3 Tips for Surviving a Cash Flow Crunch

I have never met a business person who hasn't at one time or another had a cash flow crunch. There may be someone out there, but I've never met one. I know I have had one or two as I ease myself into this thing called business. You're not alone. Here are 3 lessons that I have learned where the rubber hit the road.

1. Don't beat yourself up over it. You got here because of decisions you have made. Accept it, learn from it and move on. No sense getting angry at yourself. It's counter productive.

2. You won't get out of one hole by digging another one.  As much as you may want to borrow from Peter to pay Paul, avoid the impulse. You're already overextended - think of ways to generate more revenue instead of looking for quick fixes. You're in a place of great learning - hard knocks are like that.

3. Get humble real quick.  The thing about good business people is that they're not afraid to humble themselves. Ask for an extension on payment if you need to but only if you won't inconvenience someone else. You need to get through this and keep your business going. Get humble real quick.

My two cents - something needs to change if this becomes a chronic problem in your business. Think long and hard about that.

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Entrepreneurship - Fixed and Growth Mindset and Visioning

Sit quietly for a few moments and imagine that its the end of the day (I'm assuming it's morning where you are). Now take a few deep breaths and think back on the day - what made it special? Did you spend time with friends? Was it the amazing round of golf in November or did you strike it rich at the casino? Did you enjoy a day on your own while the kids went on an adventure with grandma? Now.....

GET OUT THERE AND MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!

Fourteen years ago, when I started my learning journey, had I read this opening paragraph, I would have stopped reading. Not my thing. A little hocus pocus and foo fooy. 

But here I am today not only visioning as a regular part of my day but teaching others to vision as well. 

I used to be a Fixed Mindset gal. I can still remember Sister Mary - a nun who walked around with a stick, little black Oxford shoes, bushy eyebrows and a double chin hanging over her white wimple. She would stare at me sternly when we were caught climbing back in through the bathroom window after sneaking out for a smoke. 

We weren't taught to dream - we were taught to be obedient and to become great employees. That's what the public school system did. Entrepreneurial success requires that you be a dreamer - a growth mindset characteristic. If we don't know how to do that - we need to learn. 

I've had a few meetings recently where I had an opportunity to speak about three of the core competencies of entrepreneurship that I dabble in - communication, networking and MINDSET with the latter being the one that I enjoy speaking about most.

Generally I'm chatting with people who are old school fixed mindset - having a foot in each canoe helps me to bring the conversation to a place where they get curious about what I'm saying. That's all I want to do is start the dialogue. How do we teach fixed mindset people how to think like a growth mindset person? One part of that is teaching people how to vision. A clear vision of where you are going becomes a magnet, impacts your choices and gets you there quicker.


Here's how it looks for a 30 Day Sales Challenge.

- we have set a goal for what we want to achieve.
- we do a visioning exercise where we imagine that we're at Day 30.
- we visualize that we're looking back over the month to see what it is that we did to get here.
- use your imagination.
- what needed to go well.
- what people did we need to meet.
- what did we say no to?

Now get 'er done.