I decided to write this book about a week ago and submitted it to a publisher on January 22nd.
Mind you, I took a break from my small business training business in the spring of 2018.
What’s glaringly apparent to me during this COVID Pandemic is all of the small business closures. When my husband and I go for a drive, it’s shocking to look left and right while driving down the main street and seeing all of the closed and for sale signs.
WOW, it’s is rough.
It’s absolutely devastating.
As a person who grew up in my family’s small manufacturing business here in Connecticut, I can absolutely feel their pain. Like COVID, financial challenges hit the manufacturing industry like a hard and heavy sledgehammer. We ran our powder metal parts shop in Naugatuck from 1991-2009. Through this entire time, the challenges were relentless, and hard to see the end in sight.
Regarding my book, as a trainer-on-break, I didn’t want to sit on my training curriculum any longer.
Why waste it, you know?
It wasn’t difficult to pull the book together. I had the four sections all stored in my computer in a wide variety of formats, from email sequences to outlines for workshops. The four areas are:
- My foundational worksheets to help get an entrepreneur out of overwhelm
- How to get organized to see/think clearly
- How to improve processes by streamlining the work
- How to analyze to find more money in the business, consistently, each month
As I wait to hear back from the publisher, I thought to dig into my MacBook Pro. My goal is to share with you all that I can. This includes lessons as a trainer and experiences as a former business owner.
Talking about crippling financial challenges, especially in a small or family-owned business, is the most vulnerable and painful thing an entrepreneur can do. I know. I’ve been there!
When I first go into clients’ business place, I feel a “clammed up” energy. This means, sometimes people feel afraid to be judged, criticized, or demeaned for having business troubles.
But once people see me, this 4’10 (See, I’m honest, I could have easily said 5’0), with my small voice and encouraging manner, people open up. It’s thanks to them, all of my clients for the past 10 years, that I wrote the curriculum.
The work is vetted and appreciated. It worked for me for my family’s business, and it worked for them. Why couldn’t it work for more small businesses?
It’s time for me to drop my own “clammed up” energy.
It’s time to publish.