Every single day, in every company across America, people are walking into their places of work with only a handful of things on their immediate to-do list, and a whole bunch on their periphery. Those peripheral, floating items are often much more important to the day-to-day operations of the company than you may realize.
We put off the big stuff until there’s time for it, right?
Is that the best plan? No. Here’s where I want you to focus today. Most people, especially those feeling a financial crunch, are putting all their effort in the one or two customers that call on them today. While I NEVER want you to forget or neglect your customers, if you don’t make some very hard choices – even that handful of customers will quit calling. It’s a sink or swim economy. If you’re treading water, you’re in danger. Put yourself on ‘alert’.
You may have heard this analogy before, if so – bear with me.
Pretend for a moment that you have a tall glass jar, a bowl of large rocks, a bowl of pea gravel, and a bowl of sand. Your objective is to put all the items into the jar.
Now, if you put the sand in first, then the pea gravel, and then the large rocks, chances are (because I’ve seen this presentation) the rocks will not fit. Why?
Basically, there’s only so much space in a given environment. The order in which you fill that space determines how much fits into that space.
Think about the larger rocks for a moment, and pretend they’re the building blocks of your business growth. They’re the planning and development of your next big idea, or the polishing up of the stuff you’ve had on your back burner for WAY too long. The big money method.
You know that everyday issues and demands (pea gravel and sand) take away your time and productivity, but you can’t take care of those rocks while the gravel and sand are taking first place.
If you haven’t seen this presentation and don’t know the outcome, try filling the glass jar with the rocks FIRST. Then add the gravel, and finally the sand. Amazingly, they all fit every time you go about this. EVERY time.
When you’re proactively filling your schedule, you make time to manage the business growth of your company. If you’re only reactive, you’ll do OKAY at best. You may be able to manage current customers and hectic days in a reactionary manner and mistakenly think that busy is as busy as you can be. The truth of the matter is, when you make time to do the skeletal things that enable your company to make more money, you’re capable of so much more than you ever saw coming.
Take some time to plan your business growth. Put the rocks in first. Schedule at least 3 hours a week, before you take on your customers and internal affairs, to build:
- The processes that make you more efficient
- The informational products that become residual income and brand building
- And the polished, personal touch you want your customers to recieve from you.
Nobody said it would be easy, but it sure is easier to do when your priorities are right.
Today, do something FOR your business. Work ON your business, instead of IN your business for a least three hours this week. You’ll see what I mean. Leave me your comments here!
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