Surviving and Thriving during Market Cycles
The risk for small business is that when the press says the market is getting weaker, we assume that that means our market is getting weaker.
That may or may not be the case.
The risk to small business is that its management becomes so stressed that they become myopic in their view. Cabinetmakers focus on making cabinets as opposed to managing their businesses. Accountants focus on the books and engineers go into the shop to tinker.
We all tend to do what brings us pleasure and comfort when we are stressed. This is not a response characteristic of upper management. We all do it. So what should you do?
Just as the economy cycles, the coaches at the Daley Institute for Business Transformation recommend a three-phase process that is repeated every three years.
The most successful businesses use such a three-year cycle to re-evaluate their business and its markets, and to set a direction for the upcoming years.
They seek to understand every aspect of their business and how it is doing within the context of their target market. (This is the era of information overload. Yet most businesses still do not collect sufficient information and/or analyze it routinely.)
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