Make 2018 the year you get your business under control!
The word ‘control’ often conjures up negative feelings.
We often hear, ‘S/he is a control freak’, or, ‘S/he is out of control’. However, being in ‘control’ of your business is absolutely necessary.
Reading my thesaurus this evening, I noted two ‘positive’ synonyms for ‘control’. They are ‘discipline’ and ‘manage’ – both are key skills for business owners.
Discipline:
As a business owner you need to discipline yourself – after all you are the boss, and you need to be your own ‘Best Boss’. Some self-employed people are their own worst boss – they ‘let themselves off’ too easily. An example of this is when the proprietor of a small business is having a tough day. Instead of battling on through the day they finish early…then in the evening they regret the time they wasted. Disciplined people keep going even when doing tasks they like the least (like admin for me!). Disciplined people work smart as opposed to working hard (there is a big difference). Disciplined people plan when to work, who to work with and where to find business. Do you?
Manage:
Do you manage your time or does time manage you? Are you always running late? Do you have way too many to-do tasks? Managing means planning ahead; planning activities you need to employ, to attain the results you want to achieve. Managing means looking back at results from 2017, then doing a SWOT* analysis of your business. You can then clearly see WHAT you need to do, and work out HOW you are going to do it, to enable you to forecast sales/earnings/business growth for 2018.
If you want help with forecasting/managing/analysing your business, call/email/text/PM me!
Best wishes
Leigh
* Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats
I totally agree Pat. Wise words. Discipline is key, especially if, like me, you work from home.
sorry Leigh, I am writing in half-light, and just saw that I had written you as Pat, for goodness sake! I am sorry.
Great post.