I think everyone would agree that it’s far easier to coach when things are going well. The real challenge lies in keeping everyone motivated and morale up when problems arise. Even the most successful businesses have suffered from missteps, setbacks, and losses. It happens to everyone. The key to success isn’t in avoiding mistakes as much as it is in learning how to deal with them. We had considered offering a paid version of our free inventory management software, initially. After struggling to define and build the difference between the paid version and our free inventory management software, we refocused back on you. That's why Stockpile is free today and will remain free throughout it's existence.
“When you make a mistake, there are only three things you should ever do about it: 1. Admit it. 2. Learn from it, and 3. Don’t repeat it.” - Bear Bryant, Football Coach
As the boss, you need to create an atmosphere where employees feel comfortable coming to you with problems. Where they are willing to admit that they’ve made a mistake so that everyone can work together to improve the situation. If employees are fearful of the repercussions, they may try to hide mistakes or place blame on others. Neither of these actions are productive and both will negatively impact your business. Seldom is a mistake the result of out and out negligence. More often, it’s simply human error or a lack of understanding regarding the proper way to do something. If mistakes are shared openly and discussed, others may benefit by learning from the mistakes of others saving you headaches down the road.
“If you can’t accept losing, you can’t win.” - Vince Lombardi, Football Coach
If you create a workplace where failure isn’t an option, employees may be afraid to try new things. They will be much more likely to stick with tried and true solutions just to be on the safe side, rather than branching out and taking some risks. Significant business growth is often achieved by shaking things up and taking chances. You have to be willing to lose, if you want to really win.
“If you make every game a life and death proposition, you’re going to have problems. For one thing, you’ll be dead a lot.” - Dean Smith, UNC Men’s Basketball Coach
Of course, you take your business seriously. It’s your livelihood and your life’s work. It deserves respect and careful consideration when making decisions. That doesn’t mean that each and every decision should be gravely important. Not every aspect of your business is critical and if you stress all the time as though they are, you run the risk of developing health complications that really could put you in a life or death situations. Save the stress for the really big matters. Remember to delegate when you can and to relax about the small things. Click here for some tips on reducing your stress.
“Don’t give up, don’t ever give up.” Jim Valvano, NC State Men’s Basketball Coach
When problems arise and stress starts creeping in, it’s easy to want to just give up. Taking the easy way out seldom results in a positive outcome. The important thing is to keep working, keep trying new things. If you give up, you’ll never know whether or not you might have been able to turn things around.
“The difference between the possible and impossible, lies in the person’s determination.” - Tommy Lasorda, Baseball Coach
Often the difference between failure and success is the amount of continued effort one is willing to put into something. Some tasks are easy to accomplish, but real satisfaction is found in completing the more difficult tasks successfully. This is the difference between the companies that grow and thrive and those that just plod along. It took us nearly 3 years of hard work to build our free inventory management software. Persistence is the reason you can use the tool today. We didn't stop when things got hard.
“Success isn’t permanent, and failure isn’t fatal.” - Mike Ditka, Football Coach
Success is great and often after all the hard work it took to get there, it seems like you’ve earned a break. Taking a moment or two to recharge is great, and often necessary for our health and well-being, but don’t relax for too long. The marketplace is always changing and you need to change with it. Maybe your last effort was an unmitigated disaster. That’s okay, the time’s are always changing and tomorrow is another opportunity to improve your business. After initial launch of our free inventory management software, we didn't rest. We continued to receive and incorporate so the system could grow with your small business. So far, so good!
“Failure isn’t fatal, but failure to change might be.” - John Wooden, Basketball Coach
As we said before, you can’t sit on your laurels and relax if you want your company to continue to grow. Even the largest, most successful companies will start to slide if they stagnate. Your competitors are out there and they are watching you, waiting for you to stumble or stop moving so that they can capitalize on the opportunity to grow their business. If you keep a positive attitude and continue to search for ways to improve your business, you will continue to grow and ultimately succeed. Just like we said before, embracing change and not resting on one's laurels has helped us become the leading free inventory management software in the world. The same can happen for you.
Ready to try our free inventory management software?
We hope you’ve enjoyed these bits of wisdom from some truly great coaches. Hopefully they will inspire you to do great things within your own “arena”. Visit back with us next post as we offer more tips to help your small business succeed. In the meantime, if you’re still struggling with inventory issues, we have the answer for you. Try Stockpile today! You’ll be amazed by how easy and powerful our solution is. Now that will really get your business moving in the right direction!
