I am half listening to the news on Monday evening — channel one, if you are wondering — and they talk about the space station floating through our skies for a couple of nights.
I think that would be cool to see but, night time, dark, cold, yeah maybe I have better things to do, like sleeping.
So it goes in one side, comes out the other and gets filed under whatever, as I have way more important things to do.
Tuesday morning I have a 7am appointment in town which is a 35-minute drive away. So there I am in the dark, in the cold, 6.05am, walking across the deck heading to the car.
Crystal clear sky, the whole Milky Way sparkling overhead, could have been a romantic moment if I wasn’t on my own, so I take a second and look up. There she is, bright and shiny, zooming majestically through the heavens.
Alright, enough of the poetic verse, but it made me think on the drive into town. Would I have looked up if I had not heard the news the day before? Seeing the space station, so what?
Well, yes, I always look at the stars because where I live there is very little background light so we get a fantastic view — and it did make a difference because it made for a great topic at dinner with the kids (dad sounded cool).
My point is if every business owner looked up from time to time instead of head down, bum up and doing the daily grind, what would they see, and — more to the point — what are they missing?
I come back to that saying, which is like the proverbial broken record — “work on the business, not in it”.
Hang on a minute maestro, somebody has to do the work or nothing gets done. And therein lies the major problem in smaller businesses.
The big boss is the business growth manager, the office manager, the general manager, the works manager, the canteen manager blah blah blah.
But if working on it doesn’t happen, the whole business will suffer.
Before you drown me with your emails saying “you’re the business coach, stop lecturing me and give us the answers” (I left the colourful words out), there are some answers, and they are very easy fixes, but I get excuses all the time about them.
It’s as simple as making some time, or paying somebody to do it for you. All you need to start off with is to schedule an hour a week, and make this your “ON hour”.
I absolutely guarantee that you will see a difference and you will start to increase the time you spend on the ON bit. Why? Because it’s the fun bit of business ownership.
If an hour is simply not possible (rubbish) then pay somebody an hour a week to do it for you. You will notice a difference, get interested in what is happening, and start taking an active role in growing your business.
The ON bit is not just about growth in customers or dollars — it should also be in-house stuff like systems, filing and processes — and it will actually result in increased income and much less stress.
So look to the heavens people, find your bright star and aim for it. Sounds lame I know, but it’s poetry for “get your head out of your arse and start working on your future”.
You did not go into business to have a “job” — you went into it for the freedom of being the boss.
Oh, by the way, a business coach is there to do the ON bit with you — just thought I would mention that titbit.
