“You can do anything, but not everything.”
With the seemingly never-ending to-do list, that little statement is very true in the entrepreneurial world.
You’re a smart, capable, able and willing business owner who can achieve anything you put your mind to. Where people often get discouraged is when they try to do TOO much, and they end up not doing a great job at any of it.
When you are able to focus on one single thing and put your whole self into it, you can accomplish incredible things. It’s a proven fact.
When you spread yourself too thin and do EVERYTHING instead of one thing really well, you end up delivering OK content and getting OK results. You do NOT want “OK” anything in your business, you want great, exceptional, fantastic.
When you try to do too many things, it can feel like you’re not moving forward, and when you’re not moving forward then it’s a sure-fire way to get discouraged and down on yourself.
Try one of these three options when you’ve got too much on your plate:
1. Hire help
It’s a hard thing to do to hire your first employee. I remember when I hired my first full-time employee; it was like there was another level of pressure because I was all of a sudden responsible for someone else other than myself. When you take the plunge and hire someone to take a portion of what you have on your plate, it gives you the chance to do what you’re good at, and them to do what they are good, which in return, could potentially skyrocket your business.
Choose wisely and consider their expertise – there is a reason I don’t have my Marketing girl doing monthly sales anymore. Even though she CAN do it, it’s not where her expertise lies. Place people in positions that they are good at, so you can do what you are good at.
2. Schedule your time
Just like you schedule time off to go to the doctor, or meet a client, you should be scheduling your work time appropriately too. This way you have a dedicated slot of time to focus fully on your work and what is important for you to do in your business.
Something I changed in my business is deciding to spend equal time working ON my business as I do working IN my business. That’s really important because my priority is substantially growing the business in 2017. Your priority may be different than mine; maybe you want to spend MORE time in your business instead of on your business. Those things are important to delegate time for because time has a funny way of slipping away and next thing you know, nothing has changed.
3. Delegate your tasks
Delegation is really hard, especially for perfectionists and business owners. Do you remember what it was like doing high school group projects that you wanted to complete on your own because you didn’t trust your team to get you the best grade? There’s a little bit of protectiveness around what you do because you want it to be done to your standards. Your business is your baby, I understand that!
Time to let some of that go. Even though you CAN do something, doesn’t mean you should, or that other things aren’t MORE important for you to do. Keep that in mind and let go of perfectionism that struggles with delegating tasks.
You really can do anything you set your mind to, but you can’t if you’re caught up trying to do everything in your business. Don’t get down on yourself for feeling like you can’t do anything right, instead, decide what you’re going to focus on and do that with your whole self.
The rest of the chips will fall where they may.