A number of months ago, I visited with a well known potential client who I felt was having problems with his business. He told me that I was wrong, with a lot of reasons. I continued to visit the business at various times of the day and various days of the week. I still read the business as deteriorating.
I again went to the owner and told him he still had the chance to do something about my read on his destiny. He told me that he would think about it. I continued attempting to meet with him, but with no avail.
Today he is quoted as saying, “We’re bummed, but the reality is that nothing in business lasts forever”. Maybe this owner is correct, but I believe that CAN’T should not be in our vocabulary as sophisticated business people. One needs to understand their business, their target customer, and to take these principles and develop a plan. It may call for a re-engineering of one’s business—the brand, the marketing, the physical layout of the business, the repositioning of the product—but you can’t allow yourself to do nothing. The need for addressing the issues and developing the plan is paramount to managing a business. One cannot just continue running the business or you too will “be bummed” and saying “the reality is that nothing in business lasts forever.”