Being able to cope with constant change is important for entrepreneurs. When you’re running a small business, you need to juggle shifting strategies, sales tactics, operations processes, compliance guidelines, and much more. You’ve got to be flexible as changes to technology, customer expectations, regulations, or economic conditions could require you to pivot at any moment.
For many entrepreneurs, the amount of change can feel overwhelming. However, business owners can learn to become more adaptable to cope with it. Additionally, establishing a clear business structure early on – including getting company formation right – can provide a stable foundation that will make it easier to adjust as needed.
In this article, Rapid Formations will outline how to deal with constant change, including practical strategies that you can implement.
Why change feels relentless for small businesses
Small businesses tend to feel the impact of change more intensely than larger organisations, partly due to limited time and resources. When you’re a small team, everyone takes on some of the strain of adjusting to change. In a large organisation, it’s usually just a few people who oversee changes, and others may not notice what’s happened behind the scenes.
Typically, small businesses also have faster decision cycles. So, while a large organisation might plan for the year ahead, a small business might have to think faster.
Plus, small business owners are more exposed to customer behaviour and can therefore feel more of the pressure to respond. When you run your own business on a day-to-day basis, you’ll regularly receive feedback and often be expected to make changes.
While constant change can make some people feel uncomfortable, it’s important to remember that adjustments aren’t a bad thing. Changing something that wasn’t working doesn’t mean you’ve failed. Instead, it means you’ve learnt and improved your business. Responding to change is an essential part of running a small business, so it’s worth learning how to cope with it.
The difference between reacting to change and adapting strategically
Reactive change tends to feel more stressful than proactive adjustment.
With reactive change, you’re likely making a last-minute decision and rushing to make a pivot. That can lead to inconsistent service, messaging, or product quality. It can also cause stress.
Sometimes, though, you’ll have to make reactive changes, and that’s OK. For example, if you run a restaurant and an ingredient delivery doesn’t arrive, adjusting the menu is a necessary reactive change. However, while it’s a good thing to cope under pressure in situations like that, it’s still better to have a plan in place. For instance, maybe you could write an emergency protocol to help chefs cope with missing ingredients without your help.
Adapting strategically is a more measured approach to change. With strategic adaptation, you regularly review what’s working and what isn’t and make necessary changes. When you do this, you’re making informed decisions so you can know that you’re making changes for a valid reason – not a rash reaction.
Reacting constantly without thinking can drain your time, energy, and confidence. Being strategic, while still pivoting quickly in emergencies, can create more stability in your business even during times of uncertainty. So, if you notice a new competitor entering the market, think seriously about what this could mean for you and respond with a considered approach instead of a short-term solution.
How mindset influences your ability to adapt
Adaptability starts with perspective. Your mindset will shape decision-making when you run your own business. Having a growth-focused mindset will help you use change to thrive. Instead of seeing challenges as signs that something has gone wrong, you treat them as opportunities to make better decisions.
For example, you might extend your opening hours, expecting high demand but find that customers don’t turn up in the numbers you hoped for. Rather than viewing this as a mistake, you’d use your growth-focused mindset to talk to customers and find out what hours they’d like to visit you. Perhaps, customers would prefer you to open earlier in the morning rather than later in the evening. By adjusting future opening hours and staff rotas, you could better meet your customers’ wants.
Adopting a mindset isn’t something that can happen overnight. It takes time to learn to think a certain way, but starting to shift your patterns to be focused on growth can help you nurture your business. With practise and consistency, you’ll be able to adopt a healthier business mindset.
Practical ways to stay adaptable while running a small business
The more adaptable you are, the easier it usually is to deal with change. You can improve adaptability by building it into your business’s routine processes.
Some of the practical things you can do to stay adaptable while running a small business include:
Schedule regular check-ins to measure your goals
Part of being adaptable involves having a clear understanding of where you’re at and how you might want to change.
By scheduling regular check-ins with your team to review your business goals and priorities, you can see if your current approach aligns with your aims. If something doesn’t fit right, you can make strategic adjustments.
Even if you’re a team of one, it’s worthing having check-ins with yourself.
Monitor a small set of meaningful metrics
Tracking everything can be overwhelming. So, focus on the most important stats, instead. You can continually keep an eye on core stats and periodically choose a smaller focus area. It’s easier to introduce changes to one aspect than to overhaul everything at once.
Actively seek customer feedback
Customer feedback is a valuable source of information that you can use to help drive your business forward. Instead of being reactive to complaints, be proactive and invite feedback. For example, you can ask customers to fill in surveys. Ask them how you could do better, listen to what they say, and adapt what you’re doing in response.
Test small changes before you commit to large ones
It’s usually best if you test things out with minor changes first.
Instead of reinventing your business proposition, make a slight adjustment to serve an audience you’re currently missing out on. If that works, great – you can make bigger changes to capture more of that customer base. If it doesn’t, that’s OK too. You’ll be able to roll back that slight change, go back to what you were doing before, and keep making new adjustments until you find what works.
Creating resilience in day-to-day operations
Resilience is a key part of coping well with constant change. Being a resilient small business owner is about being able to absorb disruption without losing direction. Part of this is a mindset, but it also involves building practicalities into your business operations so that you’re better equipped for changes.
For example, you can make your business more resilient by:
- Factoring in buffer times into schedules – You give yourself some room for things to go wrong along the way, without catastrophising.
- Avoiding overcommitment – You’re realistic about what you and your team can do and scale up gradually.
- Having basic contingency plans – You have a process in place for what to do if something doesn’t go as planned.
Building up your resilience will help you shift focus from short-term responses to long-term sustainability. When you’re resilient, you won’t need to make sudden changes whenever there’s an issue. Instead, you’ll be able to absorb the unexpected challenge and stay on track.
As with many business elements, building resilience is gradual. It will take some time to build it up, but resilience will help you protect your business.
Why continuous learning supports long-term adaptability
Learning new skills will also help you keep up with change. Embracing skills development for yourself and your team can boost everyone’s confidence and capabilities.
For example, learning how to embrace AI tools could help you speed up your admin tasks. Technology is constantly changing, so regularly refreshing your knowledge will benefit you and your business.
Although you can learn many skills for free through practice or online guidance, you will sometimes need to pay for professional courses. While you might want to avoid extra expenses, investing in skill development can save you time and money in the long run.
Turning ongoing change into a competitive advantage
Small businesses can usually adapt faster to change than larger competitors. For example, if there is a new marketing trend, a small business can quickly change its planned social media posts to take advantage of the moment. By contrast, a big organisation might have to go through an entire team of people for legal approvals. By the time they’re done, the moment may have passed. The same thing can happen with products and services.
While you don’t want to constantly change or jump on every trend for the sake of it, responsiveness can be key to getting ahead.
By combining a willingness to change with robust processes, you’ll be in a strong position to grow your business.
Make the most of your adaptability and get ready to thrive
Constant change is unlikely to disappear. Like it or not, change is an inevitability within business. The good news is that you can deal with it by developing adaptability and resilience. If you view change as an opportunity for steady improvement rather than dramatic transformations, then it becomes less daunting too.
Taking the time to build strong foundations can make it easier to stay flexible as your business evolves. With support from experienced providers like Rapid Formations, you can have confidence in your company registration and compliance. Thanks to that, you can focus on growth – even when facing constant changes.
