How to Stay on Track in Building Your Business

Mar 14
05:25

2008

Margaret Moczkowski

Margaret Moczkowski

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Seven strategies to help you focus and take your business to the next level

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Francesca is a business consultant working out of her home.  She loves her work,How to Stay on Track in Building Your Business Articles she has acquired a good client base and she is past the “survival” stage in her business. Six months ago she decided to take her company to the next level by introducing new informational products and expanding her client base. She has done research, gathered lots of ideas and even created a plan of action. But six months passed and nothing really happened: she finds herself constantly struggling with lack of time and focus necessary to really move forward with her project. She feels overwhelmed by the amount of information coming her way and by everyday business such as emails, calls, taking care of existing clients, bookkeeping, etc. Her head is spinning, her energy is draining, she feels like a cat chasing her own tail, and the worst is that the feelings of self-disappointment begin to creep in.

Can you relate? Most entrepreneurs can, especially solopreneurs who don’t have a corporate structure to support, guide them, hold their hand, and hold them accountable. They have to do all of that themselves.

From my experience coaching entrepreneurs, I know that the lack of true focus, which translates to issues with effective time organization, discipline and commitment, is one of the top reasons business owners don’t succeed as quickly as they can. It’s not their lack of knowledge or business vision or inspiration; it often simply boils down to the lack of proper systems in place to manage their big projects and themselves in the process.

Here are seven proven ways to create and maintain your business focus so you can implement your big ideas, grow your company, and achieve your long-term goals and dreams:

  1. Organize Your Information

Because entrepreneurs’ radar is always on and ready to receive new business ideas, solutions and approaches, they accumulate large amounts of information in their heads.  They often deal with information overload and they lack proper tools to organize it. This creates two problems: First, they don’t know where specific pieces fit or how to apply them in their own business; second, when they are ready to use a specific information item, they often don’t know where to find it anymore.

The solution is to commit to a system of gathering, storing, and organizing your business information. There are number of ways to do it and you have to find the one that’s best for you.  First of all, your computer documents should be organized in categorized and labeled file folders, so when you receive emails you want to keep, come across articles you want to store, web addresses you want to save, when you create your own documents, etc., you have designated places for them all. For information on paper, like magazine articles, your own notes, pictures etc. you could use a simple binder divided into sections and put your items in it. You can have a special designated notebook where you write your ideas. Or, if you want to store and organize ideas electronically, I recommend a mind mapping software like Mindjet. It allows you to literally map out your mind, list and connect your ideas, and group them any way you want. You can attach documents, web sites and notes to you maps.

Think of what would serve you the best so you can have all your information stored and easily accessible. Whatever you choose, select a system that feels comfortable to you and commit to using it.  It will allow you to free your head of the overload and give you peace of mind that your information is in your reach. Schedule to review and clean your information system periodically, discard outdated items and reorganize the rest if needed.

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  1. Set Goals and Create an Action Plan

Once you have a feel for where you want to take your business, set specific goals for yourself. Otherwise, your dreams will remain a pie in the sky. Work within a concrete timeframe, for example one year. State clearly what you want to achieve at the end, and then break it down to smaller goals you want to reach on monthly basis. Let’s say your goal is to write and publish an ebook and sell 10,000 copies in one year. Decide how much time you approximately need for research, topic selection, outlining chapters, writing, learning sales strategies, and putting them in place. Then set specific goals for each month.  This alone will empower you into action: you will find that a big project broken down like this is not so big and overwhelming.

Once you have specific monthly or weekly goals in place, it’s easy to plan a purposeful action. A powerful question to ask yourself when you create your action plan is: What do I need to do to achieve my monthly/weekly goal of… (for example: completing chapter 3 of my ebook)?

  1. Block Time For Big Projects

When you come up with an answer to the above question and you know what to do, how do you make sure you actually do it and don’t allow other things take over your day? The biggest pitfall for entrepreneurs is taking care of the less significant items on their to-do list first, and hoping that will “clear the way” for work on their big ideas. As we all know, these less significant items can easily take over your whole day, and, if you’re not careful, your whole life.

The most effective method is to block specific times in your planner and use them solely for the purpose of working on your big projects. Every Monday have a weekly scheduling meeting with yourself so you can decide what will get accomplished this week and what specific chunks of time you are committing to it. Remember to block your time for the big items first and then see how much time you have left for the remaining items. If you don’t have enough, ask yourself whether you can in any way limit your remaining tasks, delegate them to someone else, or do them in a different, more time efficient way. You might find that emails don’t take as much time if we simply ignore the jokes we get from our friends. I also suggest that you check and respond to your emails only at specified times of day, so you don’t get distracted every half hour.

  1. Hold a Monthly Business Meeting

It’s really important to have a periodic (monthly works great) business meeting with yourself. Set aside an hour or two a month to go through your annual and monthly goals, where you are in the process, and look at your action plan. It’s a live plan so make changes if necessary.  Reconnect with your goals, refresh your commitment to them and revisit your plan of action. The more in touch you are with your goals and plans, the more energy and motivation they will fuel in you. Let the monthly meeting be your guide in planning your next four weeks.

  1. Acknowledge Your Accomplishments

To keep inspiration in the process, I encourage you to take 5 minutes at the end of the day to pat yourself on the back for all, even the smallest, things you have accomplished that day. You will see a tremendous difference it makes when you place your attention on the accomplishments instead on the unfinished items in your list. Reschedule the unfinished items. Simply put - do your best, acknowledge yourself, and….

  1. Relax!

It’s important to keep a good balance and sanity in your work. When entrepreneurs have an exciting project in front of them they tend to lose the healthy balance between work and life. I encourage fueling your work energy by giving yourself time and permission to do things you like or that are good for you (or both!) like taking a twenty-minute walk during lunch and completely emptying your head of business.  How would good balance look in your day? I often suggest doing at least one thing a day you want to do just for yourself personally. It works like a miracle.

  1. Hire a Business Coach

Consider hiring a good business coach to claim your dreams quicker and with less stumbling along the way. A professional business coach will help you clarify your vision, set your goals, co-design with you an effective and workable action plan, and support you in staying committed and focused through the process. It’s best to hire a coach who is an expert in leading entrepreneurs and who has specific business building and marketing expertise to be able to give you constructive feedback and support.

If you have dreams for your business, for yourself, and you want to finally get to do your big projects, don’t let excuses of lack of time and focus stand in your way. Commit to implement a system that works for you. Organize your information, set your business goals, break them down and manage yourself and your time while being conscious of your priorities. You will see big things actually getting done and your business going where you want it to go. And you will feel really good about yourself as a businessperson.