Growing your business while working in it
Waking up each morning, one of the first things so many of us do is check our emails and messages.
What is the day shaping up to be?
What did I miss?
What am I going to be faced with when I get to work?
We look at our calendar and see the meetings, administration and other commitments that are required to run our business.
We have aspirations for greater sustainability and perhaps growth, but how does one achieve this amidst the running of the business?
…when so much of our energy and time is already wrapped up in what we do every day?
Is your decision-making (or lack thereof) impeding your progress?
Do you struggle with decision-making when it comes to growing your business?
Are you holding back from making a decision in your business right now?
The price of NOT making a decision can be time, energy drain, taking up mental space and…missed opportunities.
Is this something you struggle with, or have struggled with?
If so, here are some questions that could help…
How do you measure business growth?
Growing your business can be fun, challenging, rewarding and all-encompassing. It can also feel frustrating, never-enough and like spinning your wheels.
An interesting question to consider if you have aspirations to expand is: how are you measuring growth?
There’s the traditional metrics of using revenue and profit. Those are great measures.
However, measuring growing using only the metric of growing top-line sales is using a very narrow lense.
AND these metrics are lagging indicators. They are the result of the activities you’re engaging in.
What are your leading indicators? (These are the actions you’re taking that LEAD TO the results you’re looking for.)
Is your company giving back to you?
Does your company bring you energy, increase your financial, emotional, and mental capital?
Or, is it sucking away your energy, and money you never seem to earn more of?
A business is a business when there’s equity to show for your investment. And has value to you and the world.
It’s painful to be reminded of the fact that life is short. But the gift in that reminder is to make the most of the time we have. That includes putting effort into growing your business so it provides the things you need it to provide for you.
If you’re putting up with drudgery, plateauing, or even putting off decisions, I’m here to say that there’s another way…
Mindset Matters
In spite of the strategies you may try in growing your business or stepping into a broader leadership role, having ideas to pursue is only half the equation for success.
Often we know what we need to do, but why is it so difficult to do it sometimes? To internalize it.
There can be so many reasons why we humans don’t do the things that are good for us all the time or don’t always make choices that support us, but one of those areas that we could bring focus to is our mindset.
Your mindset WILL support you to navigate challenges and is an important determinant of your success.
Carol Dweck, author of Mindset: , says that…..”Mindsets frame the running account that’s taking place in people’s heads. They guide the whole interpretation process.”
This is a dirty word to many entrepreneurs.....
“I’m too busy growing my business to think about processes”
“Process stifles creativity in our organization”
“Process is considered a dirty word in our company”
I’ve seen too many companies suffer from their belief that if they put structure and flow into their business, their people will feel ‘stifled’.
You know what lack of process, or infrastructure does? It inhibits communication, reduces role clarity, creates inconsistent performance, creates uncertainty when problems arise, and slows growth. Unfortunately, the list doesn’t end there.
Looking for more 'Time' in your Business
If you were to take a survey of Business Owners and ask them why they went into business, many would say one of their top reasons was for flexibility and freedom.
However, when the business gets going and you are juggling all the different roles, it feels like you have everything BUT flexibility and freedom.