Chaos Is Good For Your Business
Don’t you wish you could predict the future? If you could, you’d never have to worry about what threat to your business might be waiting for you around the corner. Well, I’m about to tell you that you can predict the future … kind of.
Chaos theory may have been first conceptualized in the 19th century, but it came into its own through the latter half of the 20th century. Although physicists will tell you that the theory is still very much in its infancy, that hasn’t stopped people from imagining how useful it can be in many other industries.
Very basically, the theory goes like this: dynamic systems are impacted by even the slightest conditions. It’s called the Butterfly Effect. Imagine a butterfly flapping its wings in Japan. The air disturbance caused by that flapping can iterate to the point where it causes a hurricane along the Eastern border of North America.
It’s that image that has encouraged the business community to look at how chaos affects them. This isn’t the chaos of nightmares. It’s not a state of confusion. It’s a way of understanding (and yes, preparing for) that state of chaos that most businesses experience at least once in their lifetimes. Chaos theory is all about systems that are designed to be dynamic and sensitive to conditions. That really is a perfect definition of business, right?
So, when the environment that your business has relied upon seems to suddenly change – the market collapses, customer expectations shift – you may feel like you’re in a negative and chaotic place. Instead, look at it this way: you’re in the midst of growth, and growth is essentially chaotic. I know, that doesn’t make it any easier.
Businesses generally aren’t fans of unpredictability. We all want to know where we’ll be 5 years down the road. We want to be able to plan for those changes. The problem is that predicting the future is pretty hard when most business are built on a simple, linear systems. Take a look at your own business. How long have you been advertising, hiring, and … well … running your business in much the same way that you’ve always been?
Be honest. How often have you voluntarily changed your way of doing business? Or do you find yourself reacting to situations that force you to change?
I want to suggest to you that there’s actually another way. There really is predictability in chaos.
The way to get around not knowing what the future holds is to set up a workflow that constantly examines and re-examines the environment your business needs to succeed.
Here are some tips to help you do that:
Using cloud technology, like Quickbooks? Great. Make use of the data analysis it provides.
Allowing your customers to direct conversations with you means that you’ll always know what’s important to them.
Encourage your team to keep abreast of how new technologies can help your workflow.
Tell us about your most chaotic business experience. How did you manage? Want to know more about how online software can help your business deal with unpredictability? Give us a call!