My three core takeaways would be:
- Play to your strengths.
- Become the “leader” of your business, no matter how early you are
- It takes mindset work too.
1. Play to your strengths
You have so much talent and potential, but right now you’re bogged down by a lot of tasks that eat up your time, don’t light you up, and aren’t where the money is. Spending time in your Talent Zone will allow you to grow your business with more ease.
Work out your Talent Zone with the below formula:
Your Talent Zone = Your skills + Your Passion + Your Experience
Become aware of where you are spending your time each day, and how much of your to-do list fits within your Talent Zone. Where are you spending time on activities that are outside of this list?
The motto I role model is, do what you do best, and get help with the rest. By recognising your strengths, and the complimentary skills of others, you can make sure the right tasks are being done by the right person, in the right way. Whilst an initial outsourcing or hiring cost, you can have a positive return on investment, by removing the lower value jobs from your list and doing the tasks that are profit generating.
Not sure where to start?
- Write down the things that make you think ‘urgh, I know I need to do it but I am going to put it off, because they aren’t really isn’t fun’
- These also may be the things we get done, but know we have done a half hearted job, because the tasks totally suck your energy and joy.
Top tasks to remove from your to-do list:
- Book-keeping: Make sure you know your numbers, and don’t hide from the facts.
- Cleaning at home / childcare: Procrastination is real, especially with virtual working.
- Inbox and admin: You don’t need to reply to everyone, but creating FAQ templates, and drafting replies can help you admin answer, in your style.
Bonus tip: Think of your business tasks as a recipe. Ensure you write down (or video Loom) your process, so that someone in your team can follow your way step by step.
2. Become The Leader
The difference between where you are now, and a long-term sustainable business (where you don’t have to do it all) is leadership. As the owner, you are going to need to embrace the 4 attributes of all great leaders:
- Vision: Do you know where you’re heading? Be the captain of your ship and know the destination. Inspire others with this vision, so they come onboard too both as customers and team.
- Drive Profit: Know your numbers, have a weekly meeting with yourself to check where you are against your own targets. What needs to stop / start / continue to reach your goals?
- Courageous with Change: This means making fast decisions, accepting failure is learning, and seeing the solution in all that you do.
- Leave A Legacy: Think long term, this is about the impact you want to have, and how it will affect those close to you. Build a business, not a job.
Where can you step up to lead your business going forward?
3. It takes mindset work too. (Your Inner voice is wrong, you can do this)
Becoming a leader and putting in place the practical foundations, has its internal mindset challenges for all. Our need to play it safe often takes charge, which can fill our mind with self doubt and keep us stuck, playing small in business. I call these the Freedom Blocks. These blocks create unconscious behaviour that stops us having the time and money to choose our life path.
You need to recognize and overcome these Freedom Blocks, in order to grow your business on your terms.
- Caring block – Being overly caring to people other than yourself. If this block shows up, you will be spending your time saying ‘yes’ to other people’s wishes, and putting your needs at the bottom of the pile. You want to please people, and have everyone like you. You may extend your payment options, offer discounts, constantly go above and beyond, to make people around you happy. Overcome this Block by defining and owning your true purpose, putting boundaries and structure in your life.
- Perfectionist Block – If it’s not 100% you are not moving forward. Decisions become hard to make, you hold on to everything and no one can do a job as well as you can. This perfectionist behaviour is stealing your dreams, it’s stopping you from taking the action you need to. Overcome this block by seeing the solutions of what can be done, getting people in to help, will allow you to move forward.
- Resilience Block – Makes you believe you can do anything and not break, like your Superwoman/ Superman. You take on everyone else’s challenges, as you relied upon to get things done. You are the one people come to. To overcome this block, you need to step into your power as a leader and ensure you see the strengths in others, rather than holding all the power yourself.
- Fast Block – You stay busy, because it stops you facing what you really need to do. It doesn’t matter what is on the list, you aren’t stopping until it’s done. You’re like a whirlwind, you walk, talk and type fast – your mind goes at 100mph. The challenge is, no one can keep up! By giving yourself permission to slow down, and create systems in your business, you can overcome this block, and build a business you desire.
Lastly, I want to say congratulations. You are some of the few who have decided to go it alone in the world of entrepreneurship. It’s not a smooth road, but it is an exciting adventure. You too can create this freedom in your life.