Tidad “the dyslexic frog”
“It’s not snap back – its snap to”
Many of you are probably too young to remember the recession we had to have in the early 90s. That was a period of 11% unemployment and incredibly high interest rates. I think we were paying 18% on our mortgage it was also a tough time and it also meant the collapse of the business that I had at that time.
It was probably also a wonderful time because I created the company Your Business Angels to solve the problems I had. I had this inspiration and it was during these difficult periods that you can find a new way forward but you have to work at it.
Our Prime Minister is using the term “snapback” to describe what the economy will do at the end of this epoch a period when a virus changed our way of life. There is no back in any words or terms we use now. There is no snapback, there is no back to normal, and there is no back to the way things were.
We all feel that we have been caught in a riptide, and what you do in a riptide is float and let the Rip take you out to calmer waters then you can treat water and be rescued, in this case rescue yourself and your business.
Those who believe still that the government stimulus package is about their business still have it wrong.
The stimulus package is about employment not your business, and for those of you who are self-employed in a one-person enterprise this certainly will be helpful firstly with the jobkeeper payments and relief through what the government call “the cash flow bonus” which is effectively forgiveness PAYG for a few months. For those of you who has a closed business there may be some state funding available up to $10,000 in Victoria plus other arrangements in other states. But its short term and not the way ahead.
At Your Business Angels we are not saying snapback we are saying “snap to” is to snapped to attention and we want you to meet our dyslexic frog Tidad.
Our dyslexic frog has the answer to the personal culture and attitudes that you are going to need to survive, thrive and get ahead in the next few years. Without these you will be scratching around in the dirt, metaphorically speaking for a long time waiting for handouts for the government.
T.I.D.A.D
Talent – you are in business and you’ve got a skill.
You may have spent years calling yourself a dumb tradie, kick yourself for that but what you have is talent and ability to build, fix, think through a problem, connect communication systems, use a digger, provide professional skills or something that is unique to a profession, a trade or a group that has something to sell.
The first thing you do is assess your talent, think of all the things you do or can do in the future. I give you the example of a plumber who may specialise in drainage, but if he saw an opportunity for example in roof plumbing or domestic work or whatever his talent can take to many other places. You must assess your talent and be ready to expand your work horizons to take opportunity as you see it. It may not fall exactly on your traditional business stomping ground you may need to move from where you’re standing taking your talent and skills.
Innovative – I always say to people “you know more than you know you know”. Which means most people can create, think and invent way beyond what they’ve done in the past. If you’re for example a chippy who’ve always worked for them self for a builder, why can’t you approach a builder form a small team and keep that team busy (a team that now becomes reliant on you for work) and you now have innovated yourself into a business bigger than just turning up and working for yourself as a subcontractor.
Today the changes you make or think about are only the beginning. Out of this recession that will happen because of the virus new successful people will merge because they were innovative in small or large, simple or complex ways to do amazing things.
Driven – you must find a new way to think – a new thinking to drive yourself to make your business work.
For many years while I built Your Business Angels I always saw myself as somebody who had their backs against the wall and would never give up.
Never give up.
I had to learn new skills new attitudes and I am journeying back to those during this period and I find that the seven day a week, long hours and being just generally pushy is working. Find a way to drive yourself, push yourself. Just because traditionally for example you knocked off on a building site at 3pm or 4 pm, that can change because if you’ve got daylight you can work and you can earn money. Kick the 37 or 40 hour week out of your mind and for your business get going. Laziness is for wimps.
Ambitious – don’t sit around thinking government stimulus will simply pay you and then back to normal (there that back word again). Assume millions of Australians will be thinking they’ll just sit around getting the stimulus package and they will fall over in a big heap in about six months’ time. Because your ambitious you are going to drive yourself to grab what market what jobs what you can get and control those markets.
Dedicated – to havededication can be an overall feeling, but to be dedicated is to have goals and objectives that you chase to reach. If you can’t reach your goals and objectives create some more goals and objectives and keep going forward in a direction that is positive for your business and outcomes that make strong, rebuild or reinvent your business. Without actually identifying what your objectives are and then measure them with your goals to be dedicated is merely a word.
To be dedicated, is the story of going forward and achieving what you need which is a strong and stable business that supports yourself your family and your stakeholders. This again as part of the don’t give up don’t quit but don’t also hammer away at goals that are unachievable sometimes in the flow you need to change direction.
Find your energy and keep a good eye on your physical and mental health it’s a key part of the equation.
