Your business might actually grow better without you.
Many of us face obstacles every day. But most of those obstacles are internal, not external. Fear, overwhelm, lack of focus—those are the obvious ones. But anger, jealousy, FOMO—when we’re overtired and underpaid, our worst qualities rise to the surface. They affect our ability to grow our businesses.
In this series, I’m going to take you deep. I’m going to share the top lessons I’ve learned by unpacking these qualities for myself. I’m going to lean heavily on Bonnie Skinner of B. Skinner Coaching and Psychotherapy to help.
Here, I’m going to talk about the first barrier: overwhelm.
In the next post, I’ll tell you about distractions and the “goldfish concept” (it’s not what you think).
After that, I’ll share a tactic that will help you beat FOMO forever.
Finally, I’ll tell you how to stop projecting your goals, fears and limits onto everyone around you (including your future clients).
Overwhelm: Are You Productive or Just Busy?
Let’s start with overwhelm, because that’s what my last two books are really about.
There are six things you can do to build your business:
- Pay yourself first.
- Improve operations.
- Upgrade the team.
- Keep clients longer.
- Get more clients.
- Sell better.
If you’re not actively improving in one of these areas every day, you’re not making progress. You’re just busy.
If you’re improving in one area every day, you’re maintaining.
If you improve in two or three of these areas every day, you’re growing.
Don’t worry about doing more than that. But definitely worry about the balance among the six.
For example, if you spend all your time worrying about marketing but don’t have a retention plan, you’re not building your business. If you spend many hours training your staff but 10 minutes on your sales process, you’ll have great coaches who don’t have any clients.
Answer This Question
Here’s the test: If I called you tonight at 8 p.m. and asked for the one thing you did today to grow your business, what could you show me? And I mean this literally. Could you point to a number on a sheet somewhere or draw me a picture that would show what you did?
Your days are full. Mine are, too. But most of the things we do just keep us busy. So every week I look at the six strategies listed above and think of one thing I can do to measurably improve in each area. Then I plot the actions into my calendar first. They are my priority.
Some of these things are automated now: I have staff to help with sales, marketing, team development and retention. So I ask them, “What’s your plan this week?” As the entrepreneur, my job is to mentor my staff to take specific action to grow my business. The true value of mentorship is speed, and speed is achieved by removing obstacles, distractions and other drag.
Keep it simple. Stick to the basics. But act on your priorities. You’ll avoid overwhelm and make measurable progress.
