As a business owner, you are very possibly experiencing some adversity as a result of this pandemic.  These challenges may include a temporary closing or a slower influx of business.  Many of the issues affecting our businesses may currently be beyond our control.  But the extra time away may give ourselves more opportunities to work on our business.  I have 4 suggestions below that might be of benefit to you.

Put Out some Educational Content

This is a great time to produce some educational videos or images on your Facebook page.

If the opportunity is available and appropriate, email or text something of value to previous customers of yours without the intention of selling your services.  An obvious example of this would be providing a list of car care supplies that may work as disinfectants.

Objectify Your Frustrations

Get a pen and paper and write down your frustrations as if no one is watching.  Vent as much as you like!
A business owner will often post his or her frustration about a dilemma seeking advice on Facebook business pages.  More times than not after reading a few paragraphs of frustration this person had to get off his or her chest, I will give this typical response.  “You already answered your own question” in the rant.

Even if we do not find the answers to our problems immediately, by writing down our challenges we give ourselves a list of challenges in our life to work on.

Take The Time To Ask Yourself “Am I Putting My Best Foot Forward?”every year I spend the holidays with my family.  There is a Nordstrom in the area, which is an upscale clothing store.  I may or may not purchase something, but I will make it a habit to visit that clothing store at least once during that time.  Shortly afterward I will visit a popular discount grocery/department store. I do this with the intention of comparing the experiences of both locations to my (luxury) operation.  Very often I find something in my business that can be improved.

Some issues I see others have is obvious.

These are my observations about many detailing business owners who detail on their own and complain about the lack of serious detailing inquiries.  Many of these detailers, who possibly provide a great service, fall short in professionalism.  I observe and evaluate their social media pages.  I see incredibly inappropriate pictures in the place of professional business photos.  Their social media attire consists of torn and worn looking t-shirts.  Their social media content is filled with slang.  I have told someone in the community who may do better work than me, “looking at your website, there is no way I would take my car to you.”

I also see an obsession to find the cheapest products and processes instead of a focus on pushing towards mastery and finding quality products.  We cannot always control everything or have the best resources in front of us.  But if you believe customers can’t feel your lack of congruence, you are kidding yourself.

Relax And Reflect

This is a stressful time for all of us.  My motivation for writing this article came from the importance of using the extra time away from a polisher or office to reevaluate everything we can control.  We are often bombarded and possibly distracted by external factors outside our control.

I worked hard to eliminate everything in my control that did not look the part of a world-class detailing operation.  I treated everything I could work on in creating a world-class experience as an exercise in filtering out impurities in my company message.  That starts with evaluating where I may not have filtered out the good opinion of others.  I often ask the question, “where have my own fear-based insecurities held me back?”

Now can be as good as time as ever to ask yourself if you like the direction your business is headed?  Most of my creative ideas came to me in private, after a long run or a relaxing shower.  The peace of freeing myself from distraction always brought clarity to my life.  Can we turn this extra private time we may have, with the state of the world, into something positive!  Activity and meditation are equally important parts of our lives.