Keep your mojo working

Editor’s note: Michelle Stockman works with Little Rock-based Arkansas Capital Corp. to promote entrepreneurship development around the state. Stockman earned a bachelor’s degree from Loyola University-Chicago in communications and fine arts, and earned a master’s in entrepreneurship from Western Carolina University. Her thoughts on business success appear each week on The City Wire.

Your business is your baby and there will be days when this baby wears you down.

While starting and running a business is exciting and exhilarating, there will be hard and long days that can drain the best of spirits. There will even be times when you lose the passion (aka mojo) for the business.

The Escape from Cubicle Nation blog notes: “When you are at the top of your game in any aspect of your life — relationship, career, business, finance, health, fitness — you don’t think you will ever come down. But you do. You get laid off. Hit a really rough spot in the economy and stumble in your business. Lose your marriage. Gain two pant sizes from stress and overwork. Get writer’s block. Lose a mentor. Get your heart broken.”

The problem with losing your mojo is that most of us get stuck in a rut and focus on what is wrong in our lives (or stick to remembering negative events from the past to the present). This is true in business too.

Losing your entrepreneurship mojo most often means that the business owner/leader has gotten off track and is focused on problems or “what we’ve always done” rather than focusing on the present and future needs.

Regaining your mojo requires business owners to change their focus and attention. This is not an easy task, but it is necessary for the health of the business. When you are “going through the motions” on a daily basis, changing your focus requires you to think beyond yourself or your business. Escape from Cubicle Nation suggests working toward regaining your “beginner mindset.”

From Escape from Cubicle Nation: “At the beginning of anything great, there is a heated rush, excitement and flow. Think of a great romance in your life: in the first few weeks, you floated around with a big smile on your face, amazed at the generosity of the universe and the beauty of every living thing. It is the state of mind that will bring you back to excitement about the possibility of a new job, even if you have been unemployed for eighteen months. Or truly happy to go on a date, even if your husband ran away with his secretary. Or eager to sit in front of your computer and write your next book, even if the last one sold two hundred copies (unlike your first, which was a bestseller).”

You utilized a beginner mindset in starting your business that included the thrill of new opportunities, the experiments in building a customer base and the excitement of new lessons to learn in running the business. If you are in a business rut, focus on something new for the business. Try new marketing tactics, take a class or attend a seminar to learn something new for your business, partner your business with a non-profit and see what happens. The possibilities are as endless and unique as your business. The key is to become more outwardly focused on your business rather than inwardly stuck.

While everyone loses their mojo from time to time, business owners need to be particularly aware of when the passion for the business is beginning to wane. The business will not move on without your passion and leadership, rather it will suffer along with you.

From your employees, customers and gross profits, all aspects of your business will eventually resemble your lack of leadership and desire for success within the business.

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Stockman can be reached at [email protected]