Make Momentum A Mindset
Maybe next week. Maybe next month. Once things slow down a bit, you’ll finally be able to find some time to work on growing your business. You’ve got big ideas and big ambitions but they’ll have to wait until tomorrow. Or the day after that.
As a small business owner/operator, it’s really easy to get caught up in the day-to-day. You end up spending all of your time working for your business instead of working on your business. And no matter how much you might try to convince yourself to the contrary, you know in your heart that’s just not a sustainable coping strategy.
Stop making excuses
“Now’s not a good time” just doesn’t cut it. Things are always going to come up. In fact, there’s a pretty good chance that more stuff will come up tomorrow than what you already have on your plate today—karma and Murphy’s Law always seem to have a funny way of doing that, don’t they? You’ve got to operate under the assumption that there’s never going to be a good time and go from there.
When something is really important, we always seem to find the time no matter how much is already on our plates. It could be 15 minutes while we’re traveling to meet with a prospective client, working over lunch, or the time we would otherwise spend worrying about all of the things we’ve been putting off until later—time that has a way of adding up and time we could be using to think about those pressing business challenges and start formulating immediate and actionable solutions.
Make momentum a mindset
Once you start putting things off, it becomes really easy to put things off—and your small business starts to suffer. You’ve got to get in the habit of starting--of gaining forward momentum.
Whether it’s 20 minutes, one hour, or one day a week you need to find the time to focus on those things that are most important to you and your business and do that. You’ve got to take a step back and look at what’s working and what isn’t.
Are you looking to attract more customers? Do you need to reevaluate your pricing strategy? Does your content effectively articulate what makes you unique from your competitors?
You need to identify what’s going to help you grow your business and achieve your goals. Once you have those answers, you’ve got to move--you’ve got to act on them with a sense of urgency and purpose.
Read “Poke the Box”
I know passing out reading assignments in a post about procrastination seems counterintuitive but if you’re looking for a swift kick in the butt, read Poke the Box by Seth Godin.
It’s under $7 on Amazon, only 83 pages and will almost certainly give you the mojo you need to go start something—whether it’s finally getting around to that marketing plan, overhauling that ineffective website, or brining someone onboard to help with the day-to-day.
By: Shawn Graham
[Image: Flickr user Rico]
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