When Things Happen "To" Your Business

One of the criticisms we often hear about systems is that you can't cover all scenarios with a system. The truth is, we couldn't agree more! As a business owner, the number of items that you HAVE to be concerned about can be overwhelming. The sheer amount of threats and opportunities out there are exactly why you need systems in the first place. You need to be free to react and even better take advantage of things that are outside of your control, which is difficult to do if you're putting out day-to-day fires from things that are within your control. 

• Attitude:  You need to be aware of how you look at and speak about the things that happen to you. If there's one thing that you can count on in business it's that things that you have no control over WILL influence your business. You can fight it.You can be uncomfortable with it. Or you can choose to become comfortable with the fact that things will happen to you. Fighting something that is unavoidable takes up a ton of energy and time that could be devoted to making and creating opportunities. You always have the ability to control your reaction and being ready to act is one of the best positions to be in. Some things that happen to you can be real opportunities that are often missed because a business does not have the ability to capitalize on the moment.
  
  This isn't to say that we don't understand the need to vent or be frustrated, even angry sometimes. Things that happen to you can be threats to your business and it's natural to have negative reactions to some of them, but your business can not afford to have you stay in that mindset for long. Even if you are a victim, you can't "be" a victim for long.  Your business needs you to be a problem solver.

• Identification:  It's bad enough when something happens "to" you, but it's even worse when something happens to you and you don't have much time to react. Some things that happen to you such as natural disasters, crime, and key people leaving will always have little to no warning. Other things that happen to you such as changes in government regulations and construction that makes it harder for your clients to stop in, will have more lead time IF you are paying attention to the right sources. To get you started here is a quick list of categories of things that can happen to your business: