A guest post by business coach Alison Bradford – https://www.alisonbradford.com
Setting Deadlines For Yourself
Do deadlines work for you?
I bet if they are external deadlines i.e. set by someone else such as your clients or HMRC, then you meet them.
But how do you set them for yourself?
This is often a missing piece of the puzzle when it comes to moving your business forward, and finding the time to work ON your business.
Planning, marketing, documenting processes, working smarter, developing your team, defining and using measures – these are all critical areas you need to be spending time and focus on in order to move your business forward.
I know you don’t feel like you have any time to spend on these, but what if you had to? What if you would lose customers if you didn’t? What if you would get fined if you didn’t? What if you would get exhausted, frustrated, and even ill if you didn’t make time to work ON your business?
It can be hard to impose your own deadlines, and find a way to create the time to do all of this, but once you see the benefits and results, you’ll soon start sticking to it.
If you’re looking to break through to the next level in your business, here’s a list of questions to ask yourself – and to set time aside to answer honestly. Any that you answer ‘No’ to, should be added to your to-do list with a self-imposed deadline to ensure they get addressed.
- Clear goals and a 12-week plan?
- Ideal client defined?
- Marketing plan you will implement?
- Marketing messages clearly defined?
- Understanding your business model?
- Where you make the most and least profit?
- How you can make small tweaks in significantly increase your profit?
- Clarity on what to focus your time and energy on?
- Documented processes?
- Strategies to be more effective / work smarter?
- Clarity on where to put boundaries in, and get your life back?
- Identify the skills you need to recruit for next or outsource to?
- How to find your team and develop them?
- How to effectively delegate?
- Set clear measures to enable you to make better and faster decisions?
- Develop a plan for the next 12 months?
I hope you found this useful and that some of the questions above have helped you identify areas in your business that need attention.
Have a great weekend!
Alison Bradford
Voted a top 5 Leadership and Management UK business adviser in Enterprise Nation’s Top 50 Advisers competition with Experian
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I hope you found Alison’s post useful.
If you have a question you can email alison@alisonbradford.com or click here to book a call in with Alison.