How can entrepreneurs stay disciplined during an economic downturn?

“Self discipline is the ability to control yourself and to make yourself work hard or behave in a particular way without needing anyone else to tell you what to do.”

As entrepreneurs, there are many elements that are beyond your control during a global pandemic – lockdowns, vaccine rollouts, consumer behaviour, the economy – but you can always control your actions and attitude. Having the necessary discipline to keep yourself, your employees and your business steady during uncertainty is invaluable.

As the steward of your business, you have an obligation to hold the fort. Having been in business for so many years, I’ve seen my share of situations where fellow entrepreneurs or managers have lost their cool during a crisis. Too often, this can have a negative trickle-down effect, morally and financially, on everything and everyone around them.

So, what can you do to maintain your discipline during a crisis? Two things:

1. Be financially diligent. This starts with being prepared even before a crisis hits. Apply the age-old advice to managing your personal finances towards running your business – set some money aside and save it for that rainy day. Being consistently disciplined with your business’s finances will ensure that you’re able to do this, as you will already have costs under control and be operating within your means. When the difficult times do come, you will have to adjust, but won’t have to undertake wrenching changes, a welcome relief for your employees.
2.  Maintain a positive mindset. In business, as with life, you’ll face challenges. As I mentioned before, you can’t control every aspect of those situations, but you can choose how you react. Any crisis is manageable, regardless of the triggers, if you maintain a healthy frame of mind. How do you do this? It all comes down to what you allow into your brain. Limiting engagement with negative people, reading inspirational books as well as consuming less news and social media are a good start. I’d also recommend focusing on what you can impact right now, such as responding quicker or communicating and strategizing with your team.

If you need more help managing your business during this pandemic, check out how you can do more with less as well as strategies you can employ to get by as an entrepreneur. To get in touch with me, drop me line at [email protected].