Small Business Revitalization Blog

Today I’m going to challenge your thinking. To lift the lid off the box you’ve been working in. To create new possibilities for your business, and most importantly, to help you unlock your business potential by finding more time for you to focus on what really matters.

So, why do so many of us feel we don’t have enough time? After all, everyone gets the same 24 hours, 7 days a week, 52 weeks in a year. So how do some people achieve amazing outcomes seemingly effortlessly, whilst the rest of us slave away, working harder and harder and getting further and further behind?

As a business coach, I get to observe all sorts of business owners and many approaches to managing time. What I’ve observed is that the most productive and effective business owners aren’t managing time – they are managing priorities! Time management is a myth!! It is activity management that really counts. So, here’s three less obvious but simple ways that business owners can find “more time”.

1. Plan ahead and prioritise according to your plan.
2. Use systems, structure and routines to free up valuable time.
3. Practice extreme self-care - put yourself first and you'll be in peak condition to perform at your best.

What is your biggest challenge as a small business owner? Share it in the comments section below. If you need to share more than just a comment, call the Revitalisation Experts!

Saying no is all about perspective. Would it be easier for you to say no if you knew that doing so would open up new opportunities for you?  That it would leave space for your business to focus on the clients that matter most? That once you got past the initial fear of disappointing someone, that it would feel totally empowering? 

If saying no is usually not for you, give yourself the luxury of one whole day where you only say yes if you truly mean it - experience the freedom that saying no provides - and then choose if you'd like to keep up the NO habit!!

As the economy grinds to a halt, more small business owners are starting to feel stretched - for cashflow, for goodwill, for sanity.  The first step away from stress and feeling over-stretched is to consolidate with your support team.  

What's that I hear?  You don't have one? Business owners often have a sense that they have to shoulder their burdens alone. Often our needs come last - after clients, staff, suppliers, the bank manager and our friends and families.

Many of us have grown up in times when it has been seen to be a good thing to be independent (and it is!), but often we have misidentified this independence with never, ever asking for help, no matter how bad things are.  Just like the economy, that approach just doesn’t work anymore!

Just before Christmas I had lunch with my dearest girlfriends – we’re moving towards 25 years of friendship – but still, we often forget to ask each other for help.  

We hadn’t seen each other for months and there were lots of big discussions on the table.  At the end of that lunch we made a promise to each other to pick up the phone and ask for support when we need it – not to wait until our busy lives allow a small window of opportunity for a catchup!

Sometimes it is these small but incredibly life-affirming commitments that give a greater sense of empowerment.  What could you do if you knew your support net was available any time?  So, create and maintain a support network of likeminded people.  There is strength in numbers!  You are no longer the weakest link!

For many people, the next twelve months will be a time of consolidation. As a business coach, I see many businesses still doing well, but there are plenty that aren’t. It is time for us to consider where our real power comes from. Do our economic circumstances (and our status symbols) really dictate who we are? Or is the source of our power (and empowerment!) within us?

It is easy to get caught up talking about the doom and gloom, or to feel depressed about what we have lost. It takes a lot more courage to make the decision that our outer circumstances are not going to control the quality of our lives. It takes conscious effort to decide that we are not going to waste our life or lose sleep worrying about the million and one ‘what if’s’ that could happen. It takes a strong sense of our own empowerment to reach out to others and help them through this difficult time.

Each one of us has a caring heart. Each one of us knows others who are doing it tougher than we are. Empowerment comes from within.What choices will you make today?

What is your biggest challenge as a small business owner? Share it in the comments section below. If you need to share more than just a comment, call the Revitalization Experts!