One Sherpa

I have an ingenious way of working out whether you might have a fear issue around money.

Picture yourself standing in front of an ATM machine.

You have deposited money into your account and are certain that you have funds to withdraw.

However the bank has made an error and your account has been frozen. You go to make a withdrawal of $100 cash and the machine comes back and says “Insufficient funds.”

What goes through your head?

What emotions are running in your body?

When I went through this role play FEAR was the overriding emotion!

When FEAR is strong it can have a paralysing effect as well.

I would probably have stood there not believing it was true and unable to do something about it immediately.

Although this is an exaggerated exercise everyone at times has fear enter their world through uncertain circumstances.

Maybe it’s about putting up prices?
Maybe it’s about losing a contract?
Maybe it’s about losing a valued employee?

At the bottom of these situations is often a negative financial situation and as a result the lack of money can bring fear into your world.

The antidote to this is realising that the world isn’t coming to an end as a result; even if it feels like it.

Having an overall sense of your business health and how the financial part works will bring a higher degree of certainty to your situation and with that you can be more future confident.

These situations then become mere bumps on the road to success.

I used to be an endurance rider which involved riding horses over long distances. The most popular distance was 80 kilometres and this would involve two sections of 40 kilometres each.

The ride would usually take place on a Sunday morning and we would travel to the location on a Saturday.

The programme would look like this:

• Step One – Take horse to the onsite vet for a pre ride check.
• Step Two – Ride first 40 Kilometres.
• Step Three – Present horse to vet for second check.
• Step Four – Ride second 40 Kilometres.
• Step Five – Present horse to vet for third check and gain a completion certificate.

You may be asking, “Why all the vet checks? Surely it would simply be a matter of making sure you followed the course and got to the finish line”?

Well, the vets checked the horse for such things as heart rate and lameness but the most important part of their work was to ensure the horse was fit for the next leg.

So the check at the finish was to ensure the horse would, in their opinion, be fit to complete another 40 kilometres.

So how does that relate to a business?
Many business owners only think about their Profit and Loss Account. That’s like being out on the ride. But they never really think about their Balance Sheet which is like going to the vet and checking whether their business is OK to carry on.

Watch for my next post on this topic where I will expand this thought further…..