Preparing for Shifts in Your Business

Business advice for women entrepreneurs and small business owners

Things are shifting,” said in a conversation over coffee. “It’s not so much that things are changing, they feel more like they are shifting.” I never thought of the difference between the two words until that dialogue. I see a lot of reasons women shift within their companies over time. They shift because they aren’t achieving specific goals, to bring in more revenue and they shift because the marketplace demands it.

One of the definitions of shift is to change in position, direction, makeup or circumstances. If you think about your own business experiences you can identify when you shifted your perspective because of a new experience, shifted the way you perceived someone after meeting them or shifted a feeling of priority from one major task to another one. A shift can be a budge, transfer, reallocation or alteration from one way to another.

Ihey shift because a competitor has a new edge, and they can shift because personal circumstances affect them. If you look back throughout the course of your life, priorities have shifted. The important priorities for us as teenagers were totally different than priorities as young adults, new parents or empty nesters. We had to slowly morph over time because our priorities shifted.

Our businesses are always shifting. The economy is always changing. We are always evolving personally. Whether we pay attention or not, the earth moves and so does our business. Neither stand still nor should we. To be successful personally or professionally, we need to recognize and embrace the shifts that are occurring, already occurred or are about to occur.

Today’s post is to inspire you to think about the shifts happening within your company, industry or surroundings that might cause you to make alterations to the way you think, act or conduct business. A shift can cause clarity helping to move from one perspective to another or from one place to another. Do you need to shift responsibility to a new employee? Should you shift how you look at a competitor from a negative perspective to a beneficial one? Could you shift how you think about asking for new sales or getting rid of unproductive services or products? Do you need to shift the way you lead your business?

For me, a shift is a gentler and slower moving feeling than a change. Change can feel difficult but a shift can be much less complex. Why not embrace the slow moving shifts in your perspective, priorities or outcomes this week and witness its positive effects.