3 Simple Ways to Start Working on Your Business Today
Want to start working on your business? You’re not alone, most entrepreneurs do. Perhaps it was a new year’s goal to spend less time with your hands soaked in the daily grind and more time putting your dreams and goals for your business in action. But somehow, here you are in February in the exact same position you were in December – shuffling from job to job, putting out fires, and still endlessly caught up in the stress of running your own business.
You want to change. It’s your business after all, you call the shots. But how do you change?
It’s simple: start with a plan. You have to figure out what it is you want and what it will take to get you there. To do this, you need to take a step back and reexamine your business as well as your goals. Once you have your thoughts in place and a plan in action, you can make the change. Listed below are 3 simple ways to get you headed in the right direction:
1. Every month, schedule a time to gather your thoughts and assess your goals
During this time, find a spot completely free of distractions (yes, your phone counts as a distraction!) and ask yourself the following questions about your business:
- Why did I start my business in the first place? What were my original goals at the time?
- Have I achieved these goals? Am I still working on achieving these goals? Have I veered away from achieving these goals? Are these goals no longer relevant?
- What about my business makes me happy?
- What do I want to change?
- How can I make this change happen?
This final question is most important! Most of the time when we stop and analyze our business goals and determine the things that need to change, we stop at that. Other priorities get in the way and we find ourselves coming up with excuses as to why we can’t make the change happen. The threat of too much time, commitment, energy, money, etc., gets in the way of our ability to take the plunge and actually make the change happen. By forcing ourselves to come up with a way to really do it – to really change – we get that much closer to reaching our goals.
2. Every week take a mini-break to decompress and think about your business goals
Check in with yourself once a week and, keeping in mind the questions you asked yourself before, analyze whether you’re staying on course or deviating away from your goals. One of the best ways to do this is to take a 15 minute (or preferably longer) walk during your work day. Break away from the daily grind and take a moment to simply ponder your business. Not only will you walk back into work with a fresh mind, but you’ll come back thinking about the bigger picture, not the everyday ‘nitty gritty,’ and, therefore, a better handle on what should really constitute as your priorities for the day.
3. Once a week, schedule a meeting with yourself to actually work on your business
Book it with your office manager, write it down on your calendar, file it in your blackberry – do whatever you need to do to hold yourself accountable to the meeting. While it may seem impossible to tear yourself away from your quickly-growing to-do list, taking the time will help you kill two birds with one stone – you’ll actually make some headway in the ‘working on your business’ department and you’ll come back to work with a new sense of motivation and, therefore, the right frame of mind to be more productive.
These simple steps will get you in the habit of thinking about your business from an analytical point of view more often, which will naturally encourage you to spend more time working on your business more often.
