SHORT TERM NUGGET PLAN

In the lives of many small business owners emergencies happen. It may be a sudden cash flow crunch or the loss of your best customer. I am sure that these two examples can be multiplied to include many more real life business emergencies. Whatever the case may be, it often becomes a business life threating situation.

Inertia, in many cases, takes over and everything comes to a standstill. No immediate solution comes to mind. Sometimes the “finger in the dyke” (the story is about someone sticking a finger in a dyke to stop water flow) answer comes to mind. It may stop the pain, but it is not a long term or even a short term fix.

Consider the following as a business emergency first aid kit.

• First and foremost take a few minutes and get away; take a short walk, say a prayer, or meditate.
• Next, write down exactly what happen and what the problem is.
• The next action is to identify what you believe would be the best solution to solve the problem.
• Now wrap information into a time-frame by which the problem must be solved.
• Two heads are always better than one; call your mentor, coach, or peer group support person and arrange for a meeting as soon as possible. An in-person meeting is always best but, if necessary, an online face to face meeting using skype can be used.
• Share your problem, the solution you identified and the time frame within which an answer must be reached.
• Together, create an alternative solution list; such a list, most often exists. It may only be a postponement to allow time for a permanent solution but strive to develop at least three alternative solutions.
• With four possible solutions, prioritize them in order by time required to implement, the ease of the implementation and the permanency of the solution.
• This now becomes your most important focus. Create a three to five step action plan which will accomplish your goal and get to work.

There are two main points to this first aid kit: the first is the stepping back and identifying the problem, the cause of the problem and a possible solution. The second is having a trusted someone to reach out to and to share your problem with and to work together towards a solution. Often times, just by following these steps a viable solution appears as you work through this process.

P.S. Don’t forget, The Duck is always there.