So you've got your business organized! You have methods for tracking your leads, client and projects in place. You have your calendar all mapped out and your desk and environment are neat and organized, yet you still find that your "to do" list is not getting done.
When others walk into your business. it looks like you have it "all together" but you know the truth is different. What's up with that? What's the cause of this disconnect?
A lot of the time when talking to my business entrepreneur clients, they complain about having the time to manage the "paper work"/record keeping side of their business. First of all, I find this very disturbing - HOW CAN YOU POSSIBLY KNOW HOW YOU ARE DOING IN BUSINESS IF YOU DON'T KNOW YOUR NUMBERS? But I digress.
As I've talked about before in my blog, I REALLY feel strongly about calendaring time on your calendar to work on your office systems and keep them up to date. So what do you do if you've scheduled the time, but you are STILL not getting it all done?
Try getting ACCOUNTABLE! Having an accountability partner works well for so many other areas of our lives (weight loss, quitting smoking, exercise support) that it just makes sense that would work in business too. As small business owners, we need to remember that "we are not an island." Yes, the backbone of the business belongs to us; our business is based on our ideas, our creativity, our persverance, our character etc...BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN WE CAN'T ASK FOR SUPPORT.
When you are an entrepreneur, things can get a little lonely as well, so why not "buddy up" with another friend in small business and lend support to each other? It just makes sense. Another small business owner will understand what you face because they face very similar situations as you. Having someone to connect with that understands your trials and tribulations as well as your celebrations is a very empowering process.
There are a few things to remember when working with an accountability partner. First of all, I really don't think it works well to have a spouse or other family member as a business accountability parter. Usually these loved ones are just too nice and will give you too many "breaks." This leads to my next point, when you decide to work with someone and that you are both going to hold each other accountable make an agreement to be tough. Set the stage and talk about not taking things personally. After all if you can't be honest having an accountability partner won't work.
Together you should set up ways to connect, by emails, appointments, texts, phone calls etc. Have a plan in place for accountability that you both understand and follow. Discuss the area(s) you are having difficulty with and set up a system of reward. Once tasks that you were both focusing on for accountability have been met, make new goals and center(s) of focus to keep moving both of you forward towards SUCCESS!
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