We were coming out of the pandemic and we just knew that what had been on offer before just didn’t hit the mark, but what would?

What was it that we needed?

We were both small business owners and we’d been through the pandemic too so we wanted to identify what was it that was missing.

Before long, the coffee was flowing and so were the ideas, and by the end we had a clearer idea of what we felt was right, but it felt like we’d ripped up the rulebook on business support, discarding the old models and ideas, were we really brave enough to follow our gut on this and go for it?

I’m so glad we did, because now our company Your Small Business Board is about to celebrate its first birthday and we’ve helped nearly 50 businesses with our fresh approach.

I chat a lot to businesses about taking strides outside of what they know, about doing business differently, in a way that they know is right for them, and not following the same old, same old.

It’s easy to follow what we know, it feels safe, predictable, we know if we follow what is familiar we’re going to be ok.

However, that’s not how human beings evolve, and we’re designed to evolve and change, it’s part of our nature, of who we are and often we want to change because we want our situation to change.

Often I will have conversations that go a bit like this ‘I know I need to do x but …..’ and after the but comes a lot of fear, worry and experience,.

However it is what comes before the ‘but’ that is the most interesting to me, because that’s the part that is so often fresh and new, the part that is stretching us, often taking us in an exciting direction, pushing us to evolve, to change, to grow.

Following that knowing or gut feeling takes courage, and I use that word deliberately, as the word courage comes from the Latin cor meaning heart – so acting with courage is literally acting from the heart, from this knowing, which is lovely isn’t it?

But there is an important, more serious side to it, especially for the business world.

Right now we need fresh approaches, we need innovation, we need courage – we need to go beyond what we have known both individually and collectively, we need to not follow our fear, worry or experience, but follow what we ‘know’.

When I chat to business leaders about this, I’ll often ask them how it feels to follow this ‘knowing’ and without a shadow of a doubt I’ll get in reply, ‘liberating, empowering, hopeful’.

Those words are exactly what growth feels like as opposed to fear which leaves us feeling stuck, despondent, and disheartened.

As we go into 2023, three years since the world closed down and now against a background of a difficult economic climate, we need more than ever to take these steps of courage, to forge a new, exciting, fresh path and one that takes us towards a future of hopeful growth.

Andrea Morrison is a Business and Leadership Coach, TedX speaker and writer, you can find her at andreamorrison.co.uk

Courageous steps towards changing business approach can pay off hugely - Andrea Morrison