Most business owners are overwhelmed with trying to decide what’s next for their business.
It doesn’t help that there are so many people telling you a million different things you need to be doing to make your business a success – it’s no wonder you’re feeling overwhelmed!
In this post I’m going to share with you three tips to move past information overwhelm so that you can focus on the right things (at the right time) in your business and accelerate your progress by simplifying the things you are doing.
1. Simplify your strategy
Do you find yourself overwhelmed by a never ending to do list, bouncing around from one thing to the next, working long days and still feeling like you’re behind?
Whilst collecting and learning new information is helpful, it’s not what makes a business actually succeed.
Success comes when you shift gears from learning to doing.
But when you have so many ideas flying around in your head, how do you know what to focus on?
When you try to do too many things at once in your business, things can feel very complicated and it can often lead to paralysis because you don’t know where to start.
Trying to do all the things will cause stress, overwhelm and confusion and you’ll be spinning so many plates that you won’t get anything done.
You need a simple strategy that will take you from where you are now to where you want to be.
This means doing the things that are going to make the biggest difference to your business right now.
It’s time to get rid of the long to-do list of marketing ideas and instead focus on 2-3 tactics that are aligned with your business and personality and IMPLEMENT them to move your business forward.
Then pay close attention to what works and what doesn’t, so you can optimise the things that work moving forward.
Some useful questions to ask yourself are – will completing this task move me closer to my goals or have a positive impact on my business as a whole?
If the answer is yes, ask yourself, is it a priority right now?
This will enable you to make decisions from a place of leadership.
It’s really important to remember that there is no one size fits all to business growth.
The best strategy is one that is intentional and that is unique to YOUR business.
2. Create a plan of action
Having a strategy in place will help to keep you focused on how you’re going to reach your goals, however, this means nothing if you don’t implement what it is you need to do.
Creating a plan of action that lays out the action steps you need to take each day, week and month will help you to build purposeful momentum in your business.
This is why I like to do quarterly planning, because 90 days is enough time to test what’s working and not working and you can focus on a couple of projects at a time and actually get them finished before trying something new.
You will be intentional and proactive rather than constantly being reactive.
Getting into the mindset of ONLY implementing what’s on your plan will help you stay focused and ensure you are making progress towards your goals.
Nothing hinders progress more than flitting from one idea to the next because you never give anything enough time to actually work.
If you know that you get distracted by new ideas and new marketing trends, then you may find it helpful to save them in a ‘not right now’ list of ideas that you can refer back to later on.
If you need to shut out the noise of all the people who are telling you about the ‘next best marketing tactic’ then mute them on social media.
Put the blinders on and focus on your plan of action.
It’s only by stepping into action and implementing that you are going to see progress and growth in your business.
3. Be the leader of your business
Right now you may feel like you’re struggling to juggle all the things that come along with this journey as a business owner as well as being a mother, partner, daughter – you’re definitely not alone.
It can often feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done.
Being able to prioritise your time and energy on results-based activities and saying no to busy work will free up so much of your time that is spent on pointless tasks that don’t impact your bottom-line.
As a business owner the majority of your time will be spent on marketing (finding clients), sales (booking clients) and service (serving clients).
Create blocks of time each day to focus on the activities in your action plan.
This will ideally be at a time when you are distraction free.
Having structure in your day will allow you to feel more in control.
Every morning ask yourself – what you’re doing, why you’re doing it and how you need to show up? This will keep you intentional and focused.
As the leader of your business you always want to keep an eye on the big picture view.
Remember…
There’s no one-size-fits-all for sustainable business growth. There are plenty of options, but never one perfect fit.
It’s about understanding the life you want, and how you want to grow your business in a way that feels good for you.
Your business, your way.
