3 Simple Steps to Take Back Control of Your Business Day

Debbie owned a $12 million/year marketing firm that worked with fortune 500 clients.  She had so much opportunity to grow, but because she was totally overwhelmed he left each day feeling drained and disempowered to continue to scale.

When I first met her at an EO event in Texas (I was giving a keynote there), I could feel the frustration that dripped into her description of her company.

This is a common pattern for an owner-reliant or rapid growth stage company – the key people are stretched so thin and pulled in so many directions that they don’t even know how to get out of that cycle.

Here is my best coaching for you on how to get started with this process of building a business you love owning again, even in the face of all the conflicting demands on your time and attention.

Step 1:  Start your day by asking what ONE thing could you do today that in 30 minutes or less would have the biggest impact on your business?

I caution you to be ruthlessly realistic about what you can get done in 30 minutes.  Chunk down a larger project into the one piece you could bite off and get done in just 30 minutes of focused time.

Over time you can grow that 30 minutes into an hour or more, but start off with something you know you’ll follow through on and build on these small, daily victories.

Step 2:  Commit to doing that one thing before you do anything else – before you lose yourself in email… return that phone call… or jump into your first staff meeting…

This may require you to change how you schedule the first moments of your day, or to come into the office 30 minutes earlier.

But I’m not asking much – just for you to start your day with the most important and valuable thing you can do that day in 30 minutes or less.  Come on, you can do this!

Step 3:  At the end of the week, take 5 minutes and go back over your week and list out the five biggest victories you had that week in your business.

Why is this step so important?  Because if you want to shape behavior you need to make the progress you’re making visible.  And my observation after working with thousands of business owners that we coach is that most business owners struggle with allowing themselves to enjoy the progress they are actually making.  They are so busy seeing how much is left to do that they rarely give themselves or their staffs credit for all the progress they’ve made.

So if you want to sustain your new behavior over time, I urge you to invest five minutes capturing your weekly victories at the end of each week.  Share them with your team.  Encourage them to do the same steps.  And watch your business flourish.