We all make excuses in our personal lives and when it comes to running your spa or massage practice. Sometimes they are legitimate. Maybe you REALLY did forget to call someone when you said you would. But excuses also can be a convenient way to avoid taking responsibility or putting off doing something because you are afraid to try or afraid if you do, you will fail.
In “How Not to Make Excuses,” life coach Adam Sicinski writes, “Excuses are rationalizations we make to ourselves about people, events and circumstances. They are invented reasons we create to defend our behavior, to neglect to take a particular kind of action, or simply as a means of negating responsibility. Excuses are in essence a means of placing blame OF an internal problem ON an external condition.”
Making excuses can hold back your spa or massage practice from getting ahead. Tom Panaggio, a direct marketing consultant, writes about this in a recent Skin Inc. article entitled “10 Excuses That Turn Risk-avoiders Into Opportunity Missers.” Here are just a few common excuses and their consequences, according to Panaggio:
“The timing isn’t right.”
Waiting for the perfect timing can keep you from moving ahead with a business opportunity to branch into a new massage area or fix a problem, such as your declining retail sales.
“I tried that once, and it didn’t work."
These words often are expressed in marketing. Avoiding investing in marketing, whether affiliate marketing, advertising, public relations, and more, because one campaign didn’t produce the desired results is a risk that you can’t afford to take.
“I’m still working on the plan.”
When planning becomes your comfort zone, you may find yourself focusing on forecasting over execution. Many risk-averse entrepreneurs miss opportunities and fail to build actual businesses because they focus more on the preparation.
“I’ll get to it eventually.”
You can immerse yourself in so much busywork; you fail to address the true priorities and issues necessary to achieve your spa or massage practice goals.
“Nothing’s broken. Why fix it.”
Clients don’t always leave because they had a bad experience with your business. It may be that they just had a better experience with your competitor. You need to take risks when business is good and when it’s bad if you want to stay competitive.
If any of these excuses sound familiar, it’s time to take stock of your situation. Last week, I wrote a post about “The Road to your spa or massage practice may be paved with failures.” I noted that “there may not be glory in losing, but there can be valuable lessons and insights.”
Don’t allow yourself to get stuck in your comfort zone with convenient excuses. As Panaggio says, “Hoping that something will change will result in defeat—the end of a dream. As a leader, your example of enthusiastically seeking an opportunity to execute, improve and deliver results will be the beacon that guides all who follow you.”