Are you the bottleneck in your business?
Think about it. Are you:
Working with current clients?
Hustling for new clients?
Posting to your social media channels?
Running a clinic / practice / studio?
Studying to bring your expertise to the next level?
Growing your business to the next level?
Teaching classes or courses?
Livestreaming or hosting in-person events?
Doing your own accounting?
Attempting to have a social or family life outside your all-consuming work?
Grow your business with a business coach
I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that many of you are doing all these things AND MORE. If you’re drowning in work, scrambling to do it all, and losing traction with every passing day—you’re not alone.
But you’re also not in a good spot, especially if you want to drive business growth forward. (And I know you do.) In order to prime your enterprise for real, ongoing, profit-generating growth, you’ve got to identify your key tasks, and yoke your focus + energy to get those tasks done.
Your time is limited and precious. Burning through your valuable time and energy with tasks that someone else could do isn’t a sustainable strategy. Understandably, you may need to wear all the hats right now….even if that is the case, track your time and you’ll begin to see where you are able to “retrieve” a few hours by pivoting your focus.
So just how do you figure out what to keep and what to ditch?
Here’s how I decide:
Divide and conquer
Make a list of every ball you’ve got in the air right now. Every task you do from creating long-term marketing strategies to sweeping the studio floor. Then divide them into two groups:
Those that help maintain the business: The must-do daily or weekly tasks that help keep the business running. Think teaching classes and working with clients, but also paying the bills and replying to emails.
Those that help drive business forward: Growth-promoting, catalyzing, and profit-enhancing tasks. Think developing new products or programs, launching higher-value offers or group programs, learning valuable skills, and working with business coaches.
Some of these tasks need you. There’s no trusted advisor or second-in-command who can step in and teach your classes, courses or coaching sessions, so you must be prepared to give them your attention. But there are other tasks that you may currently handle yourself to “save money,” or haven’t considered delegating.
When it comes to that second group, I want you to ...
Hire smart people
No one likes to hear that you’ve got to “spend money to make money,” myself included. (Seriously, who enjoys cliches?) But if you drown yourself in tasks that competent paid staff members could handle, you are quite literally keeping yourself from dreaming up and rolling out new, better, higher earning-potential offerings. Investing in trustworthy, creative full-time, part-time, or freelance staff frees you up to focus on business-building.
If you’re not in a position to hunt down and take on traditional employees, consider digital solutions like:
Virtual assistants (VAs), who can schedule your social posts, edit your content, or do grahic design work remotely and affordably.
Provider marketplaces like Upwork or Fiverr, which connect you with designers, programmers, and content marketers through bidding systems.
Design aids like 99 Designs, where you find and work with freelance designers on logos, packaging, websites, and more.
Once you have the tasks you keep all to yourself and the ones you selectively delegate there will be a few stragglers which don’t serve you or your business.
Eliminate underperformers
Sometimes we outgrow aspects of our business or find that certain responsibilities no longer serve their purpose.
// If you never get more than two students in your Thursday night cooking class, why are you still offering it?
// If you’re spending time populating gorgeous Pinterest boards but they don’t drive sales or generate new customer leads, quit it.
// If you dread the thought of teaching that weekly webinar, axe it.
// If you have an offer, program, workshop or course you’ve outgrown, retire the offer.
You do NOT have to keep doing things just because you’ve done them in the past. And you do NOT have to do things just because your peers are doing them. Keep your top-performing offerings and cut the dead weight. Focus on social media outlets that you enjoy and that bring you new business, and ditch the rest. You’re the boss. Make some tough calls and reduce your workload by letting go of underperformers.
Dial up the discipline
We’ve gone from easy to tough, I know! Making a list of your work tasks is a cakewalk. Increasing self-mastery? Not so easy.
Start with tiny steps like disabling social media notifications and practicing mono-tasking. (Multi-tasking is a total myth, believe me.)
Be honest with yourself about your most productive hours, and schedule your hardest tasks at those times of day. (More productivity tips here!)
Pick up an important, business-focused task to complete each day at the start of your workday. You’ll get an instant boost of motivation knowing you completed an important task for your business growth and that will help keep you motivated whe
As time goes on, you’ll learn the valuable lesson every successful entrepreneur has learned: you can’t do it all. Embrace this lesson with big, open arms. Doing it all is overrated. Focusing your efforts on strategic, key tasks is the only way to fly.
Wanna connect with a supportive group as you manage your task lists?
Join the Kula, a Free Coaching Community for female founders and integrative practitioners. We go Live every Tuesday at 1 pm EST / 10 am PST for mindful business tips and weekly action plans.
