Smailes Goldie: Make sure you’re persevering in the right direction

Headline Partner • Winter 2021

Business owners are the ultimate generalists.

Success in business is complicated and demands competence in areas ranging from those specific to your core product or service, to finance, management, logistics, sales, strategic planning, marketing and customer service.

It also demands a similarly wide range of qualities, including vision, ambition, patience, risk-taking, caution, judgment and determination.

Of course, different skills and qualities come to the fore in different circumstances and situations. And, during the pandemic, one quality in particular has shone through more so than perhaps any other.

That quality is perseverance. The ability to keep going, even when things are difficult, uncomfortable or are not successful at the first attempt.

It is the ability to try and try again and to carry on trying until you are successful. In fact, it might be the defining characteristic of success.

But, perseverance is not a good thing in and of itself. Persevering with an enterprise that is fundamentally flawed or doomed to failure cannot be a good thing, at least beyond a certain point. And persevering at the expense of your mental or physical health and relationships cannot be a good thing either.

To be a valuable quality – to be a virtue – perseverance needs to come with a reasonable chance of success, including an understanding of how to get there and what works and what does not.

That is where information and strategy come into play. Real-time data on the performance of your business can tell you whether your efforts are working, while a strategic approach allows you to focus your efforts on the areas where they can have the biggest impact on achieving your long-term goals.

This is the antidote to the kind of undirected perseverance that can arise from panic and sink your business.

And expert advice can be invaluable in helping you persevere in the right the direction.

Having a strategy with concrete, measurable objectives that are geared towards achieving your overarching goals can make perseverance not only more effective but easier too. You are no longer working on something indefinitely and instead, you are focusing on a series of manageable projects.

Meanwhile, you will be more confident that your efforts will reap the rewards you deserve. When that is the case, endurance becomes less of an issue.

Our SG Blueprint business advisory service brings together the tech that will give you real-time insights into the performance of your business and the strategic advice that can help you focus your efforts and make the most of your time and energy.