{"id":952,"date":"2021-03-31T15:29:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T22:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/?p=952"},"modified":"2021-04-07T15:55:00","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T22:55:00","slug":"resilience-of-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/?p=952","title":{"rendered":"Resilience of Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Resilience is a required skill that is learned and leads to tangible results for all of us<br>and particularly for small business owners. It is during a crisis that a resilient leader<br>will be able to take calculated risks and think outside the box to create opportunities<br>and forge new ways to meet new challenges. It takes an immense amount of grit and<br>dedication to try new things and to find a new way particularly when things don\u2019t work<br>out as expected. A resilient leader will always find a way to move forward. I was<br>encouraged to read a recent survey (The American Psychological Association (APA)) of<br>1,000 business owners which found that 61% are optimistic about business in 2021<br>(Millenia optimism was even higher at 75%). The resilient optimism of entrepreneurs<br>is inspiring. Here are takeaways from resilient entrepreneurs during this crisis:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Revisiting definition of success: I always encourage everyone to know their<br>definition of success and not let it be defined for them. The pandemic has caused many<br>to rethink their goals in life and what they find is truly valuable to them. For some, this<br>is about how they live each day and for others it is about their legacy. Your definition of<br>success allowed you to make tough decisions with confidence. It should allow you to be<br>at peace regardless of the outcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Changing what your business does: <\/strong>The pandemic has forced change or<br>disruptions that have illuminated a new path for some businesses. The American<br>Express Entrepreneurial Spirit Trendex found that 76% of businesses have already<br>pivoted or made a change and 73% of those that pivoted say they will change again in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Resilience allowed many to keep those things they most valued while making<br>essential changes. In some cases, new businesses were started and in others a new way of doing the same business was developed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Changing the tools used: <\/strong>It is important that a business be aware and ready to<br>implement useful tools when appropriate. A study from Google and the Connected<br>Commerce Council found that 75% of business owners are using more digital tools<br>since early 2020. Among those who use these tools, the majority project less revenue<br>loss and more business revenue. These tools do require an investment of time to<br>evaluate since there are too many technology tools were the hype exceeds the<br>deliverable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Starting a new business: <\/strong>According to the increase in Employer Identification<br>Numbers (EINs) applications in quarter 3 of 2020, we have a dramatic increase in new<br>businesses compared to 2019. Entrepreneurs are starting new businesses at record<br>speeds. Resilience and optimism are essential characteristics of entrepreneurs who<br>take the financial and personal risks to create, organize and operate a business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Pausing your business:<\/strong> For some businesses, temporarily ceasing operations has<br>been hard but a necessary financial decision. It takes a lot of courage to go down this<br>road either to allow for an easier exit to meet personal goals or, more often, to allow<br>the business to restart and survive once it is reshaped to meet the new challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Edi Alvarez, CFP<sup>\u00ae<\/sup><br>BS, BEd, MS<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/\"><strong>www.aikapa.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Resilience is a required skill that is learned and leads to tangible results for all of usand particularly for small business owners. It is during a crisis that a resilient leaderwill be able to take calculated risks and think outside &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/?p=952\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,96,362],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-planning","category-general-economy","category-small-business-owners"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=952"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":958,"href":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952\/revisions\/958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aikapa.com\/Financial_Bites\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}