28 Sep Entrepreneur Tip of the Week: Being Flexible and Adjusting the Plan

Running a business is exhausting for a plethora of reasons. One common scenario in which entrepreneurs  become burned out is when things don’t go exactly according to plan. It is not wrong to assume that, as an entrepreneur, you have the perfect vision for the success of your business. It is also not wrong to assume that you may feel strongly – even irrationally – attached to this vision or plan, even if it becomes apparent to your and/or others that the plan is not going to work in the way that you wanted.

Exhaustion can come from this inability to be flexible and adjust the plan – go with the flow, if you will. Trying to run a business with Plan A when business is doing twice as much as what Plan A expected is as hard as trying to run a business with Plan A that is doing half as much as Plan A expected. One way of coping with stress that stems from this issue is to simply redo the plan. Most entrepreneurs really have very little clue what their first year revenue will look like or what their exact budget is. The nature of running a small business is that there an overwhelming amount of possibilities and uncertainties – and, for the most part, ups and downs are par for the course.

These “downs” serve as great times to reevaluate the goals of your company and see if certain policies within the company need to be changed or adjusted. These “downs” are also a great time to bring in external advisors to confer on what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong. Spouses and friends can also have great insight! Once your initial plan has been through some (minor or major) adjustments, it is safe to assume that your stress level will begin to go down.