2020 Is The Year For Pivoting. Where Do You Stand In The Future Of Small Business?

Entering the last half of 2020 may give many business owners unsettling, aggravating thoughts about how they spent this year. From a work hard, plan harder mindset, I can tell you this entrepreneur wasted very few minutes during this 2020 Pandemic. I read, I studied, I wrote and I planned. I rolled the dice, and yet I was conservative. I watched so many well planned strategies play out in disbelief. From managers who fell off the face of the earth while on leave, working from home to loyal staff just falling apart with committing to work, even nearly alone in a 19,000 sf warehouse.

I doubled down on my website and I pushed harder on continuing to build a category creator business model, a brand I was proud of. A brand to support small businesses across the nation. A brand that allows franchisees to work in a community to focus on service and ROI, with a website that brings our work together. A tech system that makes the back end of the work flow smooth, with many moving pieces each day this was critical. Chaos to a global brand was my main intention.

Doing things differently, yet listening to the needs of my customers is how I built, pivoted and continued to push forward in my small business. Courage and self-confidence along with managing chaos at times, it all seemed to work and pull me through and push my interest into building a bigger plan for the future.

Also I brought back into play material from books that shaped me forever, and in this blog I am sharing those book titles so that may help you shift fast into a forward motion during the uncertainty of this year and continue into 2021. With these books, I wanted to write a few words about how their content has helped me evolve and plan for a better universe and a better world of small business owners.

Mentors can come in so many different forms. Many can say their parents and grandparents were their first mentors. Teachers also come to mind. As an adult who is building an empire in a small town USA setting, I often followed national figures. I went to conferences, attended online mastermind groups and listened to thousands of YouTube videos. I went where the knowledge was fresh and the intent from those influencers was wild, and it was no surprise their content was fresh.

Let me begin with books, and end with mentors of other sorts.

Book “Crucial Conversations” by: Kerry Patterson, Narrated by Anna Fields.

It is so true that the way to elevate in any relationship is often nailed down by one or two questions that can remove barriers and bring the relationship to the level it is meant to be. Good or bad, the outcome is worth the conversation.

Whether in personal relationships, hiring employees, working through problems with stagnancy as a real issue, there is often one sentence, once conversation that can move this relationship forward. What is the one discussion you need to have to bring your business or personal relationship to the level you expect?

7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

Habits and discipline and routine, all make for a successful person and sometimes can be boring. Can you run a business that is fun every day? MY Cardinal Selling Services model is definitely this challenge yet it also brings fulfillment that my corporate life fell short of giving.

Routine, is what your brand is about -what can people expect from you consistently? It is why fast food chains do well, people know what they can get. It is the discipline for the end goal that makes any brand work.

Evaluate your habits, your discipline and your end goal plans. Read the book to help you understand how you can be most effective today with building your brand, your life and your legacy.

Robert Kyasaki --CashFlow Quadrant.

Being a huge fan and teaching for years, from my own books and even at our local junior college the concept of multiple income streams was huge to me. CashFlow Quadrant is different, you can have many income streams that barely keep you alive financially or you can unleash your cash flow quadrant with scaling your business, truly focusing on the biggest picture possible and the hard work during these moments has truly paid off. Focus on scaling, focus on where the cashflow quadrant is for you.

Millionaire Next Door.

This book helped me understand to not be influenced by the bright and shiny new objects that create overhead and cause people to question you. Living lean, allowing any business income you earn to be your ‘seed money’ to get you where you are going.

Keep a smart balance financially and live under the radar until you want to shine bright, no one will question your abilities to finance your life and you will let your money work for you, scaling and growing the business you have built while spending dollars where it is smart.

Are you an investor or a consumer? An investor sees buying as either pushing your wealth forward or costing money you want to minimize. Consumers know their income is determined, and purchasing items are for consuming not investing. Once you know who you are, who your spouse is, you can work together to make financial decisions together. Investing is not just in the stock market or your 401K.

Think Big and Get Rich. Mr. Donald Trump.

Think Big and Get Rich. Well, to be honest I just like to work, hard, and a lot and often when I try to tell myself to not work so much I still fall prey to the hard word discipline. So does hard work pay off? I sure hope it does for me and you. This book, well actually the audio was my go to for years, way before Celebrity Apprentice aired on TV. It really helped me to understand Trump and his ways and his ability to influence business people across the nation.

There is so much to say here, but if you don’t think big you won’t grow a business. You won’t know if the creative mind you have is meant for the business world and you won’t know if your destiny was for greatness in the business world.

Rhino Success by Scott Alexander.

Charging forward, Rhino style was my mode and it tripped me up at times. My ‘friends’ didn't understand me. I truly was obsessed with selling, even though it had to start with confidence given to me as a young girl scout. Not sure who to blame here, but I do know I had a will to win, and I knew my work made a difference and I also felt my model needed to be present across the nation. I have felt a bit bold in these thoughts, and I had to come to terms with that boldness.

Rhino success is about pushing forward and being bold. It is about not hanging with people who don’t want anyone to succeed, it is certainly about charging forward every day.

Mentors I wouldn’t want to mention. 10X and Grant Cardone, while the guy is a complete jerk he sure knows how to hit buttons. His wife Elena, she is a real pusher too. I LIKE that she has quality advice to add to our world of pushing forward and bringing fortune to our model. Think big is right, and 10X conferences and masterminds on Facebook, countless training models all have been the Doctorate in Business I needed.

Robert Herjavec. While Robert was the founder of the Will to Win series of educational content, I didn’t actually have as much experience with him directly yet his materials led me to a bigger existence for my company. My website needed more, my ecommerce site was wide open with potential. His training both allowed me to sharpen my mind on real estate investing and e-commerce. I am thankful for his Will to Win training.

Daymond John. Daymond presented his his Rise and Grind

Barbara Corcoran. God I love this woman. Love how she attributes her success to having her husband tell her she wouldn’t be successful without him. LOVE her sweet side and her stern side. Love that she is a force for fairness, women and success.

Gary Vaynerchuk. If you can’t make your business a digital company, you won’t scale and grow in today’s climate. He is a tough one to listen to at times, yet his words inspire me and his energy and demeanor keep my attention.

Author: Vicki Wiederkehr

Email: Vicki@cardinalss01.com

8th Oct 2020