I’m acutely aware sat here writing this blog that in a couple of weeks it will be Altrincham HQ’s 10th Birthday
We’ve been talking about business anniversaries a lot over the past few weeks and it was Wayne Shaw that of The Window Company who commented that the reason so many business start in September is that “September is drilled into us as the start of something new from our days at school”
It’s also a month where I’ve seen businesses year after year make the same mistakes that hinder the growth of their business
Here we look at 5 Of the Worst Business Decisions to Make In September
Living A Lie In Front Of Your Children
This is going to be a tough paragraph for all parents to read, because I know it’s September and you’ve spent time and money telling your children how important education is, how they really must buckle down and work hard this year and how they’ve got to make sacrifices as this year (GCSE / A Levels) is more important than another party or night out with friends
And yet the reality is you’re running a business that could be a lot better if you took the same advice you’re dishing out to your children
September could be the month you put training, education and learning on the top of the to do list. But let’s be honest for most businesses reading this you’ll slap yourself around the face for a few minutes before putting a training course on the bottom of the to do list below the latest United Match, wine o’clock, the must see series of Peaky Blinders or heaven forbid paying silly money for an Ed Sheeran gig
Live the truth in front of your children – not a lie
Resting As Targets Achieved
If you’ve hit your targets by September they were set too low in the 1st place
I see far too many business set such small incremental targets at the start of the year that by the time they reach July or August they’re already resting as they’ve hit them
Aim higher and fail on those targets and still end up higher than you are now
In the last 10 years I’ve never hit every target or completed my 24 Business and Personal Goals, but I always hit 60-70% of them and they’re big obnoxious goals to aim for
If you’ve already hit your yearly targets by now, add another 33% on them and aim for that
Giving Up On Targets
In September you still have 33.3% of the year left to hit targets
That’s a huge amount of time to still hit your targets, so don’t give up because you’ve not achieved them yet
It’s like giving up mid-morning on a Thursday every week because you feel you’re not going to have a good week
People underestimate what they can do in 4 months and overthink what they haven’t done in 8 months
You can change your world now
Putting Things Off Till Next Year
Sure – sometimes it’s good to put ideas on the back-burner because you have so much going on right now
We’ve celebrated 10 years of Altrincham HQ this year and have putt on 10 events to celebrate this year. But we actually came up with about 20 ideas for events and some of those have been put on the back-burner for next year because we’re so busy
But I want to make a clear point here – this is prioritising and not ditching
It isn’t putting off something we’ve known we should do for the past 3 or 4 or 5 years like many people have
If it’s important for your business do it now!
Trying Nothing New
Real success lies in 2 areas
– Repeating things that work
– Trying new stuff
Trying new stuff might be something as small like attending a new networking event, recording a video for the 1st time, trying a new social media tactic
It could be something huge like launch a brand new arm of the business
You have 4 months left till the end of the year – promise me in the next 122 days you’ll try at least one new thing. You can even email me about it alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk
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