Do you focus entirely on just one thing in your business or do you have a number of strings to your bow?
For the past year I have been trying out all sorts of different activities in my business. I wanted to find out what worked for me and more importantly what works for my clients. I have experimented with one to one coaching and one to many coaching. I have written several books on business to support my target audience and I have diversified into providing business support for an international coaching platform. Plus a few other things!
I do all these things well, I enjoy them and I have learned to plan my business activity to accommodate all of them by working 8 to 10 hours a day and some weekends, and from time to time I get a bit tired and overwhelmed with everything I have to do.
Do you feel that way in your business? You know, the days you wake up with so much to do that you get so overwhelmed with it all that you; take the dog for a walk, go to the gym, watch TV, have a nap and anything else you can think of to put off having to face any of it.
So, should I do less? I wouldn’t know what to give up because I love it all. Should I focus on just one or two areas and do the others less? But which ones? This is where I was a couple of weeks ago and it was then that I had a ‘eureka’ moment that I would like to share with you.
I realised that I am not superwoman (yes, although this may shock some of you, sadly it is true). I realised that I don’t have to be superwoman, I don’t have to please everybody all of the time and I realised that working out what to focus on was easy, I just needed to figure out what I wanted to achieve in my business.
Actually, figuring out what I wanted was not so easy because wanting everything (my initial thought) is not possible. Here is the list I came up with:
- I want to work max 7 hours a day 5 days a week
- I want to earn enough to pay my bills and be able to make choices in my free time
- I want to end each day knowing that I have made a positive difference in at least one persons life
- I want to spend most of my time delivering my writing and business courses because that makes points 1 to 3 achievable
- I want to spend half of my time on EMME (the International Coaching Platform I work on) as I am truly in love with it’s philosophy, methodology and purpose in personal growth and professional development.
Once I knew what I wanted it was then easy to work backwards to understand what I needed to do, when and how, to achieve those goals.
Step one was to create a plan. I already had a business plan however that had just become a list of stuff to do that I was constantly extending deadlines on.
This new plan was different. It began with a mindmap, (I love maps). I thought about my core mission – helping people to write – and it grew from there. I realised that all of the things I had been doing; social media content, my books, the courses I was developing and delivering, my work with EMME, all of it was related and necessary. I just had to chunk down each day into tasks, with time limits, to make sure that I wasn’t wasting time on procrastination and to provide a structure for my work that enabled me to meet my deadlines and focus on what was important.
I drew up my plan, using my outlook calendar, giving tasks the time I felt they needed, planning in breaks and me time, ensuring that if I had evening events and meetings I started later or took time out in the day to recharge.
I teach business planning in my business course, I have always had a plan, but now I had a working plan, a structure and real focus. I have of course updated my business course with this new methodology.
So, do you focus on just one thing or do you have a number of strings to your bow? Both are fine, there’s no right or wrong here as long as what you are doing works for you. However, if it’s many strings, avoid getting them tangled by creating a structured plan for your business.
Right now the course is half price with coupon code GEO50. There are also payment options or you can simply order the pre-recorded modules you are interested in.
If you are interested in joining my next live, interactive business course it begins on Wednesday 28th April 2021 at 7pm and runs at the same day/time for 4 weeks in total. For full details about the course and to book go to: https://alibagleycoach.samcart.com/products/how-to-build-a-practical-and-resilient-business-foundation-.
See you there, make sure you put it in your plan!