With Thanksgiving behind us, there’s just one long sprint to the end of the year. We’ve got 4 weeks left to accomplish our annual goals, while we do all the holiday shopping, gift-giving, party-going, and family event preparation. It’s the “happiest time of the year,” right? It’s these kind of crunch times when I find…
On Tuesday we talked about the process of picking out what’s most important for you to accomplish in a day, or a week, and blocking time on your calendar to do it. Did you know you can use a similar process to keep your whole business focused on the most critical challenges you face? When…
On Saturday, I wrote about my client who filled his calendar all day, every day with meetings. Not meetings in which he got to do the thing he loves — meetings to cover administriva, operations meetings, places where he had to make decisions about things that he wasn’t an expert in. He had resolved many…
His business had grown — it was bigger now than he ever thought it would get to be. He’s making good money, driving a nice car, has a big office, a place out by the lake…things are good. Except, he’s tired, exhausted really. He’s tried changing up his workout; he tried taking a big long…
When your business first starts to grow, hiring is a necessity. There’s work that needs to get done and you need people to do it. You want folks who will be a good fit, sure, but mostly you need work done. Once you get to 10 – 15 people you need more than help to…
I’m in the midst of building a brand new arm to my business: mastermind groups for business owners. I’m in the middle of a beta test for these groups and have spoken to colleagues, past clients, prospects, and anyone who might have an interest in hearing about it. (One of my core business growth tenets…
I clearly remember the moment I decided to hire a virtual assistant (VA). As my business started growing, I realized that more clients meant more work to get done! Pretty soon, I was so busy that I was missing emails and failing to get back to people because I just never had the time. I…
What are you dreading about your day or week in the office? These things are like little rocks in your shoe. They aren’t crises, just annoyances, right? You tolerate them for a while — some you become callused to and stop noticing them — others build up until you can’t stand it anymore. But if…
We were just talking about the only way to have clear priorities, to know how best to use your time is to commit yourself to fewer things and learn to say NO more. That makes sense, but what do I say no to? You are a talented person; you are good at a lot of…
There’s one data point from my recent survey of business owners that’s still haunting me. When asked, “What would you consider your biggest personal challenge?” Almost half of all respondents said, “Setting my own priorities.” This was the top response for owners of all sizes of businesses, for new business owners, and people who had…