More than likely, you will not see Fern Allison, the owner of Lakeside Interiors based in Evanston, Illinois on CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg or on the cover of Inc. or Entrepreneur magazines. And that is a shame because Fern is a prime example of what small (not multi million dollar small) business owners are doing throughout the country to stay in business. What Fern and so many like her are doing is defined in a book I just finished reading called Bounce - Failure, Resiliency and Confidence to Achieve Your Next Great Success by Barry Moltz.
The cover of Barry's book shows a ball made out of rubber bands. In the book, Barry list ten bands he says are needed to build business confidence. When I think of Fern and her business, two of these bands come to mind. One of the bands Barry names is "effective risk taking". Fern is in the midst of a business do-over; redesigning her business for greater profitability. She's doing some new things and doing some old things differently. Fern is examining each change that she makes; weighing the pros and cons and then taking the leap of faith that she's made the right decisions for her customers and her business; that the outcome will be well worth the risks she's taking.
Another band Barry discusses in his book is called "value action". During these challenging times many businesses have thrown in the towel and many who wanted to start a business left the showers. Some of those who threw in the towel became victims of analysis paralysis. Some who just went home became victims of procrastination; scared off by all the bad news; waiting for the planets to be aligned. They're going to meetings and waiting. They're going to classes and waiting. They're talking about starting a business and/or making some changes in their existing businesses; but that's all it is: talk.
Meanwhile Fern and those like her are taking action. They're doing what's necessary and sometimes painful to keep their businesses afloat. And in taking action; Fern and so many business owners around the country are helping to slowly but surely turn the economy around. In determining to keep their doors open, Fern and all are keeping the faith in American enterprise, in entrepreneurship in you and I as customers who are also contributors to the backbone of our country's economy called small business.
Thank you Barry for writing the book and thank you Fern for living it. Much success to you both. Much success to us all!
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