Want an Auto Repair Shop Worth Selling? Change Your Focus

by Rick White, President 180BIZ                                                             (Estimated Read Time 5 minutes)

In this episode, I want to talk to you about focus. One of the things that is keeping you from creating a business that is worth selling is your focus. If you are focused strictly on the past and everything you did wrong, you're never going to create a business that is worth anything to sell. Either the glory days were back there, or you've experienced some failures in the past that have made you gun-shy about moving forward. That's a real issue.

When you're focused on surviving, you can't ever focus on thriving.

When you're focused on surviving, you can't ever focus on thriving. If you're focused on surviving, you're never going to build a company, a business that has any extrinsic value to it. And this is where the true disappointment gets set up. Because you have all this angst, all this worry, all this concern, blood, sweat, tears going into the business every single day, and you're getting loads and loads of this going in and you're getting very little coming out. And that's a problem.

When you're focused on surviving. You never focused on thriving. When you're focused on just getting to the end of the week, you never focus on getting bigger and better and becoming a better version of yourself personally and as a company. You're just looking to get to the end of the day, the end of the week, or the end of the month, and that's tough, and I get it. There are times in our lives when you have a whole lot more month than money left over. I get that. I've been there. It’s not a one-time event.  It will come back a few different times. The problem is when you get stuck there.  Tough times will come and then you ' get over them or you get stuck in them.

There are seasons and cycles to business.

There are seasons and cycles to business. You will grow and it will be amazing. And then you hit something. You will hit a snag, you will hit an obstacle, and it will cause a downward trend. But that doesn't mean it stays there. That means you learn from it and you get better again. But too often we allow the concerns, the problems, the obstacles to become our focus instead of where we're going. And when we focus on where we're at, we tend to stay there.

If you want to create an amazing business, focus on creating a compelling future.

If you want to create an amazing business, if you want to create an amazing life, then some of your focus must be on the future. It must be on creating a compelling future, something that means something to you because that's when the magic starts to happen.

When you know where you're going and you know why you're going there, the rest of it doesn't matter. The how doesn't matter if you know where you're going and why you're going there and it’s powerful enough.  It doesn't matter how you get there.

The three things holding you back are stories, fear, and habits.

Three things are holding you back from creating everything you want in your life.

1. The story you're telling yourself. And you know what I mean by that, right? Bankrupt. You've had a business that failed, whatever the case is, and instead of allowing that to refine you, you're allowing it to define you. But you must recognize that the past is a room to learn in, not live in. What happened to you in the past is setting you up for where you want to go in the future. Your past is not there to stop you. It's there to help you. It's there to help you become a wiser, more elegant business owner and be able to create the life and business that you want.  So it's the story you're telling yourself, “I'll never be any good.” That's not true. As long as you're paying attention to it, you're going to start believing it, and that's holding you back. That's keeping your focus either on now in pain or the past in pain. So the first thing holding you back is the story you're telling yourself.
2. The second thing that's keeping you from going where you want to go is your fears. Growth is scary, and it's because you don't know what's on the other side of that growth. And our minds, they like to play tricks on us where we think, “Oh my gosh, what if this happens? Or what if this happens? Or what if that happens and they're all bad?” Think about “What if something good happens? What if something amazing happens?” That would be awesome, wouldn't it? The reality is you're never going to overcome fear. The truth is you're going to have to do it afraid. But here's what I promise you. Every single time that fear looks like this huge insurmountable brick wall, it's not. It's a flimsy little curtain. When you get close enough to it, you're going to be able to see that you can part it and just go through it.
3. I want you to understand that it's the stories you're telling yourself and your fears, but there's one more thing keeping you stuck, and that is your habits. See, what got you here isn't going to get you there. Your habits and the way you are doing things got you to this point. But for you to take that step up you must create new habits. Create new outlooks.  You must push and push and push.

Recognize what’s holding you back so you can change it.

What's keeping us from creating a business that's sellable and a business that's worth buying? The only things stopping you are the stories you're telling yourself, your fears, and your habits. If you can recognize that, you can start to change it. You can change the story, you can push through the fear, and then you can change your habits. You can recognize which habits aren't serving you anymore. Just remember those three things, the stories that you tell yourself, the fears that you have, and your habits are going to be what gets you to a business that you're truly proud of, one that you have worked hard for, and you can see accomplishment in fulfillment. Isn't that amazing? You’ll become fulfilled when you know you're touching other people's lives and making a difference.

Please share this video. Someone needs to hear this because there are people stuck today, and if they can just recognize the things that are keeping them stuck, they can start to make changes. So I need your help.

Check out our Shop Owners’ Round Table on the second Thursday of each month at 7PM Eastern Time.  Our Pocket Business Genius has over 70 recorded webinars and one live webinar each month.  I’d love to see you there.

God bless. stay safe, have some fun, and go make some money.

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