Today we are talking about my hometown.
As some of you know, I live in Jacksonville, Florida.
A little geography lesson: Jacksonville is on the Atlantic Ocean. It’s the largest northernmost city in the state of Florida before you get into Georgia.
Now… my house happens to be about a six minute drive from the beach.
I propose a question to you:
If you had to guess how many times the Farmand family visited the beach in 2023, what would that number be?
Folks in the Midwest… hold on to your seats.
Our family visited the beach a total of…
*drum roll please*
Nine times.
You may be thinking: “You live six minutes from the ocean and you’ve only been there nine times in one calendar year? That’s less than once a month!”
And the reason we only went there nine times is…
Complacency.
Don’t get me wrong. We understand the beautiful resources that the beach offers.
Going to the beach has physical, spiritual, and mental benefits. You have your physical activities of swimming, surfing, running, and walking. You can meditate or journal in a beautiful environment. You can also just sit your heinie down on the sand and smell the salt air.
But even knowing these benefits and resources that come with living six minutes from the beach, we still only visited nine times.
Now you’re probably thinking… “How does this translate to my business?”
Well, I propose another question to you:
Are you using the resources at your disposal to move your business forward?
If there was ever a time that you need to lean on resources, it’s now.
I’m not going to go into all of the reasons why.
But I am going to give you three examples of resources that you can lean on immediately.
Resource #1: Your Team
This also happens to be your largest expense.
A brewery owner emailed me two weeks ago and they said they were so in the weeds of the business that they, along with their co-founder, are unable to hold weekly management meetings.
Do you know what that results in?
When your team members come across a bottleneck, a fire, a challenging task, or an issue… they become paralyzed with indecision or an inability to act.
Your team needs a weekly meeting to build confidence, accountability, and, quite simply: to learn from its owners.
How can they be expected to incrementally move the business forward without regular check-ins to align on the vision and goals of the brewery?
It’s deeply important to lean on this gigantic resource that you have at your disposal to move the business forward.
Resource #2: Experts
I was speaking with another owner and they shared with me that they’re unable to make decisions because the books aren’t being closed in a timely manner.
They confessed that the brewery doesn’t have the resources in-house to get it done each month.
Why is it important to get your books closed?
It’s so you have accurate financials and can make decisions to move the business forward based on data and not feeling.
But it’s not just the books… there are many areas within your business that would instantly benefit from the assistance of an outside expert who has already done the hard work to figure out the answers you need.
You just need to find them.
Resource #3: Your Circle
This is going to be your friends, families, and investors.
Back in 2015 and 2016 when everything was flowing and going great, we could make moves and secure major wins alone without the strategic help of others.
Today?
We need to utilize every resource that we have at our disposal.
Do you have an investor that’s a marketing genius?
Do you have a family member that’s a lawyer?
Do you have a family friend that can help you with creative design?
Your circle is made up of those people who have your back, even when times are tough.
So do the hard thing, raise your hand, and ask for help when you need it.
They know you’ll be there for them when they need it, so they’re happy to support you in turn.
Expand Your “Resource Mindset”
We need to expand our mindset to:
What resources do we have access to?
You need to lean on your team.
You need to lean on experts.
And you need to lean on your circle.
It takes a village and they can collectively help you move the business forward as we go through this period in craft.
And here at home?
With certainty, I can say that summer’s coming up and the Farmand fam is going to the beach a lot more than nine times in 2024.
Talk to you soon.
-cf