When I started up each of my businesses I had a dream. Not a huge, Martin Luther King type of dream that would change the world, but a smaller dream of helping business owners while having a decent work-life balance for myself.
I wrote down my vision in one sentence. Nothing complex but just to remind me.
And each time I had to make a big decision I came back to my dream to see whether this particular decision would move me closer to my dream.
But often we make a lot of smaller decisions that mean that our business drifts away from that dream and we just end up with a job that we have to do in order to pay the bills. When I work with clients on our individual or group coaching programmes I encourage then to recapture that dream but also to take actions.
Here are some of the actions that you can take:
- Review your pricing to ensure that you are being paid what you are worth
- Review your clients to ensure that you are selling to the right people profitably and enjoyably
- Review the type of work that you are doing to ensure that you are doing profitable AND enjoyable work
- Review your marketing to ensure that it is all aimed at getting more of the right people and the right work
- Review how you are spending your time to see if there are things that would be better off delegated or outsourced. How many small business owners are trying to do their accounts at the end of a long week? And how many accountants are doing their own graphic design?
You may prefer to do this on your own but, if you want some accountability, then come along to our monthly Flyby sessions (see below). If you would like more proactive input or specific advice from me then try our coaching programmes.