I've got my new optimistic head on permanently these days and am working very hard to change my typical response to any setback (or opportunity). Those of you who have known me for a long time know that the typical me would be a very quick and rather impolite response to any setback. I've read a few books on businesses/personal improvement which talk about the process as:
event -> response -> outcome
... or variations thereon. That has been my normal course of action with the outcome not necessarily a good one as a result. I'm now really going for a different approach (OK not always, I am human and slip back into bad ways sometimes, but I'm getting better at it) which is ...
event -> pause -> decide on desired outcome -> response -> outcome
... and in general the outcome is better. Every setback often provides an opportunity or at least a lesson to learn that improves how you operate.
Why rattle on about this now? I've applied for a wage subsidy via a Tees Valley Unlimited grant to expand the staffing at Tad Towers and aid our growth as I genuinely planned to increase turnover 5-fold over the next 2 years and was confident of doing that. I'm now in year 3 of the world domination plan and this is the 1st year of profit which is not untypical for a business, especially one that starts mid-recession. Any road up, I've been turned down as I'm not credit worthy.
Now I'm sure the criteria say I'm not credit worthy after all the business owes me, as a director, a pot of cash. We have a very small loan which was used for furniture and software purchases when we moved but other than that the business only owes me money. I'm not sure those criteria are well formed then as they seem to say that any small business looking to grow cannot unless it's already making a profit, in which case I wouldn't need the wage subsidy - Catch 22. Well it's out of my hands, and I may possibly have misrepresented the true facts as the letter only tells me I'm not credit worthy with no explanation, decision is made and business continues.
So what's the plan. Simply I will find the money from other sources to fund another member of staff and for Peter to take over the complete management of our small business clients whilst I work on hitting the bigger ticket stuff. We're looking at sorting out a new apprentice also in the next few weeks.
On Thursday I popped to the post box on the way to meet a visitor at reception and opened the letter informing me of my unsuccessful grant application. Never mind, I've got a visitor coming in who seems keen to provide some small opportunities (or so I think) as an ambitious local business and I'll work out the plans regarding funding staff later. 2 hours later my visitor has outlined some very ambitious plans that he would like us to take part in.
So no guarantees obviously but I'm amazingly excited, and a little nervous, about what this could mean for my business and will make sure we make the most of the opportunities. It seems my growth plans may be lacking ambition!
And just where did I originally meet this mysterious visitor? He popped along to our little BNI chapter at Redcar.
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