Start Your Engines: It’s Time to Resume Building Your Business

While many companies still remain almost “locked down” with a clamp on spending, waiting for the economy to recover, now may actually be just the time for you and your company to shift into action. Those who act early will seize an opportunity caused in part by the economy’s having stopped its free fall – and also by the fact that many competitors may still be essentially dormant, just waiting until it becomes (truly) “safe” to resume “business as usual.”

Earlier this year (May 21^st), I wrote a blog on “Managing Through Difficult Economic Times: Nine Lessons for Leaders.” A number of people reported that these lessons were helpful as they wrestled with the challenges of managing in an economic downturn. Now that companies have succeeded in weathering the cold economic winds, they face the challenge of deciding when to venture back out into the market in a more aggressive, pro-active way. The tendency is to wait too long, and then have to play catch up with competitors who have already begun re-energizing their organization, rebuilding their business and strengthening their market position.

Whatever actions you take now will get more attention and traction – both from outside the company and from within. You and your company will stand out while others still wait until it’s safe, until the coast is clear, before they shift back into a more pro-active mode. By waiting, they may be actually putting their companies behind the eight ball, leaving competition to surge ahead while they are in neutral.

Thus, now’s the time to dust off those growth plans, resume investing in your people – and build some momentum that you can ride as the economy does recover. It’s like “riding the wave” rather than getting drowned by the wave. To ride a wave, you have to start swimming before the wave arrives. You can’t just instantaneously switch into the “On” mode.

This means revisiting those pro-active plans for new product development, new market development and the building of company strengths and resources that were shelved when you went into a defensive financial mode last year.

 The new industry leaders will be those companies that begin at least to plan those actions now. In a volatile time like this, there is great opportunity for those companies that do this planning now and begin taking action to implement their plan.

We have designed a program for the senior management team of companies that want to re-energize their companies now and position them for profitable growth. Those executives who have already gone through the program have given it high marks. If you’d like to learn more about this program, we’d be happy to send you information. Just write us at dgillett@noblebusinesssolutions.com