The following is a guest post from my longtime friend and colleague, Barry Moltz. Barry's new book (linked below) is a must-read for business owners emerging from the pandemic crisis.
My work with thousands of small business owners over the past 20 years inspired me to write about how to make changes.
Well, that is not exactly true. More accurately, my frustration and the resulting challenges working with small business owners forced me to write this book. Let me explain.
I’m often asked by many companies and small business owners I don’t know to help them. They are referred to me, hear me speak at an event, or find me online. Typically, they’re feeling stuck by a problem, and their companies can’t move forward. For example, their business growth is stagnant or worse—they’re either losing money or not making enough to grow their companies or be motivated to keep going. After analyzing the situation, if I agree to work with them, we mutually decide on a go-forward strategy. I help them assemble a detailed plan to make any changes and the critical success factors and actions that need to be completed. They agree that taking these specific steps will help them solve their issues, grow their companies, and make more money.
And then, almost nothing happens.
Unfortunately, most small business owners implement a few easy steps but never take the critical or difficult ones that could make a difference. This has long frustrated me since we worked hard to develop a well-thought-out plan and were both excited to see the result. While it may not work perfectly once it is put into action, I know the plan will move their companies forward from where they are stuck now. I also feel bad because they are paying me their hard-earned cash to help them, and we both had agreed on the actions they needed to take and the time frame they needed to do it in. In the past, I tended to blame the inaction on myself. Did they not trust me enough to take significant steps, or did I just give them bad advice? However, after doing the research, I realize I was not the main reason for their inability to change.
I wrote my new book, “ChangeMasters: How to Actually Make the Change You Already Know You Need to Make” to figure out why small business owners do not make the changes or take the actions that they know will help them reach their goals. Where is the gap between the sincere intent to make these changes and the actions to actually do it? What holds most people back and keeps them stuck on the same path over and over again? Why are they still so comfortable not making any changes and staying on the path that clearly does not work for them—one that is not adding to their happiness or feeling of success? What steps do they need to take to slowly break free and start to make those changes today that will help them in the long run?
In this book, I reveal much of the psychological research around why change is so hard for so many people and the real-life strategies that every small business owner can employ to make the changes they need to make in their companies right now.
It starts with:
Narrowing the one change you want to make.
Identifying how you are currently doing that now.
What is driving the change (emotional, financial, etc.)?
What will happen if you don’t make the change?
What is the smallest first step you can make to start that change?
I am not trying to convince you to make a change but rather help you make the changes you already know you need to make but have not been able to do.