Your attitude in your business, your attitude to your business is everything.

Attitude is the theme of this week's I Hate Numbers podcast. In this week's podcast I look at what attitude is, and why it's such a big deal in your business.

Business or hobby

Firstly, what’s a business? Business is where you have an activity where making money, making profit is part of the deal.

An official definition of a business is the activity of making one’s living or making money by producing or buying and selling products.

A hobby , on the other hand is a regular activity done for enjoyment, typically during one’s leisure time, not professionally and not for pay.

Making money, profit and cash in the bank has to feature and your numbers, your best friend in business, that won’t lie to you plays a massive part.Listen to find out more

What is attitude

When we hear the word attitude, images of anger, happiness sadness appear. Whether we take things seriously of whether we take them lightly.

Your attitude, mindset if you prefer is about your thoughts about the world. It’s about your behaviour, your assumptions. You attitude is about how you apply those in your business is actually key to how your business grows, develops, sustains, and prospers.

Your approach to your business , whether you take it seriously or not is important. It will determine whether your business survives, will shape how you deal with those circumstances that you may feel are outside of your control. It shapes how you deal with people that may not be the most comfortable to deal with.

You can't control what happens in the future, but you can control and influence how you react to them.

Furthermore. one size does not fit all. By the same token one approach doesn’t suit all situations

Listen to find out more

Your Business Growth

This is not an option. Your definition of growth may vary, but absolutely you've got to see growth as a continuum. If you do not grow your business, then you will end up going backwards in your business.

Customers will leave you. Nobody keeps customers for life. Costs will change competition, intensifies regulations and legislation changes all the time. So change is a constant part of our business lives. So looking to grow your business to develop your business is an absolute necessity, not, it would be nice to have.

Conclusion

In conclusion, your business is there to serve your customers well, for you to enjoy what you're doing, to give you the time to spend with your family, provide yourself with a decent living. But fundamentally is that also to make money. Your mindset and attitude absolutely vital for you taking your business seriously and for growth.  Contact us to find out more.

 What Next

Make yourself comfortable. Sit back and listen.

Even better subscribe so you do not miss an episode.

In This Episode

• Understanding what the difference the difference between your business and a hobby
• The part that your attitude plays in your business success
• Why your business needs to grow
• Developing your own Numbers confidence and decisions
• Take more control of your numbers to help make you money, survive and thrive

Links

https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/proactiveresolutionss-podcast/id1500471288

https://play.google.com/music/m/I3pvpztpjvjw6yrw2kctmtyckam?t=I_Hate_Numbers

https://open.spotify.com/show/5lKjqgbYaxnIAoTeK0zins

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/proactiveresolutionss-podcast

https://tunein.com/podcasts/Business–Economics-Podcasts/I-Hate-Numbers-p1298505/

You are listening to the I Hate Numbers Podcast with Mahmood Reza. The I Hate Numbers podcast mission is to help your business survive and thrive by you better understanding and connecting with your numbers. Number love and care is what it's about. Tune in every week. Now, here's your host, Mahmood Reza.

Your attitude in business, your attitude to your business is everything. Attitude is a theme of this week's podcast of I Hate Numbers. In this week's broadcast, I want to talk about what attitude is, why it's such a big deal in your business, the different types of attitude, and how we can do things to improve that attitude for the better

good. Let's crack on with the broadcast. Now, when we hear the word attitude, it conjures up certain images in our mind of anger, happiness, sadness, whether we take things seriously, or whether we take them lightly. Mindset is an alternative term for attitude, and for me, those two terms are interchangeable.

Your mindset is your attitude, about your thoughts, about the world, your behaviour, your assumptions, and how you apply those in your business is actually key to how your business grows, develops, sustains, and prospers. Attitude to your business, whether you take it seriously or not, will determine whether your business survives, will shape how you deal with those circumstances that you may feel are outside of your control, how you deal with people that may not be the most comfortable to deal with.

So, all the rubbish, all the stuff that's thrown at you in business, all the turbulence that comes your way, your attitude to how you cope with it, how you deal with it, is going to be really, really a big deal. We may not necessarily be able to control what happens in the future. We may not necessarily be able to control whether customers leave us.

We may not necessarily be able to control what happens in the general wider economy, but we can certainly control and influence how we react to those changing circumstances. But we drill down even deeper into attitude, or mindset if you prefer. Let's just remind ourselves what a business actually is.

Now, I've spoken on podcasts previously where for me, your business is where you have an activity, where making money, making profit has got to be part of the deal. If you don't structure your business, if you don't have money in your crosshairs and aiming to make a profit in your business, well fundamentally, you won't be able to have the life that you want.

You won't enjoy what you're doing. You won't be able to sustain what you are doing and you won't be able to deliver the best impact to your customers on a continuing basis. And if you carry on doing that and making profits is not within your thought process, within your action plan, then all you've got on your hands is a very time-consuming and expensive hobby. Any business,

whether it's a social enterprise, whether it's a private business, a charity, whatever it is, if money is changing hands, then you've got a business. How you make that money, how you make your profit, may differ from business to business. What you do with that money may differ depending on what your own personal stance is, what your social or business mission is, but fundamentally, making profits, cash in the bank has to feature as an important part of your business plan, and your numbers, your best friend in your business, they won't lie to you, and they play a massive part in that business’

prosperity and survival. Previous podcasts, I've talked about the importance of attitude in terms of collecting money from customers, getting paid on time. Having said what attitude, mindset is, having talked about the importance here, one particular area where it plays a major part is in the growth of your business.

Now, business growth is not an option. It's not something that you think it would be nice, and we're not necessarily talking about having a business that's going to conquer the universe. Your definition of growth may vary, but absolutely you've got to have seen growth as a continuum. If you do not grow your business, then you will end up going backwards in your business.

Customers will leave you. Nobody keeps customers for life. Cost will change. Competition intensifies. Regulations and legislation changes all the time. So, change is a constant part of our business lives. So, looking to grow your business, to develop your business is an absolute necessity, not it would be nice to have. Remember,

if you don't grow your business, then you're going to end up going backwards. You'll end up going into an area of decline. Nothing stays the same. In the context of mindset, an attitude for me is a much stronger word that encapsulates the emotion behind this, there are two types of mindset conventionally talked about.

One is referred to as a fixed mindset, and the other one is referred to as a growth mindset. Believe it or not, both of those attitudes, both of those approaches to your business, have their part to play. So, it's not about running a business with a purely fixed mindset. It's not running a business with a purely growth mindset.

The two have their part to play. Let me just expand on what is meant by those two types of mindset. Now, a mindset says that you follow convention, you continue with the status quo. The upside of a fixed mindset is that there are certain things that you should do in processes, in systems, due diligence, and the like that a fixed mindset is absolutely key.

So, doing things like keeping an eye on cash flow, doing this idea of planning ahead, doing the idea of doing a due diligence check on new customers, new partners that you might be working with, checking out that everything is as it should be, making sure that you follow your control systems. Absolutely critical,

a fixed mindset needs to happen. You can certainly evolve and develop those systems, but having that status quo situation in that business discipline and attitude is absolutely key. However, if you are looking to grow your business, and as I said earlier, you need to look at growing your business (talk about the positive aspect of a fixed mindset)

let's comment on why it's not a good approach, a good attitude, a good mindset to have when you're looking to grow your business. If you continue with the status quo, if you are closed to new ways of thinking, new ways of working, then you're going to create a state of stagnant environment in your business that's slowly going to lead onto the decline.

So, the way that you may engage with your customers, the ways that you actually traditionally control things, you look at things, you look at opportunities, you look at risk. If that, fundamentally, ‘oh, we've always done it this way’ type of attitude exists, then you run a massive risk of your business hitting a wall and going into a decline phase.

Now, a growth mindset is the opposite of that. It doesn't accept the status quo. It makes us step outside of our comfort zone to some extent, and our risk appetite is that we try new things. Now, I'm not talking about being reckless. I'm not talking about just going gung-ho. Let me try something different.

You've still got to apply business disciplines, your planning responsibilities to that business growth idea. But what it means is you actually look at different ways, you look at different opportunities, you are willing to invest. So, not everything in life is for free. You're willing to invest the time and the energy to actually explore those new opportunities.

Growth mindset says that you are willing to explore potential collaborations. You look at working with others, in a group, in a team, look at mentors bringing in resources here. Growth mindset also means disturbing the status quo. So, if you are conventionally somebody who doesn't like the numbers, somebody who's a bit scary and a bit wary of your numbers, then you need to do something to get closer to those numbers.

If traditionally, you are somebody who doesn't like dealing with numbers, somebody who's a bit wary of what your bank balance is showing you, you may not be comfortable with actually talking to customers who owe you money. You may not be comfortable with looking at the bank stamps. Now, those aren't criticisms.

It's a perfectly natural thing. Not a good thing, not one thing I would recommend, but it's certainly a mindset and an attitude to actually getting more comfortable with the topic of money, especially your money. Let's summarise what I've said in this podcast. One is, what's a business? Well, a business is there to serve your customers well, for you to enjoy what you're doing, to give you the time to spend with your family, provide yourself a decent living, but fundamentally, it's there also to make money.

There's no shame in that. You're there to make profit. You're there to put cash in the bank. Mindset and attitude, absolutely vital for you taking your business seriously, and you have one of two types of mindset. It's the blend of them in your business that's important, not to have one over the other. A fixed mindset, which does things traditionally, the status quo, so typically the things like operating systems, budgeting, cash flow management, keeping an eye on what customers owe you, systems, and procedures.

A fixed mindset is a definite plus there and a definite must. A growth mindset, however, looks outside of what you're doing traditionally. It may involve a little bit of going outside of your comfort zone. It means looking ahead. It means looking at things in a different way, different ways of working, different ways of operating.

It's the blend of those two that contribute not only to your business sustainability, but your business prosperity. Okay, folks, thanks for your time. I'd love to know what sort of attitude do you think you have in your business? Do you have a positive? Do you have a mindset that's growth or fixed? Do you have a blend?

If you want to find out more, check out the new section of my website, proactiveresolutions.com. Read the show notes that accompany this podcast. Subscribe so you don't miss out on future episodes. Okay, folks, have a fantastic week and I'll catch you in the space next week. We hope you enjoyed this episode and appreciate you taking the time to listen to the show.

We hope you got some value. If you did, then we'd love it if you shared the episode. We look forward to you joining us next week for another I Hate Numbers episode.