I woke up this morning debating with myself whether or not to write this short article. When coaching my private clients I generally manage to avoid sounding like someone’s boss, or worse – their mother. But it might be useful for you to read so here goes…
If you are a small business owner one of the reasons you started your own business, and one of its greatest joys, may be that you get to choose what you work on and when. You also get to choose how long your lunch break is, whether you go shopping in the middle of the day, if you will stop to do a few errands on your way home from a meeting, or tune into Judge Judy for a little mid-day mental break.
Many of my clients come to me unhappy with their business results and often explain they are having difficulty staying focused. If I ask them to recap how they spend the previous week some of them are surprised at how little time they actually spend attending to their business.
Lack of focus and productivity has many causes but one common one is too much independence and flexibility –the very things that we love about being in business for ourselves. While most of my clients relish their flexibility and use it wisely, others simply become spoiled by it.
As boss-less entrepreneurs, left on their own to decide how to spend their time, many small business owners become quite irresponsible with their “work” time and rob their own businesses of much needed productivity to do the things their friends with “real” jobs and “real” bosses have to either leave to the weekend or forgo altogether.
Look back at yesterday, last week, and last month. If you had a boss what would he, or she, say about your productivity? About the amount of time you spent in and on the business? About your attention to making the business financially successful? The choices you made?
I’ve asked these questions of some of my clients who seemed to be behaving as if they could go on forever with a full-time business, that was generating poor financial results, giving it only their part-time attention. Usually they replied “If I had a boss he’d say ‘YOU’RE FIRED!’”
While your boss might tolerate the odd bit of personal time for urgent matters, your boss knows that long personal calls during office hours, constant late starts and frequent missed time from work to attend to personal matters, robs the company of precious resources needed for the success of the business.
Flexibility is a wonderful benefit of being in business for ourselves and it can be hard to say “no” to ourselves when a tempting opportunity to ditch work comes up, and even harder to say “no” to friends and family who know darn well we set our own schedules. Ask yourself “What would my boss say?”
As a small business owner you have great flexibility, a true blessing when you can re-arrange your schedule or when life throws you a curve ball, but are you behaving like you can never fired? As a small business owner your “boss” is your balance sheet…and if you don’t take care of business and make your boss (your bottom line) happy before you know it you may find yourself looking for a “real” job, which will come with a “real” boss.
I’d love your comments!
I firmly believe we should create a to do list the night before for the following day. Write three or five things you need to accomplish for your business the next day. You make the commitment with a disciplined mindset – not to do anything else relating to your business until these tasks are completed.Your mindset is the key.
Well put. I think it could also apply though to a work place with a boss if the environment is quite casual, or where someone is generally out in the field anyway. Consequently, I suppose the plus side is that such “real job” scenarios could help with developing effective self management for later self employment.
Definitely a problem that I struggle with – though rarely for my comforts, but home or family & friend issues. And it was very nicely presented. When I was a solo in business b4 becoming ofc mgr for husband, I was very disciplined – almost too much so. Now, there are so many different things that come to me / at me / etc. that I find it so much harder. Wish I could be a fly on the wall for a good manager or boss of lots of people!
Christine…yes, do find ways to enjoy all that delicious flexibility. Simple things like taking a hot bath in the middle of the day can feel like a celebration of entrepreneurship!
Thanks for your comments, Pamela. Having a schedule for important tasks really helps – especially if they require you to be pro-active rather than re-active. Funny how for many of us the pro-active work, like marketing, can get left to the end of the day, or the week, or the month. Cathy
Yes, just what I needed to read. I’m just starting out in a home based small business and I am concerned about how disciplined I’m going to be so I’ll keep you email and read it regularly. So thankyou, perfect timing.
Love it!! You are as Pamela put it “Spot On”
Great Article,
Great reminder, Cathy! I need that “to do” list in front of me everyday to stay focused on making my business successful. I love to sit down and lay out my projects and deadlines for several weeks at a time. It’s like doing grocery shopping for a month! Then it’s easier for me to get to work on those days when there’s not as much motivation or structure as I might like. At least I can keep on checking off the action steps for that day and know that I’m making a contribution to my overall progress.
Hi there,
Terrific article. I must say I probably go too much in the other direction.. Sometimes, I become too structured and disciplined and do not make time to go for those teas w pal because I can or take an hour out and actually go somewhere for lunch instead of eating at home while organizing dinner, etc…This is something I’m trying to consciously work on…to take/make more time to enjoy the flexibility… Thanks for the reminder.
It needed to be said, and could not be more true.
You are spot on with this one Cathy. I see this often in my marketing clients. They simply do not take marketing seriously enough to put it in the schedule as an appointment.
While it is great to have flexibility as a soloprenuer, it does not mean you can get away without having a schedule of some sort. If it is important, schedule it.