Today, you have unprecedented support available to help you build and improve your business and to survive any economic conditions. No matter how small a town or isolated an area you live in, internet access connects you to astounding resources.
- You can read advice from experts, including those in your own field.
- You can connect personally with mentors, consultants, and many other types of support online directly and through social networks.
- You can access in-depth guides, ebooks and college courses on any small business issue, some for free, others for an affordable price.
All that’s available, but you’re still struggling with your business. Why? What’s keeping you from using these abundant resources to improve your business? With all this abundance, there are still two resources that remain scarce:
- Your time
- Your attention
What is the solution? You’re going to have to make an appointment with your self and your business. Dedicate a set time each week, 1 hour minimum. Make it an absolute commitment. Do not let anything disturb you during this hour.
Here’s the agenda for how you’ll spend that time:
- Figuring out what areas of your business need improvement and choosing one to work on at a time.
- Finding the resources and people you need.
- Reading the resources that you found.
- Learning by making your first attempts.
- Talking with your mentors, contacts or consultants to check what you’re learning.
- Implementing and solidifying your learning into how you do business.
Your very first step is simple:
- Make an appointment with yourself this week for one hour.
Get your calendar. Do it now.
- About the Author
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Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
Excellent advice, Becky! And you’re right: we have so many success-building resources available, that it’s pretty impossible to come up with an excuse for floundering.
While I’ve (traditionally) complained that it’s been lack of time, I’ve come to the realization that lack of (focused) attention has played a significant role. I’m typically a person who addresses the “loudest” issues as they come up, and sometimes I should reroute my attention on something less obvious, but more important. I’ve been working on using the “Covey Quadrants” when running my work week. I’m still far from a master at using them, but getting better. (With the occasional backslide.) ;-)
Thank you for sharing your ideas in your post, Becky. Have a super week!
Thank you, Tracy. I’ve just been re-reading Covey’s 7 Habits. The quadrants of “urgent vs. important” are just one of the things I could use some reinforcement on! My friend Marty Coleman reminds us that “When you say you have no time, you mean you have no time for this.”
Great Stuff Becky! This action is simple and yet so difficult to actually implement. Those that “do the hard things” and implement this will reap the benefits. Thanks for the reminder.
Thanks, Brian. I think most of the important things that make a difference are simple but difficult!
Becky, this is such an important post. Thank you for the reminder to make the time to analyze the bigger picture. It’s so easy to get lost in all of the day-to-day details.
Thanks, Stephanie. Those day-to-day details are important to our current performance, but they will always be about keeping up. We have to work hard at carving out time to improve.
Thanks for this great reminder Becky. I find the biggest advantage to business coaching, is exactly what you talked about–spending time on your business, not just in your business. An hour of planning can save plenty of man hours later.
Great point, Sean! Smart business coaches are exactly the kind of person that would make sense to connect to as part of your appointment with yourself. Then, after spending time with your coach, spend time DOING what you learned.
My friend Marc Pitman shared how he has maintained his weekly appointment for four years now:
“Every Thursday, I have an ‘appointment with my business.’ I got this term from my friend Becky McCray. During that time yesterday, I called my merchant account. The company that processes credit cards for my business. It turns out, that despite having good settings on my shopping cart, they’d never been configured on my merchant account!
Fortunately, nothing bad has happened yet. But if Oprah ever chooses to interview me and tens of thousands of people purchase from me, I’ll now be protected from some rookie mistakes. Mistakes I thought I’d already fixed. The help person took the time to show me my options and explain them. It was almost like a seminar.
It took a while. More than an hour and half. At points during that time I was wishing I was doing something else. But because of Matthew, I had time set aside to learn. And because of Becky, I had a habit of looking at different aspects of my business.
Now I have better understanding of a pretty important part of my cash flow processing. And I may even benefit from lower fees.”
That’s an impressive commitment, Marc! Keep it going!