Lost in the Aisles? How Business Owners Can Overcome Confusion and Find Direction

I am a functional adult. I go out into public on occasion. I patronize the local establishments. I eat, I drink, I shop. I put on a good show. But do I always know what I’m doing? Absolutely not.

For the next minute or two I want you to imagine that you are a bored employee at the local supermarket whose job it is to watch the closed-circuit security television screens in the back office. This is what you see when I go grocery shopping.

When I was single I would march into the grocery store with a purpose and a memorized list of what I needed. It didn’t change much week to week, which made shopping at the same place really quick and easy. Like Ralph Waldo Emerson I had the same path I would follow each trip, I’d grab the same products from the same shelves in the same aisles. In and out.

If I went into a new grocery store (or these days they’re all effectively new to me because I’m not responsible for grocery shopping at the moment) it was a completely different story.

I now walk into the grocery store with my brow furrowed in what hopefully looks like I’m marching in with a purpose. Like I’ll be in and out like before. But the truth is I have no idea where anything is from the moment I set foot in the store. I have a list of things I need or I wouldn’t be there. And then I start meandering around the place like I’m trying to tally up the calories from everything in the store.

My list is a simple list. It’s not filled with rare or esoteric foods. I’m looking for tortillas. I am a functional adult. I go out into public on occasion. I’m able to feed and care for myself. How many times do I need to walk through the same two aisles looking for tortillas before I go get another item on my list and come back later to try again?

Four times? Six times? I am no longer a functional adult and I’m texting my wife asking her where the tortillas are. Turns out they’re not where I think they are, they’re on an endcap at the other side of the store. So now I’m walking back and forth along the ends of the aisles, scrutinizing every endcap I see, clutching a now room-temperature carton of orange juice and a melted box of ice cream sandwiches.

Grocery shopping is not hard yet I am totally confused by what’s in front of me. Now instead of watching me on the CCTV in the back, you’re a small business owner who might also be feeling confused by what you had expected to be straightforward even if you knew it would be challenging.

In the grocery store you can text your spouse, or ask someone who works there for help. It’s less clear how to manage your confusion in business. Until now anyway. There are a lot of resources available to you and confusion is not inevitable or constant.

Every small business owner deserves to have the success, and the life, that they dreamed of when they started, including you.

PS: This is one of the various ways I engage with people. Many small business owners want to grow their business and improve their lives, but they’re overwhelmed and they don’t know how. I use straightforward frameworks to help them drive their business forward, increasing profit, gaining confidence and peace of mind.

Here’s how you get started:

1. Reach out on LinkedIn or via my website to schedule a call
2. We get to know each other a bit and you tell me about yourself, your business, and what your current challenges are
3. Schedule a low-risk 60-90 minute coaching session to take the first step toward a solution and experience what it’s like to work together