Business owners have to be everything at once - creative, salesperson, admin assistant - but the most high priority things usually grab the largest chunk of your attention.
As your business gets bigger and busier, your role can turn into a lot of pitching, going to meetings, and networking stuff. You might find you’re doing less and less of the things you originally set out to do.
No more! This is how to balance being the boss.
Do your most productive work at the office (as often as you can!)
If you’re on the road a lot, it’s much harder to get your head down and concentrate on what you do best.
Try to keep your base sacred, whether it’s a private office, a shared co-working space, or somewhere else. There’ll be some weeks where that’s tough to manage, but it should be your default to gravitate to that consistent, productive space.
Talk to your customers and clients whenever you can
Learning to delegate is a skill in itself (especially if you’re a natural perfectionist!) but you’re still the face of the business. Even if you have a small team around you and the work is shared, take as many opportunities as possible to personally speak to customers and clients and make sure they’re happy.
The people you work with can handle most things, but you should be the main contact. People work with small businesses to experience that personal touch, so it’s important you keep offering it.
Stay updated with the essentials
If travelling around is inevitable, you’ll need to stay in touch with the day-to-day stuff remotely. It could be a brief chat on the phone with whoever’s at the office, or even a few messages over Slack.
If you haven’t got a team around you yet, but feel too stretched, it might be time to hire someone to hold down the fort.
Time-saving tip! Checking emails and messages too often is a massive distraction (push notifications make it harder for us to stay focused, even if we don’t check them). Allocate some fixed time for messaging and emailing so it doesn’t get in the way of your to-do list.
Remember why you started your business in the first place
Your time in business shapes how you run things and what matters to you. However it evolves and however big it gets, you’re still the same person who had that idea and made it real.
It can be grounding to look back and think about your early days, even if you’ve not been in business that long. Whatever’s grabbing your attention or stressing you out now, the reasons you set up your business are still there!
There’s one important job you can delegate without any worries - getting those invoices paid. Send automated reminders, and get paid faster with payments powered by Stripe.
Do more of what you love and less of what you don’t. Start saving time, and getting paid faster, with Solna.
in LND