7 Ways to put the Thrill back in your Business

skydive

It’s no secret – a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners are motivated by excitement.  It’s a ‘thrill of the hunt’ type of thing.  Obviously there’s risk in making that first big jump to start up a business, but clearly many business owners continue to crave excitement beyond the start-up phase. 

We all know business owners who find ‘interesting’ ways to make business success a bigger challenge.  Whether they’re doing it on purpose or not, the end result is a roller coaster ride and they’re flirting with dangerous outcomes.

If you’re looking for some ways to make your business more exciting, here’s a list of ideas you could try that will help you ramp up that challenge.  On the other hand, if you’re already doing some of these…and you’re not looking for more excitement then maybe this a good list of things  to avoid going forward…but really, who really wants a stable, consistent, easy to run successful business that’s profitable?  How boring would that be?

Bring on the excitement!

There are a lot of ways to increase the challenge and uncertainty of your business.

Start the Rollercoaster – Stop Marketing consistently

A surefire way to get your anxiety to build is to stop your marketing efforts once you land a few jobs and get a little bit busy.  By not keeping up any marketing momentum, you are almost guaranteed to have at least a few weeks of dead time in the future…with no money coming in as you scramble to find your next opportunity! 

It’s not very efficient, but think of all the fun and excitement you’ll get from wondering if you can pay your bills next month because you stopped marketing!

Hire the next person through the door

There are a lot of exciting things you can do with your HR practices.  One favorite is to operate under the ‘Quick to hire, slow to fire’ approach.  It’s a simple change that’s guaranteed to make your life more interesting.  All you have to do is hire the first person you meet after posting an opening – it’s even better if you do minimal interviewing so you don’t really know what you’re getting! 

Are they a fit for your company’s culture?  Who knows…that’s part of the excitement? 

Are they going to cause problems with the other employees and not really be qualified to do what needs to be done?  Almost certainly!  It’s way easier to make a bad hire than a good hire. 

And by adopting this new approach you will build up a lot of office drama and give everyone something to complain talk about as less and less productive work gets done.  Want to make your business more challenging?  This is one of the best ways to do that!

Play with a blind fold on – don’t forecast or track financial results!

Imagine how exciting it would be to drive your car at full speed wearing a blindfold!  Of course you wouldn’t actually do that because it’s illegal, but there’s nothing illegal about doing the same thing with your business.  In fact a huge number of business owners fly blind all the time when it comes to money.  About all they know is whether there’s cash in the bank…and since that doesn’t tell you anything about money you owe or money that might be coming in, it’s generally not helpful.

Imagine the rush if you can’t cover your payroll or make rent!  Now you’ve got some excitement going!

Hire your family and friends…especially if they’re unqualified

Another great HR idea to help make things a lot more challenging is to go out of your way to bring on family members or friends into key positions of your business. Of course you’ll never want to confront them if they’re doing a bad job and you’re certainly not likely to fire them, so the excitement of finding ways of working around them can continue almost indefinitely (or until you’re out of business…which ever comes first).

Concentrate on 1 or 2 really big customers

Putting all your eggs in one basket can dramatically increase the excitement level of your business.  Once you’ve successfully tied yourself to 1 or 2 clients, then you don’t have a choice but to jump through hoops to keep them happy.  As an added bonus, it’s likely that you’ll get to dramatically cut your margins and make less and less money once they figure out they have you over a barrel and that you need them more than they need you.

This is a great way to increase your challenge and work harder for the same money.

Don’t pay your taxes…or key vendors

If you want to make things interesting quickly, then consider not paying all of the taxes you owe…whether that’s income tax, employment tax, sales tax or something else along those lines.  You’ll quickly get the chance to meet auditors and face significant fines – which can make for a real adrenaline rush.

If you’re not ready for that big of a step to start with, maybe considering not paying some of your key vendors or your rent!  You never know when they’ll decide to cut you off and that uncertainty can really add a lot of spice to your day to day humdrum activity.

Centralize all your data and don’t back it up

Finally – If you’re looking for an adrenaline rush that could happen at any time, make sure you don’t back up any of your computers or key data.  Don’t use tools like Dropbox that easily make sure everyone has access to your data so it can’t be lost.  Instead, keep everything on a single computer or server and just wait for the fun to happen.  It’s like an ongoing game of Russian roulette – you never know when you’ll have that technical issue that will bring down your computer and completely leave you stranded!

Imagine the fun you’ll have trying to recreate all of your data, forms and processes and keeping things humming along at the same time!

What exciting ideas do you have (or that you’ve seen) that businesses owners are adopting to increase their thrill?  I’d love to hear your thoughts – share them in the comments below.

Shawn Kinkade   Kansas City Business Coach

Photo by Or Hiltch

2 thoughts on “7 Ways to put the Thrill back in your Business”

  1. Jeff Morgan says:

    Pretty good idea. Have read many, many articles and can’t sat as I remember reading one from that angle. Very funny and insightful. As a small business owner myself most of that article also slapped me right across the face. If I told you that we have commited most of those roller coaster rides would you believe me?? Could probably write a book on the whole adventure myself.Could name every ride along the way…..

  2. Jeff – thanks for the comment. Actually most business owners I know have done several of these (although all of them might be a record). As they say…the first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one! 😉

    Actually the fact that you know your situation puts you well ahead of a lot of people!

    Good luck.

    Shawn

Comments are closed.