Firstly, a Happy New Year to you. I hope you’ve had a good festive season and celebrated the start of the New Year in a fun way. Now it’s back to reality for us business owners.
I’m sure you’ve been busy planning the changes that are going to happen in your business this year. Ramping up productivity and profitability have got to be high priority. What may not be such a priority is considering the reasons why you may not achieve what you have planned. Some of the issues may not even be on your radar yet. We all start out with great expectations but often get side tracked and begin to veer away from our strategic vision because we become so busy, so embroiled. The question is, are we busy on the wrong things?
I have changed my business a lot over the last three years but particularly over the last year. Up until this time, activities I enjoyed and am good at, often fell by the wayside because of the demands of the business. I got pulled in different directions. I was working hard but wasn’t always working smart. In fact, “the tail was often wagging the dog”. Not very fulfilling!
I found myself evaluating why it all seemed such hard work. There was no doubting the effort we were all putting in but we weren’t quite achieving what we had intended. Why? Rather than blame others, rather than blaming outside events or circumstances I started to look a bit closer to home… MYSELF!
Turns out I was largely to blame. Yes, me, the business owner, the person who should be giving direction to everyone else!
On closer inspection, basically, I was just packing too many things into the day. I was eternally optimistic and was attempting to do too much. Recognise this? I found there wasn’t a consistency in my delivery. Don’t get me wrong I was still delivering a good service but I asked myself how much better it would be if I aligned my day-to-day activity with what I wanted the business to achieve. Ultimately, I asked the same question of each member of the Blue Sky team.
What we found to be the root cause of our problems was lack of time which manifested into lack of application. All because we were trying to do too much!
So, before you become consumed by the demands of your business this year, think about how you could work smarter, how you could become more productive, more profitable and importantly, more fulfilled.
I would like to introduce you to a blog from our friend, Brett Davidson, where he talks about the ‘Productivity Delusion’ whilst highlighting the 5 Time Management Mistakes we all make: click here.
Brett is a business mentor in the financial planning sector but don’t let this put you off because he highlights some great points which are common to most businesses. I like Brett’s comment, “when it doesn’t work in the planning, it doesn’t work in the execution”. Obvious but true.
The knockout blow though is when he states “Most business owners don’t ever make these tough choices consciously. They let disorganisation make the choice for them, and it’s a really poor way to do it!”
Have a read and hopefully it will help you in your quest for success in 2017. A good reminder if nothing else.
May 2017 bring health and happiness.
