MBA1626 Are You Taking Enough Risks?

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Hey, welcome to the 100 army, the business podcast that packs a powerful punch every single day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zedholme. I'm also the co founder of the $100 MBA, a complete business training and community online over at 100mba.net and in today's lesson you will learn Are you taking enough risks? Many business owners, many entrepreneurs run their business with the rule of if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it. They continue to do the same things in their business, offer the same kind of products or services because they know they work and they just want to triple down on it. And in theory, there's nothing wrong with this thinking. But if you never introduce anything new or take any risks to improve your business, you're asking for trouble. Every business on earth will have competition, and complacency is the death of your business. When you have competition, no matter how niche your product or service is, no matter how unique it is, you're going to have competition. And if you don't innovate, if you don't take risks in your business, calculated ones, you'll never ever be able to compete. You won't be able to have a competitive advantage. You won't be able to serve your customers at a higher level. So in today's lesson, you're going to evaluate yourself and find out, are you taking enough risks in your business or are you doing okay? I'm going to give you some questions to answer so you can do a self evaluation and make sure that you are taking the appropriate amount of risks to innovate, to compete. Let's get into it. Let's get down to business. As I mentioned, you have to innovate because, hey, you got competition. No matter how niche your business is, you have competition. I mean, even with space exploration, right? Not many companies out there, you have SpaceX, you have NASA, they even have competition because Jeff Bezos has got his own too. It's called Blue Origin. So most of our businesses are not sending rockets up into space. They're a lot simpler. So you better be sure we're going to have competition. So we have to innovate, we have to improve and we're going to have to take some risks that we may not feel comfortable with in the beginning. We may feel like, oh, I don't know if this is going to work or not. But of course we're going to calculate these risks. But most of all, we're going to make sure we're taking the right risks in our business. First, let's address are you taking enough risks? Are you taking enough chances on your business to innovate and to grow? Well, ask yourself, in the last six months, has your business done anything differently, released anything different, anything new, tried a new product, tried a new service, change the way you deliver that service? Have you experimented with anything, offered anything new to your customer base? If the answer is no, then this means you're being complacent. This means you're not pushing the envelope because you can take some risks. You can try some things that are low risk. Risk is not just this thing that is always negative. You can have risk risk that is really low that if it doesn't work out, it's not a big deal. And in fact, you gain a lot because you learn a ton. This could be something as simple as introducing one new product in your line of products. For example, when I had my own clothing line, Zenome Designs, I had to take some risks from time to time. I had to introduce some new product lines, a new shirt, a new accessory, see if this is going to work, see if this is going to resonate with my audience. What about the color of that shirt? I'm going to take a risk and do something a little Bit loud, a little bit funky, maybe it'll be a hit. And of course, I can hedge these risks by making sure that, hey, I don't spend a whole lot of money on this decision. I pilot it with a small group of customers. I make it at a limited offer. I maybe even pre sell it. But the point is I'm taking some level of risk. I'm taking a chance, I'm trying something new. Otherwise your customers are going to start feeling like this place is stagnant. Nothing has ever news released. It's the same old thing. Every time I go to the website, the same options, I'm going to look elsewhere. You don't want that. So make sure that you're introducing something new, trying something new, implementing something new in your business on a constant basis. In my software company, Webinar Ninja, what we try to do as much as possible is try new things. And it doesn't have to be a new product or a new feature. It could be a new way of communicating with your customers. It could be a new topic for a webinar. It could be a new way of delivering your newsletter. It could be a new bonus offer on your sales. Webinars, we are always experimenting, probably on a bi weekly basis, meaning every two weeks we're trying something new in some area of the business. Sometimes it's big, sometimes it's small, sometimes it's a new feature, sometimes it's a new update, sometimes it's a new price. Maybe it's a new plan, maybe it's a different offer. On a webinar, you get the point. Experimentation is important and you can't do that without taking a little risk. You have to try a little bit. And you don't have to try with everybody. You could try with a small group so you could feel comfortable. But many companies I see in the marketplace, they don't do any of this. They just do the same thing over and over. And as Einstein has said, and I'm paraphrasing here, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity. If you want different results, you gotta do different things. And that means getting out of your comfort zone and trying something new. So I encourage you, if you haven't tried something new in a while, do it, okay? In the last six months, if you haven't done anything new in your business, it's time to do it. And I want you to get in the habit of trying something new, big or small, once a month. Try a new offer, try a new way of sending newsletters. Whether it's, you know, the timing or the format, introduce, you know, new extended hours for your customer support. Do something new, okay, every single month. And do something small at the beginning so you feel comfortable. You know you can keep the risk low and you don't have to. Again, do this with every single customer. You can do it just for a small amount. Try it out. Or you can do it for a short period of time until you feel comfortable. But not taking any risks at all is a recipe for disaster. One of my favorite things I've learned from one of my favorite personal development teachers, Jim Rohn, Rest in peace is that it's all risky. You started a business. Starting a business is risky, okay, just by default. So you're already in this risky situation. So just get used to it. You don't have to bet the business or your whole house, your whole life. But you do need to take some chances, some small little things to experiment and to improve. And what he says is that doing something is risky, but not doing something is also risky. Okay? So it's all risky. And by taking risks, you are exploring new territory. You are expanding your business in a different way. You're expanding your mind, you're expanding your team, you're expanding your capabilities, and you're able to influence your audience and your customers in a broader way. I got more on today's topic, but before that, let me give love to today's sponsor. Hey, Fidelity. How can I remember to invest every month?

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To wrap up today's lesson, you need to consistently allow yourself to take risks in your business. This is just the way you innovate. This is the way you improve. Now, I haven't talked about the other side of things. Yes, things can be great with risks, but you will fail. The choices you make, the risks you take may not pan out. You can't bat a thousand, right? But as they say, you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. So you have to take some shots, some risks, so you can get some benefit. Hedge your bets, hedge your risks. Start with things that you're comfortable with and be mindful of who you are. Some of us are okay with risks. Some of us are too risky. Okay, so maybe we got to dial it back a bit and make sure that we're not taking risks that are irresponsible. So just keep that in mind. But part of your job as the leader of your business is not to stay the same, is to innovate, is to grow, is to expand, is to compete. And you can't do that by doing the same thing over and over. You have to change it up. You have to improve. You have to try new things. You have to get out of your comfort zone. And guess what? Being out of your comfort zone, if you do it long enough, it becomes your comfort zone. I know that sounds strange, but it's true. When you get used to taking calculated risks and trying new things, it becomes the norm. And it doesn't feel that nerve wracking. It feels pretty normal. It feels like what you're supposed to do. Thank you so much for listening to the $100 MBA show. Don't forget to hit subscribe. By hitting subscribe, you get a few things. Number one, you get our next episode automatically right on your device so you don't have to look for it. Right. It's right there. Number two, you get access to all our archive episodes. We're talking about hundreds of episodes that you can go back to and learn some more. Number three, you support the show and it's absolutely free to subscribe. So hit that subscribe button right now. And whatever you use to listen to, podcasts, Apple podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, Himalaya, or on them all, thank you so much for listening. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Often when we take risks, we don't want to pull the trigger. We think about it. We have analysis paralysis. We take a long time to decide to take action. This means you're taking something that you're very, very uncomfortable with. You're worried about the loss it's entailed. So lower. Lower the risk a little bit lower the, you know, the anxiety by saying, what's the worst that can happen? If the worst that can happen is bad news, then you need to say, well, maybe I got to launch this idea to a smaller number of people for a shorter period of time. Maybe the light version of whatever I'm thinking doesn't have to be this extreme, just lower. But take action. Even if it's a little bit of action, it's better than no action. Thank you so much for listening and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. Free ride Friday. I'll see you then. Take care. Of.

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