If you’re feeling a bit of business chaos, then we totally know where you’re coming from, and how your mind is feeling right now. It will often feel like your mind is racing at a million miles an hour, with all of the troupes in the world that your business could possibly throw at you, being thrown at you. It’s just not a healthy position to be in, and the stress of it all can lead to so many mental health issues.
The prevalence of mental health issues amongst business owners is so high a the minute, and a lot of it can be reduced by calming the chaos that surrounds owning a business. Some of you will even feel as though your business is never going to be calm, even when it is. There’s that air of anticipation that’s always going to surround you, and we know there are so many ways that you can change it.
When business chaos comes, whether it’s aggravated by an issue, or by your own mindset, all you have to do is think logically about what the source is, and how it can easily be resolved. But thinking logically is sometimes not a business owners forte, so we’re going to run you through a list of common scenarios you might face that would cause chaos, and how it can be calmed right down!
Document Disasters
The amount of documents that you’ll have is incredible. Even as a small business, they will just stack up and up over time, and it can often get overwhelming if you don’t have some sort of system in place to keep them organised. It will definitely cause chaos when your customers ask you for an invoice, or your accountant asks you for a contract… And you just can’t find it.
Not only does it look super unprofessional if you’ve got things like this going on, but it also helps to add to that feeling of stress that you might always think is looming over you. So to organize all of this chaos, you need a document management system to keep everything in line. This will not only help to organize your life, but it will help to keep everything much more safe and secure. This is so essential considering the documents that are most likely all over the place at the minute, will house important and confidential information about your business, and your customers!
Walkouts
Now this can just cause some serious stress. When you first hire your employees, you will most likely feel a weight lifted off your shoulders. Once you get used to the fact that you have to manage and train them, and get them settled in the job, you realise how much time it frees up. But it can come as a shock when you have your first walkout, or someone saying that don’t wish to work for you anymore.
So there’s two things that you have to do here. The first is make sure that you’re contacting job advert websites and agencies to fill the gap ASAP. As long as you focus on the problem as and when it happens, and try and get someone else on board ASAP, the stress will simmer down quickly.
But you then need to act on the reason that they walked out. If they were going for better money, bring in a progressions scheme. If they left because they didn’t like the role, spend time finding out how to make it more interesting. It’s all a learning curve with business, so rather than feeling the chaos with this one, take it as an educational learning curve!
Sale Drops
Ooft, now this can get your heart racing. As a small business, even the slightest change in the sales that you’re bringing in can cause total chaos. As soon as sales drop, so does profit, but the amount of money you have to keep funneling into your business doesn’t change, and that’s what causes the panic. So the first thing you can do, is slow down production. If you order parts, reduce it to minimal amounts for the time being.
Focus on what went well when the sales were up, and what could have caused it to drop. In a lot of cases that we see, it’s due to competitors putting on a sale or a good deal. So it might be worth checking on what’s going on around you, and temporarily put an offer on to bring money in. Reduced money is better than no money, and a sale might actually bring in new customers!
