially abrupt yet effective sales mentor.
As you can imagine, including these influencers as part of your daily routine is a very relevant way to increase knowledge and infuse more positivity into your business efforts.
Tip: YouTube is a fantastic source for video content but Linkedin is probably a better place to follow successful business owners who like to share their wisdom with fellow professionals.
Changing Up the Environment
Currently, most tasks can be done away from the office or at any time of day. If you have the privilege of deciding when and where you work, this is also an opportunity to use a change of scenery to inject some much-needed motivation into the psyche.
In recent studies, more than 50% of business owners say that a casual work environment can nurture a more productive workforce than the conventional office. Furthermore, one third of all employees in this US-based study were now working from home or at least away from the physical work place.
But what does this mean to you?
Well, it means that you can most likely change up where you work every day and statistics suggest that you should be rewarded with a higher level of productivity for the effort.
Tip: Instead of going straight to the office every morning, consider grabbing coffee somewhere quiet and answering emails or mapping out your plan of action for the day.
As you can see, the strategy for staying motivated and re-igniting your passion is often just a case of going back to basics. However, these basics require a concentrated effort and what you reap from the process will always depend on how much time you afford to re-inventing your approach.
