CHAMBER NEWS

By Kimberly Kahl, Executive Director, Yuma County Chamber of Commerce

“OOPS. I DID it again.”

How often are these not just Britney Spears song lyrics? You know how it goes. You start the week thinking this is the week I’m going to “fill in the blank here” for your business. Maybe it’s scheduling social media posts. Maybe it’s attending a networking event. Perhaps it’s even doing some employee training or developing a new product. Next thing you know, it’s the end of the week and you were so bogged down with the day-to-day, that you spent the whole week working in your business and not on your business.

Sometimes the same thing happens to me.

Yet, we all know how important it is to work on your business, not just in it, so here are four tips to help you make it a priority.

Tip #1 – Block out a period of time on your calendar to do it. Think of it like any other important appointment. If something threatens to pull you away from it, compare it to other important appointments. Would you cancel a doctor appointment for this issue? Would you cancel a meeting with a client? If your answer is no, then don’t cancel the time to work on your business, either.

Tip #2 – Use technology to make things easier and less time consuming. A perfect use of this is a scheduler for your social media. Spend one hour per week scheduling your social media posts for the rest of the week. Then, set aside a few minutes at set times each day to check on comments using the same platform. There are many applications that will do this for you. Research what technology will help you with your business and think of it as an investment on your business.

Tip #3 – Break what you need to do into smaller steps that can be accomplished in a short amount of time. Make a list of the things you think are critical to your business and write out the components or steps you need to complete them. Then take this list and assign each item an amount of time you think it would take to either complete the task or learn what you need to know about it. Keep this list next to where you work. That way when you have downtime in your business you can immediately start on the smaller tasks on your list. You will have interruptions so keep a notebook nearby (or do it electronically). In it, detail what you’ve done so you can easily go back to it.

Tip #4 – Find an accountability partner. This can be your spouse or a friend, but preferably, it would be another business owner. The point is this person will check in with you at least weekly to be sure you are doing what you set out to do. It’s kind of like having a friend go with you to the gym. Even when you don’t want to go, you will do so because you know they are counting on you. The same principle applies with a business accountability partner.

The point is, we all get busy, and it seems like as time goes on, we simply get busier and busier. I hope, however, these tips will serve as a reminder on the importance of working on your business and provide ways to make it simpler.