Please meet my latest guest blogger, Joe Ruiz  of Strategic Marketing Solutions. It’s been my pleasure to get to know Joe through the Twitter chat, #UsGuysChat. He brings such warmth to that chat and recently joined the #kaizenblog community. His background includes, being an Epsilon alumnus and former Vice President of Strategic Services at Brann Worldwide. Throughout Joe’s 27 years in marketing, he has worked heavily in the pharmaceutical, healthcare and financial services industries.

Many things have been said about Steve Jobs the past few weeks.  He has been compared to Edison, Disney, Einstein and countless others for his creativity and innovation.  There is little doubt our lives are different today because of his insight, intuition and marketing acumen.

“Life Changing”

Recently my wife started using an iphone.  Prior to this she had no interest in anything other than a basic cell phone.  Lately she has discovered the world of apps and photos (to name a couple of obvious phone features).  She is constantly exclaiming “This is life changing!” She is not engaging in hyperbole, she means it!  For her, this is a new discovery of an expanding universe; a new world beyond itunes and ipod.

All of us have felt the impact of Steve Job’s innovative touch in some form or fashion.

As I was reviewing tributes for this post, I found many common descriptive characteristics.  Steve was a leader, salesman, artist, and an evangelist.  He was passionate and persistent.  He had an ability of turning imagination into reality. Steve had a completely different way of looking at the world.  He approached technology from the users’ perspective rather than the programmers’.  When responding to an interviewer’s question “Why would you rather spend time tutoring a 9-year-old boy on how to use a Mac than with two famous artists?” he replied, “Older people sit down (in front of a computer) and ask ‘What is it?’ but the boy asks ‘What can I do with it?’”.

Steve created more than products; he created great experiences, platforms, and even entire industries.  His disruptive innovations changed the way we buy and consume music and listen to talks (podcasts), to name a couple of the more significant innovations.

Although Jobs was a brilliant strategist, Apple’s culture is by most standards difficult.  Steve was demanding and difficult, over-berating colleagues publicly.  According to Guy Kawasaki, there was secrecy between Apple divisions.  Jobs had a reputation for being controlling and very detail-oriented.  When Steve was dismissed, the company floundered and it was only his return that set the company back on course.

Here is a summary of some of the lessons learned:

• Keep it simple and clean.
• Sweat the small stuff.
• Think ahead of your customers.
• Create engaging and creative interfaces with the technology.
• Design for lifestyle and application, not efficiency or functionality.

Finally, a quote from a 1985 interview best illustrates Steve’s ability to look ahead and see what few others could:

“The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it to a nationwide communications network. We’re just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people – as remarkable as the telephone.” Playboy, Feb 1, 1985

Questions for discussion:

Q1 – Is there a difference between a Visionary and a product innovator? If so what is it?

Q2 – What can we learn from visionaries?

Q3 – Are visionaries truly unique or is there element of “right time, right place” at work?

Q4 – How would you compare Jobs to Gates or Zuckerberg?

Q5 – Do you think Apple’s innovation will be sustainable in the future? Why?

*Consider yourself invited to discuss this topic of “Steve Jobs: Visionary or Product Innovator” on the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog on Friday, October 14th at 12pm ET/5pm BST/9am PT so I hope you can join us. If not, please add your thoughts below.

*I’m delighted to introduce you to guest blogger, Ritu Raj of  ORCHESTRATORMAIL . He is a senior executive, entrepreneur, consultant. Founder and CEO of Avasta, Wag Hotels and OrchestratorMail. Executive at TMP Worldwide, Partner at Accenture and prior to that different positions in the outsourcing market out of India. He will be our guest host on the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog this Friday at 12pm ET/5pm BST/9am PT. This is his guest post for this week’s topic.

First, let’s define collaboration-people working together on something. They could be collaborating in real-time in a meeting or using tools like Webex, or even micro-blogging. Or they could be collaborating asynchronously (not real-time) using email.

Collaboration, as we are using it, includes working together, brain storming, creating a common vision, bringing people on the same page or coordinating with each other to fulfill an objective; a mission where tasks are interdependent, or, the last category, that they are all cooperating. This sounds easy until you add each person’s understanding of the world as informed by his or her culture.

Culture is more than simply your nationality or ethnicity.

Culture, in this conversation,  is not limited to different ethnicity or different countries but also the culture of east coast vs. west coast, people working in engineering firms to people working in a design firm…all of them different cultures. Even if they all speak English, they have different interpretations of what they hear.

Moving beyond the Industrial Age mindset

In the US, we have been moving from an industrial economy where it was all about personal productivity (how fast can you make a widget or bolt a nut) to a very collaborative economy. In this collaborative economy, to fulfill an outcome, you have to work with others (knowledge workers). Your personal productivity cannot fulfill the outcome and you need to learn and develop skills in collaborating with others.

Collaboration has its stumbling blocks.

In most cases, the “others” that you “have” to collaborate with are a mixture of different cultures. You cannot depend upon being a great communicator but have to start recognizing and learning how others interpret what you are saying and what are their cultural differences. I have seen many examples of this coming from India 15 years ago and working in the San Francisco Bay Area where everyone is nice and polite. Consider this scenario: Sally and Ram work for the same organization.  Sally is in the Bay Area, Ram is in Bangalore, India. Sally says “Can you please send me the report as soon as possible”, Ram interprets the request as “oh, Sally is not really in a hurry for the Report.” This is an example of classic mis-coordination. The use of language carries importance.

So, the big question is how do we close the gap between the speaker’s intention and the listener’s interpretation in a multi-cultural collaborative economy?

*Consider yourself invited to discuss this topic of “Collaborating In a Multi-Cultural Environment” on the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog on Friday, September 30th at 12pm ET/5pm BST/9am PT so I hope you can join us. If not, please add your thoughts below.

I’m coaching a client who is transitioning from senior technical expert to CEO of his small business. We’ve discussed his leadership style before. The catch here for him is that his understanding is evolving and he was at a loss for words to describe his current style. He has always been clear that he is a visionary but what about using high touch, collaboration, inviting truth telling and clear communication? So, we started to talk about the CEO’s and business people that he admires and wishes to emulate.

And that’s when I got to wondering…are roles models really useful on a daily basis?

Don’t get  me wrong. Role models serve an important purpose. They provide us with both inspiration and a roadmap. Basically everyone has a biography of some sort. You can read a published account of someone’s life, Google the person and/or ask questions directly. But how do they really do that thing you are aspiring to?

People aren’t perfect

It’s so easy to put someone on a pedestal. Think about the people you admire. We don’t really know that person. Take someone like Donald Trump. Sure, he’s on television and is well known for his real estate acumen. You might read about him, listen to what he says and take a class from Trump University. People tell me that they admire how he acts so confidently even when he is so close to bankruptcy. But what do you really know about him? Would it matter if he were rude or cruel?

What happens when you learn something unpleasant or ugly about your role model? There is that moment when one is faced with the idea of the person and the real life person. Can you overlook the fact he or she is human and not perfect? It may be possible to extract what is meaningful to you and suggest that your role model works very hard to behave in a certain way. Then again, the transgression may be too abhorrent to you.

Looking for a role model

So what makes us identify certain people as inspiring to us? Certainly, their story can be one possible starting point. We’ve heard so many rags to riches stories and each person who has accomplished this has qualities worth of emulation. Could it be that we see role models to get us through certain stages of development? If you founded a business and emphasized innovation, you might want to learn about Bill Gore, Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. Maybe you are a woman in business and aspire to rise to the top of the business world or politics so you might read lists like Forbes Power Women. Perhaps there is a boss who is so adept at his/her profession that you felt as if you are apprenticing to him/her.

Throughout our lives, we find people who are extraordinary and study them so we can be like them. This is part of how we form our identities. Over the years, we have different experiences and different choices and seek to navigate them successfully. It makes sense to add and subtract to our list of role models. They may be fictional characters, celebrities, known industry experts or people within our sphere who embody greatness.

But I’m back to my original question…how are they relevant to our everyday performance?

We know the big stuff they have accomplished. What did they do on Tuesday morning at 9:08am? When we are working on an audacious goal, there are moments when we are discouraged. We may lose faith (even for a moment). We may even encounter obstacles we didn’t anticipate and this throws us off track. And it could be that we just don’t know how to act or execute a particular skill and this slows us down. Do our role models give us the big picture or a how-to manual?

So, I’m opening up these questions to you. We’ll be discussing this topic on the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog on Friday, September 16th at 12pm ET/5pm BST/9am PT so I hope you can join us. If not, please add your thoughts below.

1. How do you identify someone as a role model? What qualities do you look for?

2. What is the difference between idolizing someone and using them as a model?

3. What role does gender play in your choices of role models?

4. Are we more likely to seek role models in good times or bad? Why?

5. How do you use a role model when for everyday performance?

Have you ever really stopped to think about capitalism? How do you define it? Some definitions are more loaded than others if you look at the various links in this Google search However, if you own or lead a business, you are definitely participating in this system.

Describing the system to ourselves

There are so many words to describe the way we think about capitalism. There are variations on how capitalism is expressed if you start looking at how some corporate entities are state-owned to the mixed economy type.There are advocates for free markets, laissez-faire or free enterprise as if they are infallible. Other people raise questions about how money is distributed, how workers are treated by their employers or the potential for creating instability. No matter where you fall philosophically, the flaws in the system brought a great deal of havoc in 2008 and we’re still dealing with the consequences.

The flaws are the issue.

There are fierce debates in many countries about how to regulate this system. Certainly one of the most famous critique of capitalism is Das Kapital by Karl Marx. When we are faced with troubled companies that are “too big to fail” and they can harm a national or even global economy, something is amiss. It’s easy to blame the elite rich or labor unions or whomever is your target but at the end of the day, we’re still participating in this system.  There are ethical questions about what happens to the widening gap between each economic class, unemployment and consumerism. How do we talk about the flaws of capitalism?

The process of redefining capitalism

Perhaps it would have been more accurate to say it’s a process of redesigning capitalism. One movement has been sustainability. While it is often associated with green technology and environmentalism, sustainability also includes developing business models that can respond well to stressors and successes. Even in Nouriel Roubini’s post, “Is Capitalism Doomed?” the question lies in how we think about people and what makes them productive more than exploiting markets. There is also more expressed desires for a flexible work-life balance and work that has meaning and purpose. Where does this fit in?

Join the conversation.

It behooves us to not ask ourselves what we believe about capitalism and how we want to create businesses that are sustainable. This is the business climate we’re in and the turbulence isn’t going away in a hurry. We can choose to continue supporting current practices, foster a revitalized system or eliminate capitalism as we know it altogether. It may not be a clear answer but your answer is part of conversation.

In the next #kaizenblog (Twitter chat) on Friday, September 9th at 12pm ET/5pm BST/9am PT we’re discussing this topic. Please join us and add your thoughts and expertise. If you can’t join in on Twitter, please add your comments below.

Which aspects of capitalism are still relevant to the current economic climate?

What trends are you noticing in discussions about capitalism?

What is changing on a micro-level (within your business community) that is sustainable?

Imagine this scenario:

As owner/CEO of a small company, you and your team have been coping with difficult economic pressures but it’s clear that keeping the business afloat isn’t enough. There is enough revenue from existing customers to pay overhead and salaries. However, developing new products has been slow and it’s clear to you that the current business model is unsustainable, particularly if the economy goes into another recession.

Earlier in the year, you and your team hashed out what the ideal customer looks like. It’s clear to you, as the leader, that the organization is going to have to change if you work with this ideal customer. When you try to have this conversation with your staff, Jane expresses concern that the easygoing collegial feeling will go away and it will feel “just like any other business.” Bob wants to know what your vision is and why it has to change now. He asks, “It’s all well and good that we’ve identified that we want to work with Big Firm in Nearby City but what’s wrong with our current customers?” Other staff members say nothing. Fred has made it clear that he thinks you are nice but too unrealistic to take the company to a more sophisticated stage.

Making this transition isn’t easy for anyone.

As anyone who has led a business will tell you, there has to be a process to managing change or the organization will become (more) dysfunctional. In larger organizations, it is easier to assign roles and tasks to the C-level team. However, in smaller organizations, the process is much more intimate.

Basic model of managing organizational change

1. What needs to change? Without identifying what is outdated, wrong or broken, there is no compelling pain or impetus to do something new.

2. Why now? Making changes without a reason is basically shooting an arrow into the wind and hoping it hits the target.  There are so many other questions to ask but it can be summed up as “why is it important now?”

3. What is getting in the way? These barriers can be internal and external. People’s attitudes, market conditions and a host of other things can be obstacles.

4. How can we overcome these barriers? Identifying the strengths of the organization and the individuals involved can provide solutions to removing any obstacles. Couple this with identifying weaknesses and figuring out ways to manage or eliminate these and you will find people are more likely to cooperate.

5. Measuring the change process. Like everything else about your SME, how do you know if it is working? Taking the time as a team to set up milestones gives you two benefits. First, change is big and you’re not going to make it all happen overnight. One step at a time is a good perspective. Second, you can adapt the plan as needed to make the change process successful for everyone.

But…we’re back to our original question. Who gets to manage change in SME’s?

In the opening paragraph, I gave you a scenario. It’s actually a composite of the change projects I’ve done with my coaching clients. Time and time again,  identifying which person will inhabit specific roles, who facilitates the process, who has ultimate responsibility and availability of unanimous support for the change project are essential.

What did you notice about this organization in the scenario?

If you were the leader, what kind of conversation would you have with your team? Why?

When would the business owner/CEO of an SME not be ultimately responsible for a change project?

What level of responsibility would you assign to the team members and/or employees?

When is it most beneficial to bring in a consultant/coach to assist with the change project?

We’ll be discussing this topic on the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog on Friday, September 2nd at 12:00pm ET/5pm BST/9am PT. Please consider yourself invited to join our discussion. If you can’t make the chat, add your comments, thoughts and opinions here.

*I wanted to cite who created the drawing used as a graphic for this post. However, I wasn’t able to find the origin of the drawing. I found it on the site for the Christ Church Northern Beaches. My apologies to the artist.

This is our topic for this week’s #kaizenblog, a weekly Twitter chat that uses the concept of kaizen to critically think about various aspects of business, enhance our skills and deepen our self-understanding. You can join this conversation every Friday at 12pm Eastern.

Do you think you know right from wrong? Are you consistent every time? We’d all like to think so. However, recent research on self-discipline and decision fatigue makes one wonder if there may be a slippery slope we didn’t take into account. It’s easy to identify corporate scandals that involve blatant greed and social pressure. But are there smaller moments when ethics are placed aside?

Everyday temptations

• Conflicts of interest are probably the most common situations any of us encounter. Competing loyalties and desires can make us squirm. Sometimes we want to please someone. Sometimes we are in an uneven power dynamic and feel we must comply. Maybe we’re in a culture that is foreign or opposed to what we believe.
• The weight of our values change. Over time, how we value things changes. It isn’t so much that you throw out your “old” values as change the level of importance. Our values can clash with one another as well causing cognitive dissonance. If you haven’t reviewed your values recently, here is a ValuesInventory that I often give to my clients.
• Who or what in our environment entices us? Many times we are confronted with situations where we want to be in with the “cool kids”. The desire to compete, show off or be part of the glamour tempts us to put our integrity aside. Other situations include using an excessive amount of company time for personal calls, shopping, social media (unrelated to your job) or chatting with co-workers.
• Expediency can undermine our integrity. How many projects have you been a part of that included giving a customer a product with defects. Maybe it really doesn’t affect the  product is a major way and maybe the customer won’t notice? It’s also fairly common to tell someone what they want to hear so they stop bothering you. The old “the check is in the mail” is a great example of this.

But what makes us put blinders on?

It would be nice to say only “bad” people make unethical choices. It’s not that simple though. Fatigue and stress undermine our ability to make good judgements. Since self-discipline is a finite resource, we might compromise ourselves (on a small scale, I hope) because we just don’t have the juice to see through the more challenging choices.

Maybe it’s the system of capitalism? It’s so easy to say “let the market sort things out”. Although sustainability and social responsibility has become a bigger piece of the business landscape, old habits die hard. The idea that it must be “winner takes all” creates an environment where cutting corners or simply avoiding certain choices makes money. It’s hard to beat that kind of reinforcement. Not that it can’t be done. It merely is a challenge. And as long as there are bubbles in the market (think the dot.com, housing and maybe gold right now?), people will ride those waves and build businesses to answer perceived needs or wants for these markets.

So, how do we encourage ourselves and others to act with integrity?

We could leave all this ethics stuff to academics, ethicists or philosophers. However, the most effective way to get this stuff out in the open is to talk about it. Frankly, a code of ethics written in the employee handbook is not worth much if it is never actually tested with conversations and critical thinking. There are some great suggestions on how to create these conversations on the HBR Blog Network by Francesca Gino. It’s been noted by Dan Ariely and other researchers that we are adept at rationalizing our choices. By stopping to examine our behavior, even if the conversation isn’t about us directly, we are given the chance to build up our ability to act with integrity and courage.

What other everyday temptations occur in business settings?

What do we  risk by making ethical choices?

How would a common code of business ethics work in real life?

What would help each of us to act with more consistent integrity?

Join us for the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog, this Friday, August 26th as we take a look at this topic, “Ethics, Blinders and Business.”  We meet every Friday at 12pm ET/5pm BST/9am PT .

A while ago I participated in the Twitter chat, #leadershipchat. When I left the chat, this question stuck with me. Who do great leaders follow?

It’s so easy to talk about how leaders should get us to follow them. Or if you are a leader, you’ve got some ideas about how to get people to follow you. There are great questions about how much authenticity, vulnerability, and charisma are expressed by great leaders. We know great leadership when we see it. You can feel yourself rise up like boats rising when the tide comes in. You want to be with that person and even do what is asked or told to you. They have a way of bringing the best out of you.

So what about the personal experience of being a leader?

Recently someone asked  me what it would be like for me to be just a member of a team and not call the shots. It made me pause as I thought about what it means to me to be a leader and wonder if I could become a better leader.

Sure, being able to have final say is good. And creating a vision that excites other people to want to work with and for you is fulfilling. There is a certain cache to being able to say, “I’m Joe/Jane Schmo, CEO (president, owner) of XYZ Company.” People look at you differently. They have expectations of you. They depend on you. This feels pretty good.

Yet, some days don’t feel quite so gratifying. There are the days when you’re studying the financials and seeing how far you can realistically implement the strategic plan. Lately, this hasn’t been a satisfying experience for many business leaders. There are also days when you realize you are very alone with your thoughts, fears and imaginings of how your business can continue to function.

There is so much advice for leaders.

• I did a quick search on Amazon.com to see how many books were listed on business leadership. Result=22, 795 books
• So then I did a quick search on Google.com about business leadership. Result=44,500,000 hits

With all of these possibilities, it amounts to cacophony. Sifting through can be a consuming task. Most business leaders I’ve met and gotten to know have little time and patience for trying to figure out what would help them perform best. But that doesn’t mean they are not looking for inspiration and direction themselves. You may be indomitable nearly every day but it is a fallacy to think that great leaders don’t occasionally have doubts.  Being a leader means you’re willing to take on responsibility and be accountable. When things are tough economically or just within your organization, it feels like you’re slogging through the mud of the day. It might give you pause and then you get going again. This is natural. What is it about the great leaders that re-charges their inner fire? What can we learn from them?

So, who do great leaders follow?

I’m inviting you to add your observations here and in the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog, tomorrow at 12pm ET/5pm BST/9am PT. What can we learn from people we identify as great leaders? How are they different from good leaders?

I do hope you can join us on Twitter. Some questions to consider for thought and discussion:

Does having a mentor act as an apprenticeship to great leadership?

How do great leaders get support from their community? (Who is their community?)

What relationship does engaging with art, literature or film have with great leadership?

How do they sustain their belief system so it feeds their vision and keeps them connected to their followers?

Uncertainty has been on my mind a lot lately. I’ve had a number of conversations with people and not just in the US. Very little is standing still anywhere. It’s the everchanging and disruptive technology making science fiction part of our everyday lives or the will-it-won’t-it economic recovery. And then there are the dramatic natural disasters along with personal dramas no one hears about. There are things swirling around us that are unsettling.

Uncertainty creates questions

Trying to lead your business through unknowns and partial-knowns naturally leads to wondering what is true and what is likely. It is the questions about what is likely that can be most perplexing. Most businesses are looking at past performance and the types of interactions they are having with customers.

The temptation is to pull back and stick with the basics. And let’s face it, prudence can be a good thing when you’re not sure which way to go. Beyond the hard numbers and other measurable aspects of your business is your own tolerance for unknowns and risk.

Determining what is risky

The thing with planning ahead is that you have to take guesses. Sure they are educated guesses but they are guesses. But it starts with a few questions:

1. What is the risk specifically? Is it in reference to how I run my small business or am I looking at the environment in which my business exists?

2. What is my current tolerance for risk? Why am I inclined to take or avoid risk right now?

3. Why now?

4. What can I anticipate and prepare for?

Restricted movement or go whole hog?

It should be said that different industries have been affected by the recession and inconsistent recovery in an uneven way. So, while the small business sectoras a whole is up and down with optimism, it is clear that many specific businesses are doing all right. But you might ask, what about my experience? The way forward has to lie in answering the questions.

Where do you focus when you do a risk assessment?

*We’re going to take a deeper look (or as much as 140 will allow) on the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog on Friday, June 17th at 12pm ET/5pm BST/9am PT with this topic. Please consider yourself invited to join in the conversation “Risk Taking and Uncertainty”

While I’ve been focusing on business plans recently, there are often things in the background that will determine how much faith you put into your own planning and any action actually taken. Confidence is one of these things.

Confidence is a remarkable attribute in any part of life. Merriam-Webster online dictionary lists one definition as “a feeling or consciousness of one’s powers or of one’s circumstances”. In business, it’s a huge piece of any effective business plan. When we can clearly see our our choices and actions are successful, they build on each other. There is an aphrodisiac effect when we feel confident. People want to be around us. They believe that we can deliver our products or services and they will work. Like that feeling of first being in love, our customers want to tell others how wonderful we are. So what could possibly get in the way?

Emotions have a major influence in how we approach the hard work of our businesses.

My friend, Caroline pointed me to a post recently about emotions. It was an interesting tie in of how our emotions are tied into our emotional intelligence. Our instincts and perceptions certainly work on a nonverbal level that is useful. How many times have  you noticed that when you didn’t listen to your instincts that you ended up in a negative situation? We know stuff that we don’t realize we know.

But confidence can be built or eroded by emotion. Consider this-your skill level doesn’t suddenly evaporate. You still have the same body of knowledge and the same talent to serve your customers well. However, if you’re seeing your revenues decreasing or you just can’t seem to land new customers, your confidence generally drops. On the other hand, the times you’ve landed that fabulous client or solved a difficult problem, it gave you such a boost. There are days when you feel as if you couldn’t find your way out of a paper bag or, conversely, you are beautiful and people love you.

It’s not just our reaction to our performance that can grow or erode our confidence.

Circumstances in our environment can be taxing on our confidence as well. For small business, access to credit or consumer spending or lack thereof can drain one energy and motivation. The Irish Independent reported that the Small Firms Association ((SFA) urged that measures be taken to restore confidence to Irish small and mid-sized companies. Access to adequate networking, advice or governmental policies make up the environment in which we operate our businesses.  They fertilize our thinking and present opportunities for our growth. The way our peers respond to circumstances does in some way affect us. We may choose to get caught up in the zeitgeist or not but it is still in the air.

Sometimes personal issues have an impact on our confidence. It doesn’t take much to notice that we siphon off energy to respond to personal situations. They can be positive or negative events (e.g. weddings, children leaving home, illness or death) but they still evoke an emotional response.

Perhaps wisdom is in our awarenss of how we allow our emotions to grow or erode our confidence.

We’re going to feel our emotions, no matter what. As I often say, it isn’t the emotions that are good or bad. It’s what we do with them. The level of influence you have over a situation can markedly affect how much confidence you feel. And we have choices about how we express ourselves. Our choices encourage that glow and attraction that an aphrodisiac provides.

While it’s tempting on my part to provide suggestions for creating confidence that works like a love charm, it will be much more interesting to hear what the #kaizenblog community has to say. Please join us as we’ll be discussing ”Confidence, Emotions and Business Growth” on the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog on Friday, May 13, 2011 at 12pm ET/5pm BST/9am PT 

How would you describe the levels of confidence in your offline peers?

Could confidence have a fragility to it? Why or why not?

What is the relationship between experience, confidence and emotional intelligence?

What is it about confident people that attracts you?

From emerging markets to established markets, there are a lot of challenges impacting our businesses. If you read The Economist, their outlook is definitely not rosy. Natural disasters, scarce jobs and rising costs are in the news.  In the recent March Discover Small Business Watch, it was reported that 14% of small businesses “may not recover”. If that isn’t enough, there could be internal challenges that could also impact your business. 

How do you know when it’s time to go?

In our next #kaizenblog chat, we are talking about when to close the doors on your business. To start the conversation, Fox Business Small Business Center had an interesting list of reasons that it may be time to close your business.

1. Loss of passion

2. Call it quits when the potential reward is no longer worth the risk

3. You’re taking the skeptical view of everything

4. No repeat customers=no new customers

5. Read the signs

6. Is your pride or optimism steering you wrong?

7. Are you all in?

8. Feedback is everything

9. Believing that quitting is an option

10. Be careful of demand

Could you throw the towel in too soon?

Turnarounds are hard work. Each of the reasons listed in the Fox Business Small Business Center aren’t necessarily death knells on their own. It is our choices that make thing permanent. We have to take stock and tell ourselves the truth of what is happening to us on a personal level. We may be experiencing personal crises involving our health or members of our families. Sometimes we reach a milestone that makes us take a look at where we are in our lives. Maybe we need to hire someone who has certain skills that will complement our own. Maybe we need to fire someone who is not performing according to our expectations. The interesting thing about this list is how many of the items actually lead back to the leader’s thinking.

So how do you know if it’s time to quit and move on or get cracking on a turnaround?

What does quitting really mean?

*Join us to discuss when quitting makes the most sense on the Twitter chat, #kaizenblog on Friday, May 6th at 12pm ET/5 pm BST/9am PT.