Part of the job of running your own business is figuring out how you can get ahead of the game. You need to have processes or systems that can focus on you finding cuter/smarter/cleverer ways of doing things. You must find ways that are cuter/smarter/cleverer than the way your competitors do things.
I will suggest two options:
1) The ‘Think On’ Hour
Most business owners arrive at work before the rest of the team. The place is quiet and there are far fewer interruptions. I know of some business people who take this time every day and spend up to one hour simply sitting and thinking about how to improve things. After all, if we agree that we need to spend more time working on the business and less time working in the business, this is a blindingly obvious thing to do – even if you only do it once a week!
2) The ‘KPI Focus’ Hour
A more focused and less free-form approach may produce even better dividends. We all have basic key metrics we use to measure and evaluate business performance – Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). If you don’t know what I am talking about you can stop reading now and just go for the ‘Think On’ Hour option.
Use your KPIs (or metrics or whatever you wish to call them) to evaluate performance. Once a week spend an hour (alone or with the team, whatever works best for your business) and focus on the one key issue you need to improve in your business. This can be called your single, most-important, over-arching goal for the coming month.
Decide what the over-arching goal is going to be then brainstorm, Google, talk and debate about how you are going to improve your performance. Decide what you are going to do. Make it a high priority. Commit to it. Communicate it. And do it!
About the Author:
Robert Craven (@robert_craven) is an international Keynote business speaker, author, consultant and owner of The Directors’ Centre, a consulting and training company which helps owner-directors run the business they want to run.
His latest book Grow Your Digital Agency, which provides the business fundamentals that every growing agency needs to address, is now available.