Entrepreneurs often have a tough time in an economy like the one we are in now. One of my coaching clients in financial services has just a few months of savings in reserve. He was close to panicking when we spoke for our weekly call. His situation, which is all too common nowadays, always reminds me of a startup I worked for a decade ago. You have probably heard of it–LendingTree. One of the more impressive entrepreneurs I’ve ever met was the CEO/founder, Doug Lebda. I remember at one point we had perhaps three weeks of payroll in the bank. I was starting to hyperventilate a bit, but Doug wasn’t fazed by this at all! (If he was, he didn’t show it–another great sign of leadership.) I remember saying to him something like, ”Boy, you sure do seem to enjoy living on the edge.” To which he replied, with a grin, “This isn’t even close to the edge.” That was an amazing statement from a guy in his twenties who had borrowed and mortgaged everything he had and taken millions more in investment to get his company going. Even 10 years ago, before LendingTree was a household name, there was plenty to lose, a lot at stake. I think Doug managed his way through it because he was able to de-personalize the situation. That the company was going through a rough patch, even potential insolvency, wasn’t a reflection on him personally–it was a business problem that could and would be solved.
To bring this back to my client’s situation, we looked for sources of short-term cash infusions and discussed an approach to restructuring his financial obligation. This client has so much going for him in his approach to business, sales, ethics and self-discipline that he has all the tools he needs to stare down this mini-crisis. There’s a lesson here for small-business owners and entrepreneurs: The edge probably isn’t as close or as sharp as you think, especially if you can step back from it and gain perspective–and then, calmly, plan as if today’s “crisis” is just another business problem to be solved.
