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Time for a little tough love. Did you see this coming? I don't want to hear you tell
me that you're shocked and surprised that one of your employees is going on maternity
leave and you don't have a replacement for her. That was a perfectly predictable event
and I don't want to hear you tell me that you are shocked and surprised, and moreover
that you're not prepared for it. A lot of times in business I hear so many entrepreneurs
say that they're blindsided or shocked or unprepared, or worse, they're running around
like a chicken with their head cut off, their hair is on fire, the printer is calling them
for new marketing materials for a trade show that's in three months or a radio show calls
them for an interview and they have no chance to prepare or make a strategic decision about
these choices that they have to make. And it makes for bad decisions. There's no need
for everybody to be frenetic and there's no need to feel panicked. There's a lot of ways
to be predictable and feel better and look at ways you can be prepared for events that
are inevitable that are coming up. I'm not talking about the inevitable events that we
aren't prepared for. Get out a marketing calendar for your entire year. Work three months forward.
What do you need for that trade show? What do you need for the printing? What do you
need for the personnel? I want you to sit down with your team or yourself with a calendar
about your employees. Do you have an employee who's a train wreck and most likely going
to quit? Do you have a pregnant employee? Work your way backwards from either letting
that employee go or expecting them to quit or taking them off of a management of a big
project so that you are prepared for their replacement. I'm telling you that we don't
need to be panicked when there's a snowstorm in Minnesota in January. We should have seen
this coming. Be prepared for shoveling out your driveway and your parking lot for your
employees. A tsunami stops your shipment from coming in? That's a reasonable excuse to say
that you're in a panic. We always have unexpected things happen but there are a lot of things
as entrepreneurs and business people that we can prepare for. That's your Backpocket
Strategy- Be Prepared. Look forward three, six, eight months from now. Work backwards
on the decisions that you have to make now. Fast decisions are typically bad decisions.
Make strategic choices and be prepared. That's your Backpocket Strategy for the week. Make
it a great week. Hop on over to my Facebook page and let me know what you think.