REVIVE YOUR ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

If we have been in business for some years, we might no longer have the same entrepreneurial spirit we had when we first launched or purchased our business. If our role as a business owner feels like it has become more like a job, then our entrepreneurial skills might have become blunted with time.

If this is the case, we are not alone, but why does it matter?

“It is that initial entrepreneurial spirit that got our business up and running, and it is needed to keep our business flourishing and viable.”

Firstly, it is that initial entrepreneurial spirit that got our business up and running, and it is needed to keep our business flourishing and viable. If our business remains unchanged from year to year, we are likely not exploring new ways of doing things or new opportunities. My observation of flooring businesses is those that are thriving are owned by people who work on their business as much as they work in it.

Some franchise businesses require that franchisees look at their business premises from across the road daily. Our premises don't change much from day to day, so of what value could this be? On one level, it ensures our premises are tidy and inviting, but on another level, it creates a small space of time in which we think about our business beyond the mundane. Having the opportunity to think about how we might do things differently and better or develop new opportunities stoke our entrepreneurial fire.

“We could be creating opportunities for our competitors and new entrants to the market who might see opportunities we should be taking advantage of.”

Suppose our role as a business owner has become to feel like a job. In that case, we might have become complacent. We could be creating opportunities for our competitors and new entrants to the market who might see opportunities we should be taking advantage of. Also, we are no longer influencing our business's direction; it is being driven by the market, our competitors, or our staff.

There are many moving parts in a flooring business, many more than a conventional retail business. Each of these gives us opportunities to examine what we are doing and how we are doing it, to try new methods and processes to continually improve our business.

As entrepreneurs, we don't have to do this by ourselves. Entrepreneurs are leaders who have a vision and share that vision with their team, challenging them to improve themselves as they become better in their roles. Entrepreneurs regularly communicate the direction they are taking the business.

“Sharpening our entrepreneurial skills makes work more exciting and fun. Act like an entrepreneurial owner rather than as an employee.”

Finally, aside from all the other benefits, sharpening our entrepreneurial skills makes work more exciting and fun; we become more engaged, capturing some of the excitement from our earlier days. We might take some risks, but there is no need to bet the farm. We can explore opportunities that are in line with our appetite for risk. Small but consistent improvements to how we do business have a powerful cumulative effect, and these small successes encourage us to keep up a program of improvement.

So, how to start? Look around your business today, looking for a small aspect of it that has not changed, maybe for years. Think about how it should be improved, and change it. Act like an entrepreneurial owner rather than as an employee.

You might be wondering why I am addressing this as a subject when I usually write about IT. For many, when they launched their business, maybe IT was a calculator and perhaps some PCs in the office. We have likely moved on somewhat from those early times, but the opportunities available now in the area of IT have grown exponentially. We face the risk that new and existing competitors will be taking advantage of all of the IT developments in the market to create their opportunity.

“We face the risk that new and existing competitors will be taking advantage of all of the IT developments in the market to create their opportunity.”

The RFMS offer to the market is indicative of the change. We started out offering a server-based business management system and a PC-based quantifying solution. That offering has grown to include a range of tablet and smartphone-based apps for measuring and quantifying tools in the home, quoting and CRM tools, and apps giving our business management system mobility. Tools that enable flooring operators to work in a way fundamentally different from how they operated in the past. More efficiently and more effectively.

If you see software tools and IT as an area that could use your entrepreneurial attention, we would love to hear from you.

Chris Ogden is a consultant and Managing Director of RFMS Australasia (rfmsANZ.com), a supplier of IT solutions specific to the flooring industry. Chris has an extensive background in all aspects of the flooring industry, and he can be contacted at cogden@rfms.com.