GarthBox

There are bound to be outages in your business. Pits you or your team members will fall into. Mistakes that will–without a doubt–be made.

The two big questions are: Do you know what those are? Do you have an action plan ready for when they happen?

Your only bartender isn’t there 15 minutes after you’ve opened your doors, what do you do?

The servers for your mobile game go down, do you have a Facebook post ready?

Your largest shipment of a beverage to a new state gets stolen, what do you do?

Begin by drawing a line and documenting the most popular faults you can expect to happen and then go down the line noting the rarer situations that you don’t expect to happen, but could.

Now go through and make sure you have a plan in place for all the situations.

A crisis plan isn’t just for the big things like the death of a Founder or a building fire set by your own employee who was smoking inside the store; it’s a set of actions you’ll take for all the negative situations you could imagine (and some you can’t imagine) happening.

The frustration of going through the plan now isn’t as rough as the patch you’ll go through when a bad situation occurs and you don’t have a well-thought out response.

Don’t rely on any of your reactions to solve a problem. Have a response plan in place.

 

Stay Positive & There’s A BIG Difference Between Responding And Reacting

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There are too many choices and too little time.

What you do to help people decide is the most artistic thing you can do.

Too many businesses focus on adding more options and wasting more of the customer’s time.

 

Stay Positive & Put Your Effort Where It Matters

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Here are just a few telltale signs of you performing deep practice, creating remarkable work and all around becoming ever more irreplaceable:

• You’re struggling
• You’re struggling
• You’re struggling
• You’re struggling
• You’re struggling

 

Stay Positive & Embrace It

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Greatness is often marked by what you do when no one is watching.

I beg to differ.

Greatness is often marked by what you do when they are watching.

Not necessarily your boss or your coworker or your friend, but someone you truly admire, someone you idolize, someone you would want to be like one day.

Daniel Coyle in his book The Little Book of Talent, states that those who become the most talented are those who are always staring at their idols. They put photos of golfers, racers, writers around their workspace. They watch performances. Personally, I have a note that says, “What would Seth do?”

For you, then, who is they?

 

Stay Positive & If They Can Do It, Why Can’t You?

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It’s not as important to be the first to cross the line as it is to be one who crosses it.

Designing a goal, the end result you desire, the outcome you want to work for, is the easy part.

The tough part is in knowing how you’ll get there, what you’ll exclude, what pivots you’ll make.

It’s often not as glamorous as what it will be like when you meet your goal, but it’s vital to know how you’ll make it happen. In fact, it may be the biggest competitive advantage. While others tout they will be X, your showing how you’re becoming X.

The successful entrepreneurs know that the path they take to reach their goal must be by design. It’s not a straight shot.

 

Stay Positive & Stories Customers Tell Are Of The Journey, Not The Destination

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I’m not sure when people began to expect their first time with anything to be smooth.

Never before have I heard, “that went exactly as practiced.” It has only ever gone better than practiced or worse. And when did worse become a bad thing?

Truthfully, it’s only a bad thing if it prevents a second attempt; it’s only a bad thing if the failure is taken personally; it’s only a bad thing when you let it be.

I’d like to see that changed. It’s supposed to be rough at first. You’re learning.

 

Stay Positive & There Will Always Be Another Audience You Can Perform For

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At least, the traditional type of scarcity we grew up with.

In the past, if a business was (supposedly) running out of inventory, you had to buy in because no one else had what they had at that value.

That’s not the case anymore.

Once a business is out of product, you don’t fret as much. Maybe you’re bummed, but only for a second. The reality is that you’ll find a replacement before your go-to brand can order more product.

For most (important) brands, competition isn’t about price; it’s about perceived value, the story it helps customers tell about themselves. There is less power in scarcity tactics now. Instead people want to know you’ll be there–guaranteed!–when they need you.

I guess that means you can put those clever marketing dollars to something else.

 

Stay Positive & It’s A Strange Ever Changing World Out There (Isn’t It Great?)

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