The options of what we could or should be working on as a small business owner are endless and trying to do it all will only lead to burnout and frustration. There will always be more to do. The key is finding those tasks that you know will move the needle forward in your business and focus on doing them every week.
THE ESSENTIALS
The essential tasks are those things that you absolutely know without a doubt that if you did them every single week you would reach your goals.
Decide what your focus is for the next 90 days – what are you offering and how are you offering it?
Are there any other projects that are going to move you closer to your goals?
Decide on 2-5 key metrics that matter and measure and track them consistently every week. These are the building blocks to reaching your bigger outcome goals e.g. number of sales calls booked + number of call conversions
The Pareto principle says that you get 80% of the results from 20% of the actions. It’s those 20% that you need to focus on.
Put blinders on to everything else that is a distraction. You do not have to do all the things.
GROWTH-BASED ACTIONS
Growth-based actions are the fuel that keep your business moving forward. These actions tend to be the tasks that are connected to either making an impact or making income i.e. marketing and sales.
In order to grow your business you need to focus on growing your audience (people to buy your offers) and growing your revenue (making sales)
These actions often bring up the most resistance for many small business owners and often get pushed down the list of things to do especially when it feels that there are more urgent things to tackle, but they really are the lifeblood of your business.
Examples of actions that grow your audience:
Pitching to be interviewed on a podcast
Writing a blog post, recording a podcast or video
Examples of actions that grow your revenue:
Writing a sales page
Holding discovery calls with potential clients
Building a strategic profit plan with a strong marketing and sales system is key. This plan will keep you focused and ensure you are avoiding shiny object syndrome and chasing the latest marketing craze.
MAKE TIME TO WORK ON THE BUSINESS
It is vital that you find time to work on your business and not just in it, even if it’s for just one hour a day.
Tracking your time and creating a weekly schedule will help you to see where you may have time available to work on your business. This schedule will give you a clear idea of when you have those time blocks to get some focused work done to move your business forward.
Always give yourself the space to get a big picture view of what’s going on in your business. I like to hold a weekly leadership meeting with myself to check in on my 90-day goals, review my key metrics and decide my most important actions for the week ahead.
You don’t have to do all the things, you just need to do a few things consistently.
