Handling Problems:

Will things be Ok, if I wait for the perfect answer to come to me or just let problems take care of themselves?

We only make custom-made shoes here.

But we don't just copy other shoes designs in the market. 

When we say custom-made, we mean custom-made.

Our shoes are specially designed and made for each of our customers. 

We make shoes that suit our clients' individual taste, personality and style. 

I mean, we even made a whole collection of shoes for one of the richest guys in this city.

It was just last year.

Now, I won't say we haven't struggled since we started 3 years ago.

We've faced our own share of struggles.

But, things haven't been good at all, in the last 10 months.

Sales has been down for a while now. 

We've been hoping it'll go up. But it hasn't.

So, for now, we want to also start making ready-made, while we wait and see what happens.

Yeah, it doesn't look good. 

But what can we do?

Mensah*
Shoe Designer & Maker, Co-Owner of a Small Shoe Business.

I always call my bar "The place of cocktail magic".

Sales is usually Ok throughout the year.

But, the festive periods are usually the best time for us.

You know Christmas, the New Year, Easter and so on.   

Which is why I was a bit surprised when we couldn't hit our Christmas sales target last year.

It didn't look good.

I mean, we barely sold any drinks during a time when people were out having fun and ready to spend.

So, I looked into it and found out that, the problem was something that I already knew about.

It was my bartenders and waiters.

My waiters consistently got customers' orders wrong and the bartenders were slow.

I already knew that, because I had not trained them yet.

I avoided training them, because it seemed way too complicated.

Besides, I was hoping to find cheap but highly skilled waiters and bartenders to hire.

But, it was now making me lose money – way too much money.

So, what did I do?

I hired an experienced bartender to work part-time and also help me train my team.

He even helped me create a training program.

Now, we don't only offer cocktail magic but also the best service.

So much so that, all of our monthly sales levels have picked up.

And not just during the festive periods.

We even now also mix cocktails at weddings and exclusive parties.

Clara*
Bartender and Owner of an Exclusive Cocktail Bar.

*Names in this article have been changed.

Every day, many business owners lose money and the ability of their business to grow.

Simply because of one thing.

They ignore problems and watch them pile up.

For some reason, many owners tend to forget that, their business exists to solve problems.

To solve other peoples’ wants and needs.

And also, to solve every problem that their business comes across.

Whether the problem is within or from outside of the business.

That’s the job of being an entrepreneur – well, in case you’ve forgotten.

“problems are opportunities”

Besides, problems are not such a bad thing as most people see it.

Sure, problems might be bad for an ordinary person.

But for you. An entrepreneur?

Problems are opportunities.

An opportunity to:

push yourself out of your comfort zone.
be creative
add or improve how you do things
and make more money

Just like what Clara did with her problem.

So, stop whining and making excuses about not having enough time or money or people or experience.

Having less is a good thing. Limitations are advantages in disguise.

It forces you to make do with what you’ve got and avoid waste.

And that forces you to be creative.

“problems don’t solve themselves“

Besides, you can’t just ignore any problem or leave it unsolved.

Sure, you could do that in your personal life.

You could just leave personal problems alone and then, hope and wait for time to take care of them.

But, you can’t do that in business.

In here, problems don’t solve themselves.

They pile up whenever you ignored them.

Problems only get worse over time – if they’re left alone.

And the more they pile up, the harder it becomes to properly deal with each individual problem.

In other words, more struggle for your business.

“take Mensah for example“

First off, he and his partner knew they were not doing well in sales.

Yet still, they ignored it for almost a year.

They never looked into the source or whatever is causing the problem – and they still haven’t.

Now, they want to move on to something else, since the problem has become worse.

They want to do something that’s totally different from the business they’re already doing.

Something that’s not part of their vision and why they started the business.

But that’s not the real danger.

The real danger is that, it becomes a habit.

A habit to play hide and seek with problems, instead of solving them quickly to push their business forward.

It becomes easier to try to find ways around problems, instead of taking care of it, once and for all.

In the end, what they’ll have, is a business full of all sorts of problems.

Like many struggling and mediocre businesses you see every day.

“solving problems builds progress“

Look, problems are a headache.

So, I see why you want to ignore them.

But you just can’t – it’s dangerous.

You have to get into the habit of making decisions and taking care of problems whenever they pop up.

Don’t wait for the perfect solution.

Just decide and move forward.

If you make a mistake, you can correct it later.

After all, you don’t have to live with a decision forever.

Besides, making decisions or solving problems is progress.

It’s actually the thing, that builds growth.

Each decision you make or problem you solve, is like a building block for the business you’re building.

So, instead of saying “we’ll decide later” or “let’s think about it”, rather go for “let’s decide on it”.

Because, you can’t build on top of “we’ll decide later”.

You can only build on top of “Done” and “Problem Solved”.