Resilience is a word which seems to be used a lot in business.
“You must make your business resilient” is the message. But what does that actually mean? And is following that instruction as the first priority, in fact detracting from something even more important for the average small business owner?
Business resilience is seen to be the ability of a company to get through times of difficulty by quickly adapting to changes in the trading environment whilst maintaining consistent and continuous business operations. Resilience is not simply about crisis management, or firefighting, it is the strategy and infrastructure in place before, during, and after the time of the event.
That sounds pretty important, doesn’t it? So, what am I suggesting could be higher up your list?
Your own personal and emotional resilience.
Your level of emotional resilience is measured by how able you are to manage stressful or unexpected situations, and your ability to cope whilst doing so.
As a small business owner, it is likely to be just you steering the ship. If you are not resilient to all that the business world throws at you, then both your personal life as well as your ability to run the business in the best way you can will be impacted.
Poor business decision making, a lack of business direction, and a lack of motivation are just a few of the symptoms which are detrimental to the health of both you and the business.
A resilient owner will have a positive impact on the resilience and success of the business. A resilient business however will not necessarily contribute to the personal resilience of those leading it. This is why the welfare and security of the people behind the business must always be put first.
Running a business can be an extremely lonely place – regardless if you have employees around you or not (at times managing staff can be even more isolating), and so it is vital that you look after yourself and work to build your own emotional resilience.
Join the BIPC Northamptonshire for our Emotional Resilience in Business webinar, to learn some techniques to help you build your reliance as a business owner. You can find the full list of our webinars & workshops here.