Turn Your Business on its Head and Shake Things Up a Bit

When life gets in the way of your business and you find yourself overwhelmed with everything you need to do, it’s time to turn your business upside down and shake it up a bit. It’s time to see what tasks, processes, etc. you can let go of, before things begin falling apart. Giving your business a thorough once-over helps you determine what parts are growing and deserve your focus and what elements you really need to let go of because they just aren’t working for you.

Recently, my daughter, Tori, has been in the hospital frequently as she bravely battles a cancer relapse thankfully she’s in recovery and doing well. In fact, since taking over SBB, I have been back and forth to the hospital this entire time. And even as I type this, I sit in a hospital room by her side.

While Tori is obviously my number one priority, I’ve needed to find ways to maximize the time and energy I spend on my business. I have to make sure I can be with her when she needs me while still keeping my business thriving. I simply have not had the time to devote to all the different projects and programs I used to spend hours on each week in order to keep taking my business to the next level.

Of course, I want to continue moving onward and upward, but many of the tasks I was spending my time on just weren’t producing the profit I wanted or needed. These things had potential, don’t get me wrong, but they weren’t giving me the results or return on my investment required through this tough time. I had to figure out how to keep things growing without spending every waking minute at my laptop. My little girl needs me.

I’m happy to report I have made many changes, that until I was forced to, didn’t allow me to see the bigger picture or make me focus my efforts the way I should have a long time ago.

There are certain things a business needs in order to grow and prosper. By focusing on the strongest money-making activities, I’ve been able to leverage the time and effort I spend into the specific actions necessary to double my business without doubling my time. I needed to determine which activities were (and are – I’m still a work in progress) not making money and flat out eliminate them. As much as I wanted to fight it, I also had to drop some of those ideas that did produce income, but were not earning as much as the others.

One of the things I had to quit doing was to stop buying products that I thought I needed or would need in the future to grow my business. It was time to stop buying and start utilizing the ones I already had. During our hospital stay, the only business resource I brought with me was Jimmy D. Brown’s “Six Figure Formula” program. I have owned this program for over a year and I am working (and reworking) my way through it in order to streamline my business. It’s a great way to plan the activities I will be implementing with the aim of doubling my business income this year.

The program focuses on ways to build a subscriber base to increase your market, techniques to build your traffic and strategies to increase your sales. These three keys are instrumental in growing a business. By focusing on these and only these elements right now along with eliminating the time I spend on things like buying new websites, I am making use of the oft-mentioned Pareto Principle. The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, states that 20% of what you spend your time on creates 80% of your income. I can say that I’ve honestly found this to be the absolute truth.

Let me just say right now, it is not always easy to determine which parts of your business to eliminate. You need to begin with a strict record of the time you spend on each activity and compare it to how much cash it results in. Some projects are making money, but when you take stock of the time you spend developing them, you may just realize it’s time to put them on the back burner for a while or drop them completely.

One of things I have taken off my plate is all customer service communications with my clients, I have dedicated support staff that are there for my clients when I cannot be, and the one thing cool that I’ve noticed is that in no way has it changed my relationship with my clients. Actually if anything it’s enhanced my relationship with them because I often will pop on by to their project management just to say “hello, how are things going?”

While I dearly love working with my clients on a daily basis, I can say that I’ve found a really great way to still be a part of the process but just enhancing things as we go along.

As small business owners, and often solo-preneurs, we all have a tendency to try to do all things at all times for all people. If you take nothing else from what I’ve talked about away with you today, remember this:

You CANNOT be everything to everyone in business. It will not work!

Instead, make the absolute most of the time, energy and money you invest in your business. If that means turning things upside down or inside out and shaking it up all the way around – don’t be afraid to do so. Focus on the things earning you the most money for the time you put into them. Get rid of all the tasks dragging you down and wearing you out. When you do this and truly focus on those things, your business will explode with growth – all while you’re living your life the way you want or need to.