Ups, downs and roller coaster metaphors aside, business is anything but a linear journey. Many businesses are built on momentum, which can be an incredible force for growth. But how do you deal with the down cycle: the part of the journey that few articles or books discuss? The less glamorous, “down-and-almost-out” part of the entrepreneur’s quest is a guarantee if you stay in the game long enough. The down cycles are perhaps even more important than the up cycles, because they are what define the character and ambition of an entrepreneur. Having been through a few of these times myself, here are my top four recommendations on how to use your down cycle to grow.

Start a New Venture

Really? Yes. Start something new. It could be something small and insignificant (like replanting all of your flower beds at home) or it could be big and audacious (like launching an entirely new business). This isn’t an exercise in distraction. Rather, the respite from your normal routine will jumpstart both your passion and your desire to learn. Putting your mind to work in another capacity will give you new, creative insights into your down cycle that you can use to dig yourself out of your trench.

The down cycle can be a dark place for entrepreneurs; you may choose to abandon your dream or do something regrettable (like fire everyone in a fit of despair). Staying stimulated and positive during this time can be critical to keeping your original dream alive.

Learn Something New

Pick up every interesting book you can find— business-related or otherwise — and dedicate time every day to reading. You never know where inspiration might strike. One thoughtful phrase could be exactly what you need to reach a turning point and get to a breakthrough in your business cycle. Plus, you’ll learn a few things that you can use once you’re back on top.

Get Away

Take a vacation, spend more time working from home, and get physically distant from your workplace. Perspective can only be achieved if you put yourself in a position to see the problem from a different point of origin. Although your gut will tell you to stick around the office, work longer hours and fret over your keyboard, I typically do the opposite. I try to put everything down and give myself physical and emotional space from the issues. That distance always helps me gain the right insights.

Do Some Soul-Searching

Your down cycle is the perfect time to assess your own happiness and spiritual well-being. Ask yourself, “Even when I feel down-and-out, like my business is hitting rock bottom, am I still happy and passionate about what I do?” If the answer is yes, you know you’re on the right path. If the answer is no, it’s time to reassess what makes you happy. Yes, we all start businesses to make money, but we must also love the journey. Every entrepreneur I’ve met who has sold a business has told me that the length of the journey is far better than the moment at which you receive a piece of paper with a number on it in return for years of passionate work.

I’ve been through my fair share of downs, and I’ve used all of these tactics to keep myself motivated. Giving yourself the feeling of forward momentum at all times is key to staying engaged in the entrepreneurial dream. In business and in life, it’s true that what goes up must come down. But if you pursue your goals with passion and persevere through your down cycle, you’ll also see that what goes down will always come back up!

Because any business can benefit from knowing how to remove barriers for users, here are some tips on how to improve your own service offerings:

Be Specific About the Action You Want Users to Take

What exactly are you trying to get them to do? Not what goal are you trying to reach, but what specific behavior or action do you want users to take?

For example, a specific action for the users of these fintech companies might be to pay off $100 of their credit card debt balance each month on payday and not the more generic goal of improving their credit score.

When you’re answering this for your own business, bypass vague outcomes in favor of specific and measurable ones.

Don’t say that you want users to: 

• “Improve users’ credit scores.”
• “Eat healthier.”
• “Have greater retention on our app.”

Why? These goals are too vague.

Do say you want users to: 

• “Pay off $100 of users’ credit card debt every payday.”
• “Eat salad for lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”
• “Like photos, upload photos and comment on photos in your app.”

Why? These goals are specific.

Take a Walk in Their Shoes

Look at what the user has to go through along his or her journey. Can you see any places where they might drop off? What can you do to either remove or reduce that barrier, or showcase the benefits of overcoming it when the user gets there?

Some ways you can remove common barriers:

• Pre-populate. Pre-populate the enrollment form with data you already have so it’s easier for users to finish.
• Reduce the number of options. When there’s an overload of choices, people give up. Keeping it simple keeps the momentum.
• Implement transparency of process. When you just can’t avoid having a lengthier process, let users see how far they’ve come and what percentage is left. This can feed into a sense of commitment and consistency.

Ease the Way

Unfortunately, as companies in the world of finance are discovering, some barriers take more effort to remove. For many of these users, the biggest barriers around money are the perpetual struggle between “current me” and “future me.” That is, users know they have debts to pay off and may even have good intentions to do so. But with so many other temptations around, it’s not always easy to stay the course. One technique considered with my mentee, Debitize, a company that helps people use their credit card more responsibly, was to ask users to pre-commit to automatically using their tax returns for paying off credit card debt. By shifting how we think about a sudden windfall, we can make healthier choices about finances. The key to helping users avoid backpedaling and giving into the demands of “current me” is to set it up so that as soon as their refund money hits the bank, it’s automatically applied toward paying off their credit card debt. In this case, no pain translates to more gain.

One of the biggest takeaways from the fintech conference that I’d like to share with you is also an obvious one: These behavioral science interventions are not static, set-it-and-forget-it measures. Since it is a science, it does require testing. To know which interventions are yielding results and which ones need adjusting, you need to run experiments and do some A/B testing. But whatever your field or your level of commitment to scientific testing, it’s critical to understand what it’s like for your users along their journey. What steps can you take to remove barriers? The more you can ease their way, the likelier it is they’ll stay.

The first order of the day was to examine the numbers. After reviewing the financial statements, I discovered that the CFO was paying himself dividends as the company was running at a loss. When confronted on this item, he declined our request to defer dividend payments until the company was in stronger financial health. It became clear to me that I had to fire the CFO.

Next, I had to shop around for a financing deal that would consolidate all of the company’s debts — instead of the high-interest line of credit the company was paying too much for. But getting a bank to take a chance on the business was no easy task. At the time, I was working full-time in procurement for IBM where I was responsible for negotiating vendor agreements to save the company money. That experience came in handy. I had to knock on many, many doors. And eventually, I found an institution that was willing to give my small business a shot.

After finances, I had to put in place new processes after discovering that the three main divisions of the company (sales, manufacturing and accounting) worked in silos. I eventually got involved in the business full-time and took over as CEO until the company was in stable financial standing. I later hired a general manager to run company operations. Turning the business around was a huge learning experience. Here are some of the lessons learned, which I hope help you manage your own business.

Know Your Company Finances

No matter how big or small your company is, make sure you understand your balance sheets. I recently graduated with an Executive MBA, but you don’t need to have an MBA to learn how to read financial statements. You can always take a course online to help you get a grasp on your numbers. Always get a second opinion on your financial situation — whether things are going well or not. After firing the CFO, I hired a small accounting firm that specializes in small business accounting. For a small monthly fee, they ended up doing a much better job than the CFO who was costing the company 300,000 a year.

Don’t Be Discouraged by Rejection

When I was looking for a financing deal, I received one rejection letter after another. I met up with several bank representatives. Most were very helpful and gave me good advice but were not able to take on the risk and finance a small business. But I persisted. I kept reaching out, making appointments and showing up, until finally, a major bank agreed to give my business a chance. Without that financing deal, the company would not be in business today.

Surround Yourself With the Right Team

It was during those difficult times that I learned the valuable lesson of surrounding myself with a team that I can rely on. When I took over the company, I realized that the previous management had isolated its vendors, clients and employees. It’s amazing what can happen when you treat everyone as part of the same team, working towards the same goal. When the company was in financial trouble, I reached out to our vendors and asked for extended deadlines to make payments. To my surprise, many agreed to it. It was around that time that I developed my “Let’s Grow Together” philosophy. I’m a true believer in the strength and absolute necessity of teamwork as the foundation of success.

A version of this post originally appeared on Medium. 

Passion keeps me at work late, it wakes me up in the middle of the night, and it propels me to show up at a customer’s house if we did a poor job. There is no greater gift in business. Passion drives your talent to the next level, sells the customer, encourages investors, and motivates employees. When I look back at successful CSRs, field technicians and great dispatchers, one thing comes to mind: they all use passion to overcome their obstacles.

Over 90% of my phone calls all end with the same question: “Are you the owner?” By taking ownership, using a specific tone of voice and expressing my passion, the customer can see that my responses are not typical. It’s this type of passion that has taken my business to the next level. Here’s how you too can cultivate that mentality within your business:

Strive to Win

First, owners must possess the willpower to be the best. I always tell my employees that there are two types of people in the world: those who hate to be last, and those who need to be first. I am a need-to-be-first owner and I bring this to the culture of my business.

We have sales meetings every Thursday morning where the technicians write their name and sales averages on the white board. They write it in red on the left side if it is lower than the minimum goal and black on the right side if it is above the goal. Every week, we give out awards to the sales staff on the right side. People on the left side of the board explain what they will do in the next week to perform better and are given a performance improvement plan. We also purchase every study related to the garage door industry and set our goals at least 30% above the industry’s top performers.

You and you alone have to build your own key performance indicators. I would strongly recommend building them on several factors: how much you help those around you, monetary goals and growth rates of expansion.

Communicate With People Who Fuel Your Passion

If I dedicated five minutes to every employee every day, it would be seven hours before I could actually start my day. Every person at the company should feel that they have a voice, especially with the owner or CEO. Establish this communication through a job performance calendar: First, make sure that your employees are rated on a black-and-white grading system (you should be able to look at your CRM and know their performance). Then, set time in the week to meet with a handful of employees about performance, personal goals and upcoming events.

In a short amount of time, the workplace will improve dramatically and recruitment will seem simple. Happy employees are the best recruiters: I would rather take a strong referral over a resume any day of the week. I like to make time for people who motivate me, inspire passion, and keep me focused on the game plan. I make at least one 15-minute phone call a day to one of three people who do so, as this helps me stay on target and feel revived. We bounce ideas back and forth until I feel inspired.

Make a list of questions about what can drive your business forward the fastest, and then write down names of the folks who can best give you insight into these questions. People love to give advice and usually are more than happy to help.

Reflect on How Far You’ve Come

Self-reflection is the last step to true passion. Make a list of everything you have accomplished, both in work and socially. I suggest writing them down on yellow sticky notes, placing them on your mirror and reading them daily. Record your short- and long-term goals into your phone and listen to them every night before bed.  Once a week, take

Once a week, take time to go through pictures and call old friends. Think about the beginning of the company, and how much you worked in the business instead of on the business. Nowadays, I may even look at my company’s Facebook timeline to remember where I came from, and where I am going. Express that passion to every person you encounter the next day.

Passion is not about having a fancy degree or making a ton of money: Passion comes from within. You can’t buy it. You can’t sell it. But without it, you will fail. In all my years of schooling and business, I can tell you it’s the most crucial key to any business.

At my business, we cater to service providers such as massage therapists, chiropractors, counselors and hair stylists, but their clients are also members of our marketplace. With such a diverse group, we faced a significant challenge understanding user experience. In the early stages, we realized we needed to have a simple way to collect this premature UX data and create systems to organize it, analyze it, determine the proper changes and upgrades needed, and then execute on them in the most efficient way possible.  

Observing your customer through multiple channels is key to uncovering opportunities for optimization, and is also a great way to quickly catch problems and keep development costs low. A faster feedback loop means tighter testing, more efficient development and production, and ultimately, increased user satisfaction and growth.

This data collection and analysis process can be categorized into five main stages: discover, capture, analyze, plan, and execute. Find software tools for each of these five main stages and ensure that each tool can be integrated into the same analysis stream. Here are the tools we use in these five stages:

1. Discover

This stage is all about your team, your communication, and your goals. Software for this stage is all about facilitating the management of resources, determining desired outcomes, and aligning the development process with the other departments in your company.  

• We use Slack: Every team needs to communicate regularly, and inter-office email can be cumbersome. Slack’s alternative to email allows you to keep project conversations fresh and in real time. Its chat feature integrates with other software services (like Intercom) for instant notifications and assignments requiring technical support or sales calls.

2. Capture

This is the stage of collecting user data from as many observation points as possible. Moving beyond the vanity metrics of traffic, clicks and referrals, in this stage it’s important to pull data that highlights every part of user interaction.

We use:

• Google Analytics: Go one step further than looking at the basic data created in the default account. Create dashboards relevant to each department and keep close tabs on your trends.
• Intercom: The ability to give instant support to your customers (and instant access to interested leads) is important as a service tool. But as far as data collection is concerned, this service also provides front row access to frequently asked questions, points of frustration and design opportunities. Collect customer interaction data using customized feedback surveys.
• FullStory: Watch how your users are interacting with the software to see exactly where they are dropping off, getting confused or needing additional support. Using this tool, you can recreate the complete user experience so you can see user flow and points of frustration, as well as how new customers browse and interact with your sales content.

3. Analyze

In this phase, you need to take all your user experience data and convert it into actionable data. Reverse engineer the final numbers you need to make better decisions and design.  

• We use Mixpanel: Mixpanel integrates with your data and presents it in customized dashboards that help compile answers to your main design questions. It also highlights opportunities for growth and areas of weakness. We think of it as “analytics on steroids” when it comes to making informed decisions.

4. Plan

Turn analysis into action plans to address gaps or deficiencies, as well as areas you can fine tune for your goals and KPIs.

• We use Asana: Finding a project management system that can grow with your team, is user-friendly and is manageable from every level can be challenging. Asana stood out to us because it allowed us to implement our OKR (Object Key Results) processes and scale up with project, department and individual task management and productivity. With each department’s calendar visible to everyone in the company, we can easily maintain higher levels of productivity and focus on key objectives.

5. Execute

Automate actions based on analytics. In this final stage, you need to use everything you’ve learned and execute as quickly and efficiently as possible.  The less manual your process is, the more you can leverage your insight and expand on your potential. Setting forth these changes and doing the work, however, mostly depends on your team.

We use:

• Mixpanel Webhooks: This is the automation extension of Mixpanel that allows you to trigger actions based on data. Webhooks can be tied to other apps.
• Intercom: Again, we use Intercom to address the gaps of automated messages. These are based on predefined conditions, like if a customer doesn’t have a set booking schedule or if their subscription is about to expire.

Lastly, there no better way to learn how your product is received than by actually using it yourself. We use our own product to link our CTAs so that customers can instantly book a demo or call with our support team. We integrate our scheduling system into Intercom and our website.

As with any software development, designing the process is often the most difficult (yet most valuable) part of your project. By  shortening the feedback loop using readily available software tools, you’ll be able to leverage your own growth. Numbers mean nothing until you can convert them into valuable actions.

At my company, we’ve done quarterly retreats since 2011 and have identified four critical elements to a successful retreat: learning, sharing, bonding and unifying.

Company retreats are a powerful tool for your bottom line. Follow these steps to ensure you don’t mess it up.

Learning

When people learn together, they develop a unique relationship. Learning during a company retreat can take on many forms. At our retreats, employees learn about:

• Financials. At my company, we practice open-book management, which means we share our financials with our employees and engage them in a discussion about what the numbers mean. When taught how to read a profit and loss statement (P&L), the team is more likely to understand and identify ways to streamline costs.
• Strategic direction. If your team was sailing to a faraway country that offered untold adventure and prosperity, wouldn’t you want everybody excited and committed to the journey? Share your vision and goals with your team — they’ll oftentimes find smarter and more cost-effective ways to get you there.
• Each other. Personality assessments give people a chance to see themselves in a different light and better understand one another. This opportunity provides a forum to talk about how to better communicate and collaborate.
• Business operations. We give the whole team the chance to learn about one core business function and brainstorm on what can be improved. These discussions pull individuals out of their own silos, and in this setting, the brainstorming and new ideas brought forward can be hugely impactful.

Sharing

When people don’t feel they have a voice, they often check out or grow resentful. A good company retreat must incorporate time where everyone is given appropriate chances to voice concerns and ideas for the future. At our retreats employees share:

• Positive acknowledgments. Set aside time for employees to praise other team members, whether it’s sharing how other team members embody the different core values of our company, or sharing how other team members excelled with a certain client or project.
• Ideas for improvement. Employees often become frustrated when the organization doesn’t allow for their ideas to be implemented, or many times even heard. By engaging our team in discussions about process improvement, customer engagement and product development, everyone has the opportunity to be a catalyst for positive change. When an employee’s idea is supported and implemented, their loyalty to the company soars and ownership of the new process or product improvement skyrockets.  
• Desires. My business partner and I take notes on what people say they want. Oftentimes, team members deliver solutions to satisfy the desires of others without additional costs to the organization. Additionally, as we do our strategic planning, this gives us an opportunity to work the team’s desires into our plan and then come back and show that the leadership team is listening.

Bonding

Bonding time is invaluable because it fosters deeper relationships between team members. During our retreats, employees bond over:

• Learning new skills. At our last retreat, we unveiled a new marketing template that aligns our team and our clients around a clear, overarching goal. Our team practiced creating strategic plans using this new tool. As colleagues learn new skills, they bond with one another by offering different perspectives on the same new skill.
• Interpersonal interactions. Meals are a great way to help everyone relax and encourage them to dialogue in ways they haven’t before. During meals, we sometimes we play different games that encourage people to share personal experiences and perspectives with the larger group. These interpersonal interactions build and fortify friendships.

Unifying

A unified team is unstoppable. Unifying a group means setting aside personal agendas to see larger goals accomplished. At our retreats we unify toward:

• Strategic Plans. As a leadership team, we set the strategic direction of our organization, and the team works with us to set the priorities and initiatives needed to achieve our targets. Our goals and responsibility for achieving them are shared across our entire company.
• Priorities. Gaining buy-in for your strategic priorities allows companies to gain the steam and traction they need to win in the marketplace. On the flip side, if people don’t agree with the priorities of an organization, they will decide upon their own priorities, which can cause a company to lose traction and progress.
• The company as a whole. At my company, we joke that we put the “cult” in culture. Ensuring that everyone is in alignment has allowed us to tackle huge issues in a competitive and demanding landscape. Our team gets to see that everyone plays a vital part in the success of our enterprise, and that we all need one another to make our company great. We take the time to celebrate our wins, strategize on our losses, and decide on our upcoming purpose and focus.

Utilizing these key concepts in planning your retreat will ensure that your team feels empowered, energized, and ready to tackle any challenge. Our retreats are a core element of our culture, and we have found that the time spent away from the office often yields a 10x return in productivity and eventual profitability. As my company expects to grow 50% this year without stressing or missing a beat, I can confidently say that a core part of our success formula lies in unifying our team around core strategic priorities developed during these retreats.

Calculating Your Hourly Wage

“Now, wait a minute,” I hear you saying. “I’m not some nine-to-fiver. I’m an entrepreneur. I don’t have an hourly wage.” Sure you do! Every project you take on, every work-related task you accomplish, is factored into your total weekly time commitment for your business. Divide your total time commitment by the amount of money your business makes in a week, and you’ve got a quick thumbnail of your hourly wage.

This number is not only what you’re making every hour, but the value of an hour you spend on any given task —including ones that can be done more quickly, and more cheaply, by specialists and experts. And it makes an excellent measuring tool for not only where your business is now, but where you want it to be.

Ask yourself: what is my current hourly wage? And don’t stop there. What is your target hourly wage? How much do you want your hourly wage to be?

A Simple Example: Should I Hire A Bookkeeper?

For years, I hesitated to hire a bookkeeper for my business. I knew that my company was not a simple, straightforward “money in, money out” type of business. We held funds for people, we had deferred payments, and my employee setup was different. My books were complex.

So, rather than hire a bookkeeper, I kept control over my books. The problem was, I spent a lot of time doing it, and when I didn’t have time due to other demands, I didn’t update my records. I needed to outsource this task. Turns out, not only did it make sense for my time-management, it also effectively saved my business money.

Here’s how this works:

My effective hourly wage (at the time): $140/hour
My targeted hourly wage (at the time): $250/hour
Monthly hours spent on books: 9 hours
My effective and targeted cost: $1,260 – $2,250/month

This means that any bookkeeper whose services cost less than $1,260 immediately represented a savings to my business. And as my hourly wage grew, the savings would grow as well.

In the end, I found a high-quality bookkeeper for $250/month. The time I freed up allowed me to focus on other revenue-generating activities that had a direct impact on raising my effective hourly wage.

Time Really Is Money

Let’s face it: time is your most valuable asset as a business owner. Every hour that ticks by with you toiling away on outsourceable tasks is an hour you could be investing in tasks better suited to your skill set. Let’s consider the concrete benefits of outsourcing based on your hourly wage:

Harnessing the Power Of The 1440

In his book, 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management, author and entrepreneur Kevin Kruse encourages his readers to write “1440” on a piece of paper and display it prominently in their office. One thousand, four hundred forty minutes: that’s what we’re all given each and every day. You can’t pack more into the day, so you need to make every single one count, and account for them in your plans. Money can be replaced, fun can be had, and work can be done, but once your minutes are gone, they’re gone.

Compare your wage to the cost of having someone handle the most tedious and low-level tasks. Outsourcing frees you up to make smarter use of your time, and put those minutes where they can be most beneficial to raise your hourly wage, grow your business, and help you meet your goals.

The Value Of Your Business Can Be Measured On The Clock

Outsourcing effectively can actually increase the value of your internet business. It’s true that online businesses are valued based on their earnings, but that value is absolutely affected by the efficiency of the business. Greater efficiency means lower costs, which means a higher hourly wage for you.

And don’t forget, entrepreneurs who aren’t looking to spend lots of time on a business are probably going to offer less money than they would for one that generates a good income and requires less hands-on work from the owner.

Streamline With Specialists

Your business has a whole set of processes — billing, marketing, customer care, accounting — that must be accomplished. But that doesn’t mean you’re the one who has to accomplish them.

As the owner and operator, you’re the biggest cog in what should be a well-oiled machine. But not every cog fits every task. If you can replace your competent, but relatively inefficient, labor with the work of someone who lives to complete a given task at a reasonable cost, you’re ahead of the game in both time and money.

One of the biggest favors you can do for yourself and your business is to banish the idea that you, and only you, can get the job done properly. Maybe it’s your bookkeeping, maybe it’s your marketing, or maybe it’s something as simple as handling your daily filing. Whatever “it” is, chances are you’ll be better off outsourcing if it can be done more cheaply and efficiently by someone else. Understand your hourly wage, explore your options, and soon you too can outsource your way to more time, more money, and a more valuable company.