I took my daughter to a nearby park that I have not been to in a few years. The park was designed so that kids 5 though 12 year olds will be able to climb walls, do the monkey bars and navigate through mazes that are challenging to the younger set. When I first started taking her to the park when she was three or four, she was the bravest little girl I ever met! She used the metal chain to climb up the “steep” wall, at times using one hand to push me away to let me know that she didn’t need my help. She would try valiantly to go from one end to the other of the monkey bar set, often making two or three bars before falling and gathering herself up to try again. Today, as a twelve year old, she left asking me if there were other more challenging areas of the park that she and her friend could navigate. When I told her that there were none, she wanted to leave and try a different park that was more “age appropriate”.
What does a kid outgrowing a park have to do with running your business? It is amazing what you can achieve when you focus your time and energy to accomplishing a task that seems impossible. It is important to be focused on achieving and exceeding your goals that you have for your business and not to be satisfied with hitting early milestones. Once you have $100k a month in sales, go for $200k in sales. Push yourself and your organization to go further than you thought it was possible. You don’t have the salespeople to hit your target sales for your budget? Hire them! You can’t find the extra $50k in your budget to launch an online branding strategy that could yield 3x the investment in the next six months? Find a lender that will give you the funds you need to succeed. There are many reasons why some people will not pursue a strategy because the easy answer is not in front of them. The truth is that there are no “easy” answers and that all entrepreneurs must face the dilemma of taking a risk to bring their company to the next level. Don’t be afraid to take some calculated risks that could bring some long-term benefits for you and your company. You might fall off the monkey bars and bump your head on occasion, but as your successes pile up you will look back at these obstacles and wonder what the big deal was.
Keep Smiling!
Prophets of Profit
