Entrepreneurs trapped in an old movie

You would have to have been holed up in a dark movie theater from dawn to dusk not to have noticed that the job market is tenuous now and it impacts not only the way we work, but it triggers our fears about the choices we make and how to apply our resources effectively.

Companies may still struggle with the concept of “customer first” (see Fast Company’s article “Putting Customer’s First”), but entrepreneurs know that customers are their lifeblood. Still, they have to find ways to reach out further to nurture those relationships and thus guarantee the price of their products or services.

All of this can add up to some questions about where to spend your time and how to keep your income steady without spending too much on marketing. Beware of too much unstructured activity, such as social media, SEO work, website reviews, newsletters and blogs that don’t attract customers, and long networking meetings or phone calls that can be enjoyable, but unproductive. If you have more than 500 unattended emails and feel like you’re losing control, that’s because. It’s like you’re Lucy Arnez or Ethel Mertz, in “I Love Lucy,” where they’re packing chocolates at the chocolate factory, eating their product as it comes down the conveyor belt to keep up with the ones that keep coming. .

Don’t let the fear of missing out rule your email inbox. Treat your emails like snail mail, look at them once and decide their usefulness, responding then and there in the period you’ve delegated to review emails or delete them. Otherwise, you feel like Audrey Hepburn in “Charade,” running from something but not sure what. Maybe he’s running TO something, chasing business, instead of allowing business. To do this requires a balance of well-chosen effort and release.

If you’re a professional speaker, counselor, or similar professional talking about success, and yet now you’re having challenges with your own bills, you might even feel like a fraud. You can relate to Kim Novak in “Vertigo,” not sure if you can be loved and accepted just the way you are or if you have to play the other woman just to get and keep your client’s attention.

But those beliefs about being nice, good enough, and the like are old beliefs formed in childhood that are not based on reality. Anyone who takes risks has failures, but that does not make them failures. You will make mistakes, but mistakes and failures aren’t bad, they’re just an unrealized goal that means nothing more than it’s time to set another one and go for it.

However, what happens when business is fading and you are on the verge of financial collapse? If you have serious debt, start reducing it where you can by making arrangements with your creditors. Consider a low interest loan. Seek bona fide loans from family or friends. Take a second job if necessary. But those are all steps you need to take into account beforehand, not just when the wolf is at your back door.

You can’t walk around like you’re just one of a bunch of crazy money-seeking people, like in the 1963 comedy “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” Determine exactly how much money you need now, what you want it for, and how you’ll use it when you have it. In other words, be specific. Then set another goal beyond the amount needed to challenge yourself, so you don’t get too comfortable or dependent on actions to get ahead.

There will always be unknowns as an entrepreneur and that is part of the excitement, challenge and risk as you meet your own daily work decisions. Julie Andrews, in “The Sound of Music”, was afraid of her unknown career as a governess, but she went ahead anyway until her actions were shown to be taking her in the same direction she needed to go. .

This is an unsettling economic period, but it will pass; and there will be an upturn in jobs and money again. For now it’s time to hold tight, but not too tight. You want to be flexible for new opportunities, but not reckless in your decisions to risk what you cannot afford to lose. It is a momentary recession that our country and the world are experiencing and there is still plenty of abundance to take advantage of. So have a clear strategy to help you weigh the trade-offs of the risks you’ll need to take, and follow through with a solid plan of action.

Then make sure you have some downtime to relax, grab your popcorn, and enjoy a light-hearted movie that inspires and affirms you. You are not trapped. You have a wide variety of options and you can make it happen!