Today's article has been inspired by my washing line....
The sun has been shining since early morning, a very light breeze developed, so all conditions seemed ideal for drying the washing. There's rarely a shortage of washing to feed the machine.
It's a fairly new washing line, to replace a previous one, which I have fitted myself using steel vine pegs. One hammered into a sturdy Beech tree (cruelty to trees) growing in a far corner of the back garden, another two hammered into the brickwork across the other side of the garden.
The line was secured at one end, pulled across a fair distance, stretched, stretched and stretched again before wrapping through and around two peg points to gain a reasonable height, but not so high that I couldn't reach it! :)
The first batch of freshly washed laundry was duly pegged on the line, then the second. By the third load, the line prop had to be engaged as the weight of these three loads was showing in the strain that the line was under. Duly supported, all was left to natures sunny charms.
Some time later I did a 'dry laundry check' and noticed that even with the prop in place, the laundry was hanging closer to the floor than before. Removing the dry items brought a little spring back into the line.
However, on each subsequent check, and still, despite the prop, the laundry was hanging closer and ever closer to the ground, until eventually it was touching the floor.
As everything was dry, with prop no longer serving a useful purpose, the line was relieved of its burden, but it didn't spring back like it had earlier, it was hanging still lower than ever before.
The line underwent additional pulling, stretching and securing to keep it taught.
More laundry was added and, yes, you guessed, the line began slowly sinking towards the ground!
How many more times can the line be pulled, stretched, re-burdened and propped up before it inevitably snaps?
"If you do what you've always done,
you'll get what you always got.”
Mark Twain.
Now, I know you're not interested in the smalls details (shame on you if you are), but I got to thinking how this little scenario might relate to small business.
So, what if your small business conditions seem ideal.
Clients and customers are feeding in through your marketing efforts.
You've set up what you believe to be robust and secure business systems.
... but at some point you reach overload, you or your systems can't cope and things start to dip a little.
With support, things spring back into place, yet with ever increasing demands on resources, if your support and systems can't cope with the additional load it may result in collapse or become overstretched.
"If your line is overstretched,
don't wait until it snaps to change it."
Me (Diane Stafford).
Before my line snaps, I'm off to change it for the much stronger, less stretch prone, steel core type!
What will you change today?
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You may also enjoy this article
by Paul Lemberg - if you want to Be Unreasonable
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Diane's... outside tap kit features in
Coaching Mums "Inspire" June 09
'Tapping into Life as a Single Mum'
