Entrepreneurs face the daily challenge of having a million factors competing for their attention, from nailing the latest ad creative to where the next round of funding is coming from. It’s a fast-paced and relentless existence that can leave little room for self-reflection. Losing sight of the core mission can be a real challenge for any fledgling business. Getting distracted by new functionalities is almost inevitable in a marketplace of rapid innovation, but if you don’t pay attention to your objectives and start chasing after every shiny new development you are putting your business at serious risk of simply losing its way.
Show Me The Money
You are in business to drive revenue, and as fascinating as some diversions can be, if they aren’t about adding to the bottom line, they’re usually not worthwhile. Before you start off on a tangent investigating some possible new service, then ask yourself one simple question: where is the revenue? Every decision you make should revolve around this key question to make sure that you stay focused.
For The Love of Loyalty
Turning customers into advocates is where your opportunity for repeat sales and brand building lies, so keep the idea of enhancing the customer experience front and centre on a daily basis. Winning the support of a loyal customer base is critical to your continued success in business. When choosing whether to invest in a service, the key consideration should be how it impacts the customer experience. Prioritise factors such as less website downtime with a reliable provider like Certa Hosting over pursuing innovations which may not enhance your customer journey. Use social listening, surveys and focus groups to find out what really matters to your customers at the moment and what problem you can help to solve.
Stop The Clock
Ever feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day? A key component of staying focused is being vigilant for time wasters, filler and distractions, and being relentless about cutting them out of your life. Implement techniques such as batch processing your emails rather than getting distracted by every notification that pops up and definitely say no to mindless scrolling – get an app that temporarily blocks access to social media if you have to.
End each day by creating a list of five critical things that need your attention, and the following morning, pick the least appealing and tackle it first. This starts your day off on a high point and creates a positive momentum that you can capitalize on for the rest of the day. Use project management software like Trello or Slack to streamline processes and group similar tasks together to improve the flow of your days. Also, learn the art of delegation.
You need to focus your mental resources in the areas where only you can make a decision- leave tasks like chasing up invoices, however critical, to someone else or automate them using cloud based accounting software so they can tick over while you drive the business forward.
- This post has been written for Morning Business Chat by an outside source.
