Leaders have to be accountable to themselves and to their staff and vendors. Are you a responsible leader? By that I mean, do you take responsibility for your actions or even the actions of your staff? If a staff member makes a mistake your option is to let the customer know, “my employee really messed up” or you can say, “I’m really sorry about that, let me see what I can do to make it right.”
This isn’t to say you don’t have a conversation with the employee in question, but you do want to be the one to shoulder responsibility — after all, at the end of the day, it IS your business. Everything that happens in it, is your responsibility — good, bad or indifferent.
Are You A Responsible Leader?
An entrepreneur can’t work with a “do as I say, not as I do” attitude. An entrepreneur needs to be accountable to clients, staff and at the end of the day him- or herself.
How can you take steps to be responsible?
Are you clear in your own actions
Do your deeds speak to the company’s mission and vision
When you have, or your employees have, promised a deliverable, is the deadline met?
What is your process for follow up and follow through? Does the staff know what your process is?
If you’ve made a mistake do you own up to it? If an employee calls you on a mistake, can you admit to your error and thank him or her for bringing it up to you?
Today’s consumers and even today’s employees have so many options — from whom to buy and with whom to work. You need to make certain you are above board, easy to work with and willing to take responsibility for your actions.
If you’re a new business owner, even if you’re a solopreneur, do you struggle with leading with integrity and with a mission and vision of which you’re proud. If you’re new to business ownership and want to work with a business coach or find an accountability group with whom to interact, reach out to us.
Do you ever get done running your business at the end of the day and ask yourself, “what did I accomplish? We have all been there and sometimes you can take on a few small changes to effect major results. We have ten ways to be more productive that just might work for you. Try on one, or all, to see how much more productive you can be.
Before you can be more productive you need to know what is making you unproductive. Take a few moments and think about, and write down, your time wasters. Is it social media, texting, internet surfing, playing games on the phone or simply not knowing where to begin or what to do? Write down all of your reasons and see how some of these tips might help you combat them.
Ten Ways To Be More Productive
Pay attention to what you really need to and want to get done. Write down what needs to be done. It’s been said that what you pay attention to is what gets done.
Focus. If you’re multitasking you’re not focusing fully on any one project or task and they will both suffer. Set aside a specific amount of time to work on a particular project. When that time is up, move onto the next one.
Be clear on what you need to get done and why. If you’re doing a task that doesn’t have any real “reward” why are you doing it? Is it moving your business or life forward? If not, stop wasting your time.
Be disciplined on your work day. Set office hours, even if you work from home, and be diligent about sticking to them. It’s easy to get sidetracked with yardwork or housework or running errands and there goes your day.
When are you most energetic? Know yourself and then do your most difficult or energy consuming when you’re at your best.
Move on from yesterday. If your to-dos are still to-be-dones don’t beat yourself up about it. Look at each day as a new, fresh start.
Take a break. This may sound counterintuitive, but you need to give your physical and mental self a break during the day. Step away from the computer and eat your lunch. Walk the dog. Do jumping jacks. Meditate. You will come back refreshed.
Just say no. You don’t have to say yes to every opportunity that comes your way. Learn to say no if the opportunity doesn’t fit your business plan or your goals.
Prioritize your day. Before you leave the office at the end of the day, write down the items you want to complete the next day and prioritize them.
Make new habits. If you have been a time waster or a procrastinator, give yourself time to embrace new habits and new ways of working. It might not happen overnight, but if you’re diligent, it will happen!
What are your challenges with being productive? Do you need accountability? Motivation? We can help. Drop us a comment below.
As the holidays come barreling toward us, it’s easy to lose focus and just slide. You may close the office early, take days off, not prospect for new clients, not keep up with daily business-building tasks. That will not bode well for starting 2020 off strong. We have tips for how to finish 2019 strong — believe me when I say, your competitors will be working hard to finish strong. Shouldn’t you?
We understand, between shopping for gifts, getting caught up in holiday parties and the lack of most formal meetings during the month of December, it’s easy to think “everyone is taking time off.” Don’t fall into that mindset. It doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the holiday season, but it does mean you don’t want to stop making forward progress.
How To Finish 2019 Strong
Here are ways to finish the year strong. Don’t kick off the new year at a deficit.
Stay focused on your long term goals. Spend a few minutes at the end of each day going over what you’ve completed. Also, plan the next day so you jump in strong rather than floundering around wondering what you will complete that day.
Take breaks. Just because you’re working doesn’t mean you need to work nonstop. Build in breaks for lunches with friends, to go shopping, to come in late or leave early. Just don’t give up and take every day off between now and the first of the year.
Spend time in your planning for the new year. What do you want to accomplish? What new products or services do you want to launch? What do you want to stop providing or selling? How can you make forward progress? Now gauge your 2019 success. What went well? What do you want to do more of? What did you try that didn’t work? Is it worth reexamining the experiments that didn’t quite pan out?
The week between Christmas and New Years’ is generally a time when entrepreneurs slow down and spend that time in reflection and future planning. What will you do to end the year strong and jump into 2020 with a fire in your belly? Let us know!
Mindset matters for entrepreneurs and it can literally lead to your success or your failure. If you think you can, you probably will. If you think you can’t, chances are you won’t. Being a success in business does require more than a positive mindset, but a good attitude can get you over hurdles that might drag others down and keep them from succeeding or from achieving the heights of their potential.
Mindset Matters For Entrepreneurs
When I work with entrepreneurs, whether start-ups or long-time entrepreneurs, we discuss their mindset. We talk about that and these other items:
Self assess. To have a successful mindset you need to be aware of whether you have a good one or a bad one. You may not even be aware of the air of negativity or defeatism you’re carrying with you. Stop and do a self-assessment. Are you unwittingly preparing for failure? Always having a back-up plan or not quitting your full-time job until you’ve “arrived” and you don’t even know what that “arrival” looks like. It never hurts to have a safety net, but at some point, you need to pull the trigger and just jump.
Where is your focus? Are you focused? A successful mindset is one that focuses you on a goal and keeps you on the path ahead. You need to be invested in the goals you’ve set and be taking steps to achieve them.
You need to think like an entrepreneur, not an employee. You are your own boss and you have both immense responsibility AND immense freedom.
Believe in what you do or sell. If you’re not confident in what you’re doing or selling, your lack of belief will show through and your clients will question their desire to work with you.
If you have long dreamed of running your own business, why not start now? What is holding you back? Lack of belief in the product or service? Fear? Let us know. We can help.
What has your blog done for you lately? It’s not enough to have a blog, you need to have a blog that converts and draws in readers. We have 5 ways to make your blog work for you that you may want to try. Try them all, try one or two. Strategically work them into your marketing plan.
Bottom line, make your blog do the job it was built to do!
5 Ways To Make Your Blog Work For You
Your blog should be building your brand voice. Your blog is the home base for who you are, what you do, your brand colors, who you work with, who you won’t work with… everything stems from your blog.
Showcase your expertise and your products and services by sharing news your readers can use. Don’t use your blog to shout, “look how great we are!” instead use your blog to shout, “look how we can help you with your pain points.”
Your blog will keep Google in love with your website! New and ongoing content helps your site rank in the searches. Write regularly and use keywords and key phrases that highlight what you do and how you want to be found in a search.
Use your blog content to feed your social media pages. When you blog, you have new and ongoing content to share on your social media pages. Make your blogs work for you and work more than once for you.
Don’t ever end a blog post without a call to action (CTA). You can use a different CTA each time you blog. Your CTA can tie in with the content you’ve just written. Just have a CTA! Don’t let a reader get to the end of your content and say, “well, that was nice.” You want them to get to the end of your content and say, “wow, I need to do… whatever the CTA is!”
When you blog you are subtly building your credibility and your expertise in the eyes of your current and potential clients.
When is the last time you’ve blogged? What are your calls to action? Is your blog working for you?
