Are you currently struggling with a difficult business challenge?

Think about this:  If you had everything you ever wanted and needed, would you bother to get out of bed in the morning?   For me, there would be a lot of days where I’d just sleep in and get fat.

But the thing I love to do is learn.   Sometimes learning is difficult, but it always helps me in the long run.  I am loving the challenge of pulling the pieces together to get Tenato – our team, our website, our rankings, our offerings – to the next level.   Each good challenge makes me smarter and more savvy as a strategy and marketing consultant.

After the recent technical glitch and website crash (and 24h rebuild), I thought I would share a couple of my own tips for handling highly challenging situations:

1. Mitigate the damages.   When the site went haywire, all the images were missing, but the text was still working.  So, I wrote a post – as you’ll see here in the blog “Technical Glitch.” That way, visitors would immediately know we were aware of the issue and actively working on it.   I encourage you to do the same;  if you’re in a pickle and there is potential for embarrassment, head it off immediately by letting people know proactively, and tell them what you’re doing about it.
2. Break it down.  When things go really wrong, specifically in a business situation, the way to solve them typically involves one of three things:  Spending time on the phone (or in a meeting), spending time at a computer (or some physical labour), or simply spending some money.    Think of it this way:  None of those is human torture.  No one is going to die.  Just break it down. For example,  10 phone calls, 16 hours at my computer, and X dollars.    And if it’s a substantial amount of money, think of it as a few extra phone calls, and a few meetings (with your investors or bankers), and a few hours at your computer getting your pitch in order.  This will help you remain infinitely calmer.  That is, “Poor baby, you have to do MEETINGS and make PHONE CALLS” – torture?  Hardly.  Then order your list for maximum efficiency and effectiveness.
3. Be the machine.   Once you’ve got your list and know what has to be done, dig in.   Things may not be nearly as difficult as you believe.  Remember, if you’re stuck, there is an infinite amount of advice to be found on the internet, especially through “How to” videos on the Internet, and there is a world of expert advice ready to help.  While you rise to your challenge, think all of the opportunities you are getting to figure out who your real friends (or vendors) are, expand your network, and improve things that you were settling for.

The upside of our challenge is that soon this site will be changing, showcasing a new strategy, marketing and brand concept.  It proves that sometimes losing something (or breaking something) is an opportunity to replace it with something even better.  Maybe that’s why it’s called a breakthrough.

Come back soon! At Tenato, it keeps getting better!