Is that something that you said to yourself? Maybe even thought it a couple times? I think every business owner or executive has come across a point where they wished they knew all the answers.

Every business has its challenges. We may think the grass is greener at another company in another industry in another location. The truth is it probably isn’t all that different. In fact, they are probably dealing with the same problems as you!

Throughout the past 20 years, I have worked for (or with) someone. Their problems were everything from lack of sales, lack of qualified people, poorly trained people, high competition, low margin, commoditized goods, etc, etc, etc… It didn’t matter that the company was less than ten people or several thousand. Each faced pretty much the same problems. The only real difference was the scope of the problem relative to the size of the company.

Often we focus on the wrong things. We get trapped by the problems in our head. We worry too much about our competition and what they are doing when the focus should really be on ourselves.

I remember working with a company that wanted was battling shrinking sales. I was contracted to help them come up with a new strategy and position them as a market leader. It was not successful, and not without trying. The reason for failure: obsession with their competition. They were so worried about what their competitors were doing they failed to take action. Worse yet, they reverted back to old behaviors which made the problem that much worse.

Your problem may not be fear of your competitors, but something is challenging you right now. It’s not the economy. Even now there are successful businesses that are growing. Seek to discover what is holding you back and change it!