Seasons in New York lately never gradually appear, they just ARRIVE! Last week was oppressively hot and at block party at the end of the same week, I was freezing from the 20 degree temperature drop in one day. The same is true for business and life. A profitable season could suddenly be followed by an unsuccessful one. Summer always seems to go by too quickly. The relatives you think will always be around are becoming more frail and the funerals are becoming more frequent.
I can write an endless barrage of quotes about how life is short but we all know that. The day to day makes us forget as well as when times are good. I’m not saying to live in fear of bad times or your demise but when misfortune hits, don’t let it devastate you.
I was getting ready to roll out my first Facebook ad for my business, when a computer mishap ended up wiping out 10 years of files including my business files and all the files that made my website. The pain and panic in my mind was unimaginable and my computer repair tech had food poisoning which kept him out of his shop for days, prolonging the agony of finding out if I can get these files back. That time gave me a moment to pause and realize I have to accept this fate and learn from it. I was warned to back up my files but always put it off to another day. I paid the price for waiting.
My tech was able to recover a lot of my files but not the Adobe Muse files I used to build my website. So if I needed to add any new pages (like the one my Facebook ad was going to lead to), I’d have to rebuild the whole site from scratch. It so happens Adobe will stop supporting Muse in two years, so maybe this was a blessing in disguise to rebuild using another program or service. Luckily this blog is on WordPress, so I was able to create the resource page for my Facebook ad here.
If your business is not reaching the buyers you want to connect to and you’re not taking social media seriously to help, then it’s time to start. All the statistics show this is the way to reach people and video is the most effective means. Putting off at least exploring the possibilities is putting you at a disadvantage.
Life is short. Take the time to nurture your personal life and your business’ life.
I survived a bump in the road I initially thought was going to ruin the means of promoting my business. I weathered this storm, learned and moved forward. When you go through yours, you can too.