In recent years, economists have estimated that 600,000 US businesses have permanently closed each year. Due to the pandemic, that number has skyrocketed with an estimated additional 200,000 permanent closures of businesses — or about a quarter to a third above normal. How can small businesses make it in our new normal?
Susan Slater Cotter is a fitness instructor, an entrepreneur, and a small business owner. Single mom to 3 daughters who owns a boutique fitness studio in Seattle She shares her formula for success and how she grew her fitness business despite government shutdowns and continues to not just survive but also thrive while encouraging and supporting her clients to do the same.
From this week’s interview, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCWc1RpzZfTK8hgagC0xEpw , Susan shares 3 tools for anyone jumping back into the workforce, thinking of opening a new business, or has a business that needs to pivot:
- “I would say having a great support network of friends, family, whether you’re asking for advice or just sometimes I’d want to just talk something through and call my sister and say, well, and then, okay, I got to go. And she’s like, well, I didn’t help. I said, I don’t need your help. I just need to sometimes just saying it out loud to somebody who’s willing to listen and then say, you’ve got this, you got this. So talking to people because it’s so easy just to lock yourself down. Right. And so talk, ask questions, ask for help. You know, I’m of course I’m having my 20 year old and 18 year old, 16 year old children helped me with some of the tech stuff. So ask for help from those people close to you. And there’s people you just got to look around for them.
- Another one would be just to believe in yourself, you know, it’s so easy to have that imposter syndrome. When I started this, I thought I can’t be in front of a camera. I don’t know what I’m doing. I can’t do this. And I said, but I don’t have a choice. I’m just going to do it. And if I look like an idiot, I look like an idiot. I never thought I’d be in front of a camera and doing what I’m doing. And actually, you know, I’ve run this business for 12 years, and I love doing my business. I don’t like running my business. I’m not a business person, but I love doing what I do. So because of that, I had to just figure it out. So I had to just find the confidence within me just to put myself out there knowing that I’m not going to be everybody’s cup of tea, but that’s okay because that imposter syndrome can really get you. So you’ve got to have that confidence in yourself and believe that you can do it. And what’s the worst case scenario. Right? You close it up and you say well onto the next project. So believing in yourself is as important as having friends and family believe in you, you got to just, as my grandma used to say, you have to get behind yourself and push. And that came into my head a lot during this just, oh my gosh, I don’t know if I can do it. And I’m like, just go Susan. There were days when I wasn’t feeling great. And I had to be in front of camera. Like, just go. So believe in yourself.
- And then the third tool that I think is really important that everybody should have everybody in their toolbox. This is an electric screwdriver. (Pulls out electric screwdriver). Here’s the thing. Whenever I hear that expression about the tools, I immediately think about tools, but I’m telling you, everybody needs one of these. Here’s what is going to happen. You’re going to need to fix things. You need an electric screwdriver. You’re going to want to make things better. You’re going to need the electric screwdriver, right? You’re going to try some new things. There’s a lot of uses in a lot of symbolism in the electric screwdriver. It’s trying to start a business. So your toolbox, everybody needs one of these. I’m telling you, you can get that Ikea furniture and it’s together in five minutes. But it also, if you kind of think about what you do with it, right? It’s to fix things, it’s to repair things, it’s to improve things. So you can grab your screwdriver. And that’s also just kind of your own ability to just fix things, improve, improve things, repair things, and having the confidence that you can do it. And when you got the power behind you, you can absolutely do it well.”
Visit this week’s guest at: strength-studio.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/susan-slater-5044801b
