Leading a business requires sacrifice. As an entrepreneur, you know that.
It’s hard not to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of pressure on your shoulders to perform. To manage everything on the backend, from administrative work to client delivery, can often take enough hours to fill a workweek.
Entrepreneurs get pulled into a dangerous cycle — putting in hours of effort and wearing themselves down just to end up feeling like they are running in place.
A higher level of success brings more choices, demands, and pressure to perform, both for the business itself and the person running it.
It doesn’t have to feel so overwhelming. Remember, YOU are the one in control, and you get to decide what you turn your attention to.
To pull from the book Essentialism by Greg Mckeown, “Once we discern what is absolutely essential, we are free to pursue what really matters.”
Your business will flourish once you cut down your ever-growing list of demands, decide what tasks are absolutely essential and learn how to allocate your time to reflect your business goals.
What Are You REALLY Spending Your Time On?
If you track everything you did for a week, down to the minute, what would your time-pie look like? Are you happy with the results?
Beyond business, how does your pie reflect what truly matters to you? How much time are you allocating for your family, friends or things that make you genuinely happy?
If you think you need to re-evaluate your day-to-day, you aren’t alone. Too many small business owners get swept up in the overwhelming idea that absolutely everything is essential.
Believing that every task on your list is of equal importance is a sure way to bury your business. There just simply isn’t enough time in the day to do it all, no matter how efficient you are.
This fact is meant to bring you some freedom.
To get your time-pie on track, ask yourself these questions:
- What EXACTLY do I want my business to look like in a year?
- What are the KEY things I need to do to get there?
For example, if your goal is to increase your cash flow by bringing in more clients, your key focus should be to spend most of your time attracting and nurturing prospects.
You’ll always have administrative tasks on the side. However, if you view each project with the frame of, “How does this help me increase my cash flow and bring in new clients?” you will see how easily some things become non-essential. It’ll become easier to delegate, push to another day or turn away altogether.
No matter what your overarching business goals are, a successful business is always prioritizing income-producing activities. If your growth feels stagnant, if you feel like you are underproducing and overworked, your necessary step for growth is to audit your time.
If It Isn’t an Absolute Yes, It’s a Definite No.
The disciplined pursuit of less is all about the ability to say no. Anything that doesn’t align with your ultimate goal should be a no.
Avoiding difficult conversations and permitting scope creep, no. Wearing all of the hats inside of your business instead of investing in support, no. Focusing all your time on marketing because you’re not confident selling, no. Saying no will give you the ability to focus your energy and efforts on what really matters.
Setting boundaries and executing on your word will allow you to gain a sense of control, even when things get overwhelming.
Saying no will save you time in your professional and personal life and enable you to feel some sense of balance again finally.
Again, we can’t do it all. You won’t find success running in circles, trying to do all of the things.
Focus on the disciplined pursuit of less.
What it is absolutely essential for each and every business?
Cash. Clients. Revenue.
Prioritize the efforts and activities that are going to keep your business in existence.
(Ahem.) Sales.
Your Timesaving Toolkit
What we focus on most is what shows up for us in business.
Now, how do you stay focused on what really matters?
After you figure out where you need to be spending your time, implement a routine by chunking your calendar.
Each day should have an assigned theme of priorities.
For example, maybe you always spend Monday on any necessary administrative projects, then you focus all your energy on Tuesday and Wednesday on income-producing activities.
This schedule can be adapted as you discover what works best for you to see the best results.
Consider which days are you usually the most productive? Are you a morning person or a night person?
Figure out when and where you get your best work done and build a routine around your most important tasks.
Need more tips? Looking for more proven strategies to grow your business with corporate clients?
Apply for my complimentary masterclass training here, and learn alongside a community of women entrepreneurs committed to never feeling overworked and underpaid again.
About The Author: Liz J. Simpson
Liz J. Simpson has been recognized by LinkedIn as a Top 15 Sales Influencer. She is a speaker, sales strategist and trainer.
She has been featured in NBC, CBS, SXSW, 40 under 40 and as a Hubspot INBOUND Fellow. She’s been recognized as a Demand Gen Thought Leader award winner as well as a SalesHacker Top Sales Leader and Female Speaker.
As founder of the sales consultancy, Stimulyst, her team specializes in empowering organizations to accelerate growth through personal branding, strategic relationship-building, and consultative new business development.
Liz is also the founder of The #BigMoney Movement, a global movement empowering thousands of women entrepreneurs across the globe to take up space, shatter gender disparities and close 6-figure corporate deals.
When she’s not out training professionals to become “fluent in #bigmoney talk”, you’ll find her at home with her husband and three children, aged 5, 16 and 17.
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