Feeling Stuck?

Amidst this awful COVID-19 crisis, I’ve found myself working from home and just feeling stuck… helpless… like my shoes are stuck in the mud. My feet feel heavy and it’s hard to just move. We’ve had to close our sign business to the public and the leads get fewer every day. Honestly, we’re praying for the Federal bailout money to show up even more than we’re praying to stay healthy. That sounds awful I know, but when you own your own business it feels like your life, your purpose, your reason to wake up in the morning… when my business struggles, I struggle in a major way and it can feel a whole lot like being sick. Have you been there? Do you understand what I mean right now?

I try to stay consistent with my on-line marketing to stay in front of my friends, customers and prospects. I continue my monthly email blast with special discounts and pertinent information about the business. We work a few orders as they come in and I’m happy to reach out to customers and ask how they’re doing but some days I just feel overwhelmed. There’s a lot I could do, I want to do more, I feel desperate to generate a new lead, I want to scream at anyone near me that we are still able to build signs!  But so far that hasn’t accomplished much except for my teenage boys looking at me like I’ve gone mad. So I take a walk - I get outside and breathe. I may put an earbud in and listen to music or walk in silence, either way, it helps me think. Maybe it is a stress reliever, I’m not sure, but I almost always come home with a fresh idea. Sometimes it’s a new marketing strategy, or a sales lead or an administrative solution that I should have implemented long ago. It’s always clarity. Capture that thought. When the path is muddy and hard to navigate, sometimes a clear vision of your next step is all you need that day.