Be in the Driver's Seat of Your Business

If we're really honest with ourselves, we'll see that at least part of the time, we are not really "driving" our business - it's driving us.

If you sit back and take at look at the types of activities you do on a daily and weekly basis - you'd see that often it's things, events and people that direct your day - not you.

Think about it..

- A phone call comes in and it's a client or supplier or joint venture partner in a panic and you drop everything to deal with the problem

- Your VA gets sick and suddenly you have to look after sending out the press releases and emails for your new product launch

- An email comes in asking you to take a look at a new online magazine and participate in their quiz to win a launch prize

- Your bookkeeper calls with some discrepancies and wants to talk about it right now with you

- Your printer breaks down and you have to spend the whole afternoon on the phone with the help desk

- A business colleague/friend calls you up and wants to have a very long chat about their upcoming vacation

These are some examples of things that come up and hijack your time and energy. These kinds of situations are unavoidable but it's how we deal with them or what systems we have in place to deal with them that's lies within our control.

That's one of the reasons you'll hear successful entrepreneurs and small business owners stress that you need to have a team of people that support you and free up your time from everyday interruptions and issues. Ensuring that you have a back-up Virtual Assistant, an on-call IT person, an assistant etc. can help offload some of the more reactive and administrative tasks.

You have the power to decide what you do when. If someone calls, you don't have to take the call (let it go to voicemail) or you can set up a time to talk to them when it would be more convenient for you. You don't have to open that magazine now - you can delay it or delete it altogether (would it make a difference to your business if you never read it?).

When you start really controlling what you spend your time doing in the workday, then you'll really start to see results. Because you'll be concentrating on tasks and activities that can bring you closer to your goals (money or otherwise), you'll achieve your goals quicker and with less stress.

Next time something comes in to disrupt you, sit back and take a few seconds to see if you dealing with it brings you closer to what you want - or can you pass it off to someone else or deal with it at another time?