Three Strategies to Finish Strong in Your Business in 2011

So here you are sitting in your office, staring at a couple of weeks left in the month, and wondering how you will finish up 2011. The holidays are nice and all, but depending on what kind of business you’re in, you’re either overwhelmed and just trying to keep up or underwhelmed, worried about keeping the door open until business returns to normal.

Regardless, you talk to yourself and the conversation starts with, “I’ll be OK. Business will be better when . . .

I get some new employees.”

I move to a new location.”

I renegotiate my supplier contracts.”

Sure, you’re important to your business. You may think of yourself and your business as one. However, your business is more than the sum total of you—“I”—as you wait for business to get better.

It just seems that way when the economic noise assaults you at incredibly difficult decibel levels. You can sit right there and set up unrealistic “perfect stages” of your business’ life when everything will be just right.

Or, you can move beyond your “just right I” and its fears to finish strong in 2011.

Here are three ways my clients and I move beyond the overwhelming year-end to practical solutions to finish strong in 2011.

Get up

When overwhelm sets in at this time of year, our tendency is to isolate ourselves from those people who can help us. The people who Work Positive get up and go do something. They consult with other team members or their personal Board of Advisors to get a different perspective, ask questions, and solicit wisdom.

Rather than sitting there and waiting for “business to get better when,” go talk to someone who has been where you are and survived it. Or, inquire of someone on the front lines of your business and listen as they describe what they see.

Get up and transform your “I” to “we.”

Grow up

Next, grow your business up to the next level by taking control of the things you learned when you got up. You may discover a long list of options or just a couple. Either way, focus your efforts on one thing you can do differently. Take personal responsibility for that one thing and make it happen now. Your list of improvements will include some things you cannot control. Glance at them. Then move on.

Grow your business up and take control of a short-term win that will propel you to finish this year strong.

Give up

When you get up and grow up, you discover that it’s far easier to give up the worry that you have when just sitting in your office and wondering how you’ll finish 2011. Talking with others reminds you that you’re not alone in your business. Focusing on something you can do to win right now concentrates your mental energy, leaving no residual energy for worrying.

You can either focus your mental energy on a short-term win or you can worry. One or the other, but not both. The choice is yours.

Get up and talk with others, grow up and move to make a short-term win happen, and give up any worry for your business this week.

As you do, you will finish strong in 2011.