Rainy Days

Today has been another of those rainy fall days. One minute you look out and see bright sunshine and the next the rain is pelting against the window pane of your office. Of course, as Canadians we all know that this is normal so we go about our daily routine anyway.

However, this particular phenomenon caused me to think of how running a small business is like fall days. It occurred to me that the bright sunshine was akin to those days when we had plenty of business. Our income stream was, if not full, still running nicely. People we try to connect with whether by telephone, email, fax, or in person are able to be connected with. Our sales programs are generating interest if not specific sales.

Then we find the rainy days. On those days it seems that no matter what we do we are unable to make that business connection. We place phone calls and receive voice mail. We send faxes and emails and get no responses. We visit the offices of clients and potential clients and they are not available. The flow of income has dwindled to a trickle or perhaps even come to a full stop.

Then there are days just like today when we have a combination of both effects. One minute we are high on success and the next minute we are low on rejection. The challenge is to somehow get through that with our sanity intact.

One possible way of handling those days, and yes we will all have them, is to pick something we know will be successful. Perhaps it is updating our files. Perhaps it is cleaning up the top of our desk. Perhaps it is as simple balancing our bank statement. Whatever it is we can take comfort in having completed one thing successfully. If we manage to do that first thing in the day the effect is that the rest of the day goes well regardless of the weather.

So, pick that thing you need done that you know is a sure fire success. Do it first thing tomorrow morning and see how the rest of your day goes. If you feel like sharing the results, that would be fantastic. If not, savour them yourself.