Yesterday, we looked at how Adam Walker, CEO of Walker Creative, lost the motivation he had at the start of the company formation process. This is becoming more and more common in small business founders, largely due to the increasing financial demands of the recession. In today’s post we review the reasons behind a loss of motivation and look at various strategies for getting it back
Why?
There are many reasons why entrepreneurs start to lose their passion for the company they formed; change in personal circumstances, increasing demands of the economic context, changing market conditions. However, business analyst James Tatham suggests that for most entrepreneurs the problem stems from a lack of sufficient experience.
“A lot of entrepreneurs are motivated to start their own company by a particular talent or skill. At the beginning and through the start up phase of their company, there is not much need for them to concentrate on anything other than selling their skill. However, as their company begins to grow so do the operational demands of running a business “comments Tatham.
“They begin to struggle with areas such as book keeping, HR and administration. Subsequently, things begin to slip and many entrepreneurs begin to get disillusioned as they are spending less and less time concentrating on the skill that motivated them to begin the company formation process to begin with.
This is what happened to IT firm, Innovate. “We had lost the thrill of a sale” states CEO Ian Meyer. “Even after we won a big account, instead of thinking how we could use this win to expand our company, my partner and were looking for a way out.”
How do you get things back on the boil?
Go Back to the Start.
One of the most important things to do is define what it was that motivated you to start the company formation process to begin with. The key is to identify what inspired you to start your business in the first place.
Delegating and outsourcing operational activity such as HR and accountancy to other professionals will allow you concentrate on broader strategy and reconnect with the passion you lost”
Rediscover your objectives
Take a fresh look at what you want to achieve for both your personal and professional life.
For Meyer this meant doing a complete re-draft of his original business plan and development strategies.
“Knowing what I wanted to achieve defining how I was going to do it, gave me clear strategic vision.”