The stress of juggling the day-to-day management of your business is always at the forefront of your mind. Managing your team, your cashflow and generating leads to become more profitable can be all consuming of your time. There are many ways to be on-top of the day to day needs to reduce your stress and to make more time for yourself, your team and your customers.
One of my greatest learnings as a coach and a business leader is that there’s many uncontrollable factors contributing to success, or conversely, to creating stress and disruption. Ultimately, what makes a person truly successful is their ability to be abreast of the things they can control, making the unforeseen less disruptive to their business and less impactful to their stress levels, their team and their everyday lives.
I could list in great detail the do’s and don’ts of owning a business but if I were to narrow it down, there’s two key things I believe all successful business people know and do well: They work to a plan and they have a positive mindset.
Work to a Plan
Planning is key to maintaining smooth and relatively consistent operations. It’s a perfect time now to think about planning for next financial year. Create a strategic plan with a budget that forecasts your expenses your profit and revenue targets. Follow this with a sales and marketing plan for how you will achieve the targets you’ve set.
Although it sounds simple, when successful business owners have a plan, they know what to say no to as much as what to say yes to. They have a reason to stick to the plan they’ve created and avoid distraction so the things that don’t provide long term value for their business can be pushed aside.
Planning can often feel overwhelming, but it’s important to schedule time to create an annual plan and strategy. In doing that your team have a structure to follow and their own goals to reach, making them more self-sufficient in the day-to-day operations, freeing up time for you to focus on growing your business.
Understanding the role stress plays in your success
Your own mindset and attitude changes in good times and in bad times and the knock-on effect of that, especially in business when you’re not conscious of it, can be great. As the centre of everything within your business, awareness of your emotional state and how it impacts your team, your clients and your service delivery is instrumental for ongoing success and resilience.
When working with our clients, the one thing we continually notice is – a business owner’s entire life is impacted by the highs and lows of their business. Nothing happens in isolation. In helping people realise the role their emotions play in their business and minimising the effect of that with a strategic business plan it’s amazing to see how quickly everything else starts to fall into place for them.
There are many ways to minimise stress which will not only contribute to your ongoing achievement but will give you space to enjoy the success you’ve created. I always recommend people put time aside to meditate, to both control their thoughts and to manage stress. Finding a routine is also key, along with that all-important strategic plan. The change begins with putting these key things into place allowing you to better manage your personal state, leaving you with more confidence to manage your business state.
