Don’t let the twins win.
As the Founder of Bonnet Pro and Key Floor Care & Restoration, I have over 50 years combined time between my two companies. Pretty good since I’m only 53, right? Maybe.
Truth be told, I’m less like a business rock star and more like most of you. I barely graduated high school, coming from a broken family, and other then IICRC classes I have no other formal education. That’s where passion kicks in.
When I was a young teen and would go to my dad’s for the weekend and I would clean his garage. Straighten it up, organize it a little and clean the heck out of it. My dad could be a hard man, but I could see that he genuinely appreciated the job I did for him. This did a lot for me when I made that difference in his life with that small task. That is what I got from my cleaning business, when my work would put a smile on somebody’s face and when my carpet cleaning encapsulation products helped put food on another cleaner’s table. It was the satisfaction of helping and doing a great job that made it worthwhile. Being able to eat and provide is not so bad either.
But with fifty years of business I should know everything, right? Again, like most of you, I don’t, and I get stuck and hit the wall too. So, what do you do when you don’t know what to do? I think you start with asking yourself – your family – what do you want and need? What do I expect from myself and what do I think I should be accomplishing with my business goals? What ‘goals’ you say? When was the last time you sat down and wrote down your business goals? Writing them down is like having faith, and they say with faith you can move mountains. I believe that is true.
Have you become burned out and tired of what you do? I often do, so I need to create new paths for my business to make it exciting again. Like this year I want to introduce a solution to cleaning stairs for the low moisture carpet encapsulation crowd. Something I have wanted to accomplish for years. I wanted to introduce a few new types of products to Bonnet Pro, continue to grow our new powdered encapsulation products, and I also have another industry first up my sleeve. For the first time in a long time, I am excited about my business and its opportunities!
What made the difference between wanting to get another way to produce income and to being on fire again? The fact is, my business and your business are a great blessing and an opportunity to grow in the business, as a business man or woman, and as a person. If we don’t get back on the horse again after our failures and continue to persevere, we miss out on the many valuable lessons we are taught if we are paying attention. For some people it just seems so easy to make money and grow. That has never been the case for me and I bet many of you. You are not alone!
So back to what sparked the fire and made the difference, other then acknowledging the paragraph above? Getting rid of the twins. What twins? The twins of the past and future. We need to focus instead, on living in today. The past drags us down and can remind us more of our failures then our successes. The future often crushes us with the weight of all we must do. Taking care of our kids for, our spouse, the bills, growing old – you know what I mean – we often overload ourselves with everything of tomorrow that we place on our shoulders today. Even the good book tells us not to worry about tomorrow as it will have its own troubles. What if we focus on today and the few things we must do? Then our burden lightens and we can take a breath and regain our strength and maybe more importantly, our focus. We have a chance to fan the ambers back into a flame.
I have a customer whom I like, named Courtney Lee, of Truman Steamers. Some of you have no doubt seen his videos. He is happy and looks like he loves what he does, mainly because he gets results, and that helps people. He looks successful to me. Ask yourself, what does he have that many others don’t?
He’s got a great attitude and that draws people to him, he works hard and genuinely enjoys helping others, and spends time promoting himself, for he is his brand.
You MUST have a goal and work out a path to that goal. You MUST continue to educate yourself on not only your skills but all the ways you have to communicate that skill to the world you serve. How is you website? If you don’t have one, get one. How is your online marketing? Pick an area and focus on it, become great at it and then add another. What I am doing is to become great at Facebook. I really don’t understand it much so I’m not getting much out of it because I’m not giving anything to it. That will change this year. My goals this year are to go after specific things that will grow my company and help me do my best. To me, its not about the money, its about making a difference and helping people to do the same in their own business lives with better products, good advice and sharing decades of experience. To do my best. So, I’m ready again, I’m learning again, and silly as it sounds, I enjoy my business again as it has new focused goals.
When you push yourself outside of your comfort zone you will feel some growing pains. But as you start learning new things it like getting a big dose of hope. Hope is certainly a driving force in our lives. That’s when our attitudes begin to change, our momentum increases and we start loving our business again, and how much does that improve our lives at home? Its huge!
When was the last time you added a new service or improved one you already offer? When was the last time you stepped out of your comfort zone and took a risk to improve yourself and your company? Don’t allow yourself to get stuck. We have way too many options with social media and other advertising outlets to allow a stagnant business to occur. You have more ability and talent then you think. Don’t let the twins steal your joy from you. If you still can’t see what to do, find someone to mentor you and help you in an area you may not know, like web development or social marketing. Get fired up and love what you do again, otherwise it’s just about money and to me that’s just not enough.
Make the effort. Set a little time aside each day to learn, grow, and rest. You just might be amazed at what your new dedication can accomplish for you and your family.
