By BizVid Communications Partner Caz Taylor

Through the life of your business, you have likely experienced challenges which war against your greatest success. The Covid-19 issue is just another such combatant, how be it, more robust than many of the others.

Take heart. The values that have proven themselves successful in past combats will pay off in today’s battle for your company’s surviving and flourishing.  Here are a few top-of-mind traits employed by successful women and men, along with their businesses.

Keep in mind that these BizVid Communications viewpoints are from personal observations, and less from today’s bloviated and so-called facts. This point of view, however, comes from a faith and confidence that doing what is right within your business acumen will win over the elements that threaten your company’s failure.

We are reminded of ancient words of wisdom, the likes of which will be the springboard for this blog. Hopefully, they will be a springboard for your heightened success in contrary times. By paraphrasing, the saying goes: “Displaying the heart of godliness will produce fruitfulness in our lives (and businesses): love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!”

The last sentence in these words of wisdom is most curious. Neither the constitutional laws within America, nor the greater, supernatural laws of the universe violate the aforementioned precepts.  This should present an added comfort as you decide your best ways of sustaining and even expanding your business within troubled times. Though nay-sayers may challenge your proactive business decisions, if the annotated precepts are followed, “there is no law against them.” Being bold and confident in these times will carry great promise of reward. Watch and see.

While the nine precepts mentioned carry great weight and promise of success for you and your business, this missive will focus on only two of them. This duo are perhaps the most difficult to achieve and maintain, which makes them all the more important to your success.

I am speaking of your application of “patience” and “self-control.” As the current threat abates, we are likely to see the landscape strewn with large numbers of businesses in ruins. Two of the most significant causes of this ruination deal with a lack of business patience and self-control of the leader(ship).

Patience. What is the most truncated version of your business which can survive? I am reminded that many of today’s great organizations began in someone’s garage. What is your equivalence of that garage? Is it a single room office? One-desk? One clipboard? One faithful vision? This may not be a time to fully abandon the ancillary elements of your earlier successes, rather prune them back for a season. A pruned tree will be more fruitful when the season changes. Keep your relationships with the people who helped you become successful in the first place. Though those relationships may need to be in storage for a season, as the promises of fruitfulness come back, so can the fullness of those relationships. Nature would suggest that this pruned tree will become even more fruitful. Patience, indeed, is a virtue.

Self-control. The operative word here is “self”. One rarely can command full control of others. You, however, carry the clear responsibility for controlling yourself. Your perseverance or lack thereof in light of YOUR company will either help relaunch your success or assure its failure. Winston Churchill was credited with saying “Never (never, never) give up.” We are reminded of a cartoon showing a troop of soldiers trudging over barren dunes and across the desert, with the leader saying, “I give up. Let’s go back.”  From the cartoonist’s vantage point, we see a beautiful oasis just on the other side of the knoll which inspired the troop’s retreat. This troop leader is you, my friend. Your reenergized success is much nearer that you can even imagine if you never give up.

In this brief BizVid Communications blog, we reveal a secret to success which we have observed in some of finest businesses and the most endearing people throughout this nation, and world.

Simply put: focus yourself and your communications based on what you would like to be, rather than what you are not. The following insights embrace our personal work ethic. We hope you find them helpful.

As the whole world tries to find its way in the midst of troubling, even contrary times, there are a few communication techniques that have proven to outlive the braggadocious, self-elevating, often demeaning babble that one hears (and sometimes self-professes) as businesses like yours strive to survive.

Over the decades, BizVid Communications has worked with a variety of people and organizations. Businesses whose actions exhibit a level of contrition, humility, and concern for others have enduring staying power. Businesses with more-critical and less-compassionate attitudes for others may find that their successful days numbered.

A prophet once said: “A word fitly spoken is as ‘apples of gold in pitchers of silver.’” 

Our present day interpretation: “Choose your words kindly and wisely when communicating with others.”

This also supports a well-known quote from Bambi’s friend Thumper who said, “If you can’t say nothin’ nice, don’t say nothin’ at all.”

At BizVid Communications, we have dedicated our company’s principles to giving everyone with whom we work (staff, contractors, and clients) the benefit of the doubt.  We find grains of goodness within all aspects of our production crew, and we expand on those as we communicate to achieve a common goal.

Sometimes it may seem that the human psyche seems to relish hearing about only the bad stuff, it’s been our experience that positive and sustaining messages are tied to what is actually good and helpful for humanity.

Someone once said that when you point the finger at someone or something, the majority of your fingers are pointing back at you.  Perhaps the best recipe for finding the good in others is by taking a brutally honest look at ourselves.

Have we gone out of our way to serve and help others, even when this high ground is best attained from being on our knees? We have found that when one has the attitude of elevating others, we ourselves are elevated. 

This opens the door for examining the difference between true compassion and humility versus and acting with self-serving, false humility and insincere compassion. As we each look in our personal mirrors of self-reflection, we should let our unfiltered conscience have its say. From personal experiences, when one must weigh between “what is right” against “what is best” for one’s self and company, “what is right” should ultimately win out.  I know this may be hard when faced with some business decisions. 

Bottom line is this: your peers and clients are watching. When you and your organization personify grace, compassion, and honesty, the truth-seekers who really count will sustain you and your company in challenging times. 

When the rules and regulations for running your businesses seem topsy-turvy and out of your control, I offer the following advice:

Don’t abandon your innovation.

Through the years, BizVid Communications has partnered with businesses of all sizes. We don’t focus on the businesses as much as we focus on the individuals that have inspired the businesses. We use video to help businesses personify their character. The resulting video delivers those insights to a public in need of that business’s services or benefits.

As a company owner or manager, much of your own character has been embedded in the strategies which have made your business successful. During times of stress, employee anxieties, or faltering finances, you may feel a tendency to abandon your good business sense. You may feel a desire to acquiesce to people who know very little about your industry, and even less about you.

Don’t abandon your anchors.

During troubled times, we at BizVid are impressed by companies who place great emphasis on the well-being of their employees. Often, your employees are the people who helped your business become a success in the first place. Faithful employees are the metaphorical anchors of your successful business. Employers who make modest-yet-heartfelt efforts to lessen the suffering of their employees will likely discover that such efforts are the best possible investment.

Don’t abandon your innovation.

We are heartened to observe restaurants and the innovative work-arounds that they devise in order to continue serving their patrons. Food deliveries, catering, take-outs, plastic booth dividers, and the development of sidewalk tabling are all examples of “how to make the best situation out of the worst restraints”. In his writings entitled “Republic,” the Greek philosopher, Plato, observed that “necessity is the mother of invention.”

As a business owner, take note of what happens when you depend on the anchors who surround you. Your employees are likely to be a stabilizing force, and they may even inspire more innovations that steer your business from “surviving” into “thriving”. In so doing, you can and will redefine your industry and succeed like none other.