Apple, Amazon Hit $1 Trillion while Brick-and-Mortars Lose — Here’s the Lesson

News recently hit that Apple and Amazon have reached $1 trillion in market value. Wow. That’s really something but not unexpected. After all, it was only a matter of time. Meanwhile, brick-and-mortar retailers continue to struggle — especially legacy stores. So, why such a disparity? We all know the quick answer — failure to adapt to a changing marketplace. (It’s why there’s just one, lone Blockbuster in the entire United States.) The underlying lesson is the ones getting left behind might have well enjoyed a lot of past success. But now, they’re stuck. And, that’s the most important takeaway.

How to Know if You’re Stuck

So, what does it mean to be stuck? More importantly, what does it feel like? Unfortunately, this is a phenomenon which isn’t always readily apparent. It might slowly creep up and surprise you in an unexpected moment. The good news is, you can usually tell. For instance, if you just don’t experience the thrill or feel the passion. That’s the most obvious.

It’s not uncommon for a business to begin to spin its wheels. For you company owners, it will feel like you’re treading water, and while you may not wake up to it right away, eventually it will start to weigh on your mind. Most of the time, these periods will pass, as they may simply be down to such things as seasonal trends or other outside market forces. But when they drag on too long, it could indeed be time to make some significant changes.
Entrepreneur.com

A more subtle telltale sign is when you rationalize a rut as a normal routine. Or, when you see the competition moving ahead, yet you can’t seem to make any real headway. Those too, are signs you’re stuck in-place.

Tops Ways to Get Unstuck

Now, if you feel stuck, you probably are and fortunately, there are ways out. The good news is, you don’t have to make huge changes. Here are a few helpful suggestions for how to get unstuck:

  • Try something new. Change up your routine. Or, go in a different direction. The point is to try something new out and do so with flexibility. In other words, don’t go all-in. Instead, slowly dip your toes in the water and test it out. You’ll probably feel excitement and even experience some inspiration.
  • Take an impromptu hiatus. You probably have a trip planned. But, in the meantime, there you are, feeling stuck; feeling uninspired. So, change it up and take an impromptu hiatus to relax, refresh, and unwind. You’ll come back with a whole new outlook.
  • Reach out to an experienced business coach. One of the reasons you feel stuck is because you’re stuck inside of you. Put another way, you’re not looking at things with a fresh set of eyes. Get a different perspective and advice from an experienced business coach. Take advantage of seeing what someone on the outside sees. Then, embrace what you learn.

What other suggestions would you offer to get unstuck? Please share your thoughts and experiences by commenting!

Interested in learning more about business? Then just visit Waters Business Consulting Group.

Like this article?

Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Linkdin
Share on Pinterest

Related Posts

Hey Entrepreneurs, If You’re Comfortable in Your Role, You’re Probably Doing it Wrong

Comfort. It’s a wonderful feeling. When we’re comfortable, we feel secure, often content, and better still, in control. But, control is an illusion. Just like the security of a job or a long-established business. That is, until something goes seriously awry. Then, it becomes quite clear security is not forever. Comfort most definitely falls into the same category, but sometimes, for different reasons. So, if you’ve become comfortable in your role, chances are excellent you’re doing it wrong. Here’s why. Comfort Usually Leads to Complacency Isn’t it strange how the mind works? When someone thinks of “comfort,” he or she gets an entirely different feeling than when thinking about “complacency.” Sure, they are two different things. And, this becomes all-too apparent when compared with one another. Unfortunately, it’s at this juncture that reality sets in hard. Making a concerted effort to challenge yourself will inspire you and help prepare your business for the future. As a result, you will be able to lead your company with the confidence that you’re making good decisions — because you are. —Entrepreneur.com Someone who is comfortable is generally complacent. He or she typically doesn’t have any nagging concerns. It’s basically the manifestation of complacency. A point at which one’s guard is so far down, it might as well not exist. This state of mind is a precarious one because it can easily lead to bad outcomes. So, it’s best to be on one’s toes and that’s possible by stepping out of your comfort zone. 4 Big Benefits of Stepping Outside Your Professional Comfort Zone You’ve probably heard this philosophy before — getting out of your comfort zone will be to your advantage. Moreover, it will do so in more than one way. For instance, it will, at the very least, help you to break away from the ordinary. It breaks up routines. So, let’s start with the most obvious benefit. Stepping outside your comfort zone helps you to get away from routines (in other words, a disruption or end to the monotony). If you step outside your comfort zone, you can better reassess your schedule and inject a little (and much-needed) variety. It gives you more creative chances. Breaking away from your comfort zone also gives you the opportunity to indulge in creativity. That can be beneficial in a number of ways. For example, the ability to think unconventionally and entertain solutions to difficult and/or stubborn problems. It helps you effectively deal with stress. Another big advantage to stepping outside your comfort zone is that it helps teach you to more effectively deal with stressful situations. This lessens panic in uncertain times and that’s a very important trait to learn. It provides opportunities to build confidence. Last but certainly not least, you’ll feel more confident when you successfully step away from your comfort zone. This, especially if you return to a normal routine thereafter. In a short period of time, you can again step away to build even more confidence. What other suggestions do you have? Please take a brief moment to share your thoughts and experiences so others can benefit from your unique perspective! (You may never know who you’ll help out.) Interested in learning more about business? Then just visit Waters Business Consulting Group.

Read More »

When the Owner Becomes the Bottleneck

How commercial landscape companies build leadership teams that scale, and create greater owner freedom Most commercial landscape companies are built on the back of one person. The owner wins the early customers. Builds the first crews from scratch. Develops the relationships. Solves whatever operational problem comes up that day. Approves the big decisions. Handles the difficult employee conversations. Steps in personally when a customer is unhappy. Finds a way to make payroll when it’s tight. Keeps the whole thing moving. In the early years, that level of involvement is often exactly what the business needs. But somewhere along the way, the same leadership style that built the company starts to hold it back. The owner becomes the person everyone waits on. Managers hold off on decisions until they get the nod. Employees learn to escalate a problem instead of just solving it. The important customer relationships all live with one person. Strategic thinking keeps losing to whatever fire is burning today. And the strange part is, the company keeps growing while the owner keeps feeling more trapped, not less. At some point, the owner stops being the company’s biggest growth engine. They become its biggest constraint. At Waters Business Consulting Group, we help commercial landscape companies make that shift from owner-dependent to leadership-led. The point isn’t to push the owner out of the business or make them less important. It’s to build a company that’s stronger than any single person, including the one who started it. The hidden cost of owner dependency Owner dependency is easy to miss because it usually just looks like dedication. The owner is deeply involved, decisions happen fast, customers know exactly who to call, and employees trust that the owner will step in and fix whatever’s broken. All of that feels like strength. But when too many decisions flow through one person, the cracks start to show in ways that aren’t always obvious at first: decisions slow down, managers never really get the chance to develop, accountability gets fuzzy, the same operational problems keep resurfacing, employees get frustrated, and scaling gets genuinely hard. The owner’s workload keeps climbing. The business carries more risk than it should, and it’s worth less than it could be. From the outside, everything can look fine. Revenue’s up, crews are busy, new contracts keep coming in. Inside, the owner is quietly carrying far more of the business than is sustainable, and the company can’t really grow past what one person can personally manage. The warning signs Almost no owner sets out to create this kind of dependency. It builds up slowly, one small moment at a time. A manager asks for help, and the owner just gives them the answer instead of coaching them to find it. A customer has a concern, and the owner jumps in and handles it personally. A decision comes up, and the team waits rather than acts. Before long, everyone’s learned that escalating is just easier than owning the solution themselves. A few signs tend to show up when this has gone too far. Every real decision runs through the owner. Managers might have titles and job descriptions, but not the actual authority or confidence to make a call on pricing, hiring, a customer escalation, an equipment purchase, or a scheduling problem. When one person has to sign off on everything, the whole organization moves at that person’s speed. Managers show up with problems instead of solutions. Strong leaders identify an issue, weigh the options, and bring a recommendation. In an owner-dependent company, managers just hand the problem over and wait for instructions. The owner solves it, the manager doesn’t grow from the experience, and the exact same type of problem lands on the owner’s desk again next month. The owner can’t actually step away. Take a real vacation, or a week at an industry conference, and does the business keep running the way it should, or do decisions just pile up until you get back? A company that can’t function without the owner constantly present might be successful, but it isn’t scalable yet. Critical knowledge only lives in one head. If the owner is the only one who really understands the key customer relationships, the history behind certain pricing decisions, what “good” actually looks like operationally, or where the company is trying to go strategically, that’s a real risk. Knowledge that never gets shared or documented becomes a wall the company eventually runs into. Growth is creating more work instead of more freedom. A healthy business should open up more options as it grows. If every new customer, crew, or service line just adds more directly to the owner’s plate, the company is expanding faster than its leadership infrastructure can support. More revenue isn’t buying more leverage. It’s just buying more responsibility. Why hiring more people doesn’t fix it When owners start feeling overwhelmed, the instinct is usually to hire: another estimator, another account manager, another supervisor. More hands on deck can genuinely help, but hiring alone doesn’t solve owner dependency. A bigger team without real structure often just creates more confusion. Employees need more than a title on a business card. They need clearly defined responsibilities, real authority to make decisions, expectations they can actually measure themselves against, timely information, honest feedback, and accountability for the results they’re responsible for. The goal was never just to add headcount. It’s to build leadership capacity, meaning the organization’s actual ability to make sound decisions, manage performance, and execute without the owner having to direct every single move. Build the org chart around clear ownership As a company grows, responsibility tends to get blurry. Sometimes two people both think they own the same issue. Sometimes everyone assumes it’s someone else’s job. Real clarity starts with a few basic questions: who owns this result, what authority do they actually have, how will success be measured, what can they decide without asking the owner first, and when should something get escalated instead. Clear ownership doesn’t mean less

Read More »

How to Push Forward Starting a New Business when Few People Believe You can Make It

Entrepreneurship is a journey that is full of challenges, and it is not uncommon for entrepreneurs to experience moments of self-doubt and a lack of motivation. However, it becomes even more challenging when the people around them are negative and tell them that they cannot succeed. How Entrepreneurs can Stay Motivated and Focused Even when People Around them Say they Can’t Succeed Negativity can weigh heavily on an entrepreneur’s mind – leading to a lack of focus and plenty of unnecessary second-guessing. So, let’s go ahead and discuss some strategies that entrepreneurs can use to stay motivated and focused even when the people around them are saying they can’t succeed. Believe in Yourself The first and most important thing is to believe in yourself. You must have confidence in your abilities and trust that you are capable of achieving your goals. If you don’t believe in yourself, it will be difficult for you to stay motivated and focused when others doubt you. Surround Yourself with Positive People Surrounding yourself with positive people who believe in you and your vision is essential. Negative people can bring you down and sap your energy. Seek out individuals who are supportive and can offer encouragement and constructive feedback. Focus on Your Vision Stay focused on your vision and goals, and don’t allow others to deter you from your path. (This isn’t easy because we all have self-doubts and are unavoidably influenced by the opinions of others – particularly the people closest to us.) Entrepreneurs have to make a lot of tough choices each day and it can take a toll. Throughout the rest of the day, though, they tend to limit decision-making to keep things simple. It’s a great tool for motivating entrepreneurs because it keeps them sharp when their abilities are needed elsewhere. —Inc.cdom Remember that success often comes after a series of failures and setbacks, so stay the course and remain committed to your vision. If you can put failures in perspective, you’ll have a much better chance of persevering when things don’t go right. Celebrate Small Wins Entrepreneurship is a journey, and it is essential to celebrate small wins along the way. Recognize the progress you’ve made, no matter how small, and use it as motivation to continue working towards your goals. Take Breaks and Practice Self-Care Running a business can be overwhelming, and it’s crucial to take breaks and practice self-care. Take time for yourself and do activities that bring you joy and help you relax. This will help you stay on task and keep your drive to succeed healthy in the long run. Keep Learning and Growing Entrepreneurship is a continuous learning process, and it’s essential to consistently grow and develop your skills. Attend seminars, conferences, and networking events to learn from other entrepreneurs and industry leaders. This will help you stay motivated and focused as you work towards your goals. Embrace Failure Finally, it’s essential to embrace failure as part of the learning process. Every entrepreneur has failed at some point, but what sets successful entrepreneurs apart is their ability to learn from their failures and use them as motivation to keep pushing forward. Summing it all up, staying motivated and focused as an entrepreneur can be challenging, especially when others doubt your ability to succeed. However, by believing in yourself, surrounding yourself with positive people, focusing on your vision, celebrating small wins, taking breaks and practicing self-care, keep learning and growing, and embracing failure, you can stay motivated and focused on your path to success. What other strategies and/or attitudes would you add to this list? Please, take a few minutes to share your own thoughts and experiences so others can benefit from your perspective! Interested in learning more about business? Then just visit Waters Business Consulting Group.

Read More »

Imagine Selling Your Business…

How Would Your Life Change?

You didn’t start your business just to stay busy—you built it to create freedom, security, and options for yourself and your family. Selling your business can be life-changing, but the real question is whether you’re intentionally building toward that outcome or simply leaving it to chance.

Sign up below for a free consultative session to learn what your business could be worth today and in the future! 

Thank you for your interest in learning what your business is worth. We will be in touch shortly.