You have great plans to take your business to the next level, but how do you implement them?
By Beate Chelette
Your plan is in place. You’ve clearly defined your goals and now it’s time to go from here to there. How can you finally take action and implement your plans and goals? You have the best intentions and feel pumped about taking your business to the next level.
But here they come, one by one, the bumps in the road. Day-to-day situations begin to creep in. A key client leaves, you land a huge job that turns out to be a time-consuming nightmare, a key employee quits or makes unreasonable demands, you are not feeling great physically, and there is no time to work out or eat right. You’re so busy managing what’s in front of you and before you realize it, you don’t even think about implementing your plans. Unless you do something differently, nothing will change.
Manage your everyday demands and not lose sight of the big picture with these take action strategies:
Step 1
Ensure that your goals are clearly defined. Take action by adding the precise details. For example, if you want to move to a larger or smaller space, identify what your must-haves and your negotiables are. Or, if you are looking to hire, begin by defining what this person needs to bring to the table. Take action by making a job description. Write down all the things you want a new employee to do. A hint: they will likely be things you don’t like to do. Your job is to do things you love and are good at. You outsource what you don’t like. For my part, I don’t like doing accounting and bookkeeping, so I outsource this because I would spend hours that I don’t have on getting every detail perfect. Here are tips on what to outsource: http://goo.gl/l2iWQ
Step 2
Break it down into smaller steps. Making a business successful usually depends on more than one big idea and includes a series of steps. Set the goal, identify it, fill in the details, lay it out, verbalize it and calculate backward. What is your ultimate goal? To increase your business by $100,000, you obviously have to generate extra income each month, maybe it’s $1,000 or $2,000, and then you make larger chunks at the end of the year. But ask yourself, is this realistic? How many extra jobs at what rate will you need to generate that extra income? Or, is there a different revenue stream you can build to contribute to your goal?
Step 3
Give up wanting to be perfect. Get it done. Good enough is good enough. That idea has stuck with me throughout my career and I attribute much of my success to my ability to get things done quickly. If you are in creative arts, nobody expects you to be a wizard in administrative tasks. If you work in an office environment, creativity may not be expected from you. If we knew how to do everything, we wouldn’t need to hire people.
Keep your eyes peeled on the bigger goal. Things only change when you actually make changes. You may resist changing because that is human nature. Success comes to those who are prepared and ready and willing to change and adapt.
