Making your business different - will you do it?

In last month’s GrowFARM Connector I discussed making your business different. I accept there will be many who will not see that as necessary, practical or whatever. What about you? Was that article just words or could there be something in it for you?

We are often told by business or success guru’s that to attract success, we need to make our businesses attractive to it. Good people want to do business with you if there is value in it for them and you are not just another farming business among the 20 000+ meat and fibre farms in New Zealand. Let’s discuss getting yourself over the line and on the road towards making your business different, as opposed to the mechanics of making it different.

As with anything beyond where you are now it is not about what you can do, it is about what you will do. Talking it up is fine but you need to eventually deliver on that talk. It is far better to tell the world what you intend to do if you show it first. So, what makes us stagnate, or not take a course of action that would benefit us greatly?

Fear of the unknown can keep us trapped in our current situation. We all experience this at some time in our lives and it shows that the fear is more important then the new potential outcome. The Paralysis of Analysis can also rate right up there. Analysing the new course of action to death and still being unsure what to do because you are not sure of the “right” decision can mean it is easier to do nothing! There are other reasons/excuses as well (and they will all work) but they all amount to the same outcome – no action!

The antidotes include:

• Defining your vision and mission. If you know what is most important and focus on it, you have a great chance of making the new potential outcome more important than the fear of the unknown.
• Visualising past the obstacle. Think what the outcome will be like when you do it successfully. Feel how you would feel. Think how you would think. Imagine how life would be. Account for how others would react to you and your business.
• Using negative motivation. Picture what life would be like if things carried on as they are, if the current situation is undesirable. What would be the logical conclusion? Do you really want that? Use these thoughts and feelings to drive you away from what you don’t want.
• Setting a plan. A plan means you don’t have to keep making up your actions on the fly. Action is easier when you have thought it through and are executing an agreed set of steps.
• Having faith and trust in yourself that you can do it. You have done difficult things before, you can do it again. Are you capable of it? Of course you are if you believe in yourself enough and you will just back yourself, even if no-one else does. I once heard a success guru say “Even if the whole world is against me, I’m still a majority in my mind!”
• Spending time with others who have done what you wish to do. Putting the right culture around you means you leave no room for negativity. Positive energy rubs off on people and their experience is something you will never gain quickly on your own.

If you have trouble thinking about how to make your business different, and taking action, follow the above tips. While there are no guarantees, the chances of succes are huge. What is guaranteed though is that if you need to move but don't do the above, failure will overtake you. It is your choice - which way will you choose?