You can read blogs by the best, discuss marketing strategies until you are blue in the face, attend seminars on social networking and have a million and one ideas on how to take your business to the next level, however unless you take action, there is one thing you can be sure of – they will just stay ideas.
It’s easy to put all your great ideas on the backburner for the moment when you have a few moments peace and quiet, but we all know that moment will never come around. You have to schedule time into your day, whether it’s an hour or 15 minutes a day, otherwise this time next year you’ll still be paddling upstream, still trying to put your booming business ideas into action.
So we’ve come up with some handy tips on how to make sure you take leaps forward instead of baby steps backwards.
1. Take advice from Nike – Just do it.
Turn off your mobile, lock your office door, divert your office line, sit down and get stuck into putting your ideas into action. If you don’t have a couple of hours, schedule smaller chunks of time, even if you set aside 15 minutes first thing in the morning to make a start on your tasks.
Turn off your mobile, lock your office door, divert your office line, sit down and get stuck into putting your ideas into action. If you don’t have a couple of hours, schedule smaller chunks of time, even if you set aside 15 minutes first thing in the morning to make a start on your tasks.
2. Task snowballing.
If you’ve ever heard of debt snowballing – that’s where you make a list of your debts and pay the smallest amount off, task snowballing is similar. Make a list of all the things you want to achieve and start with the smallest, quickest one first, that way you will feel like you’ve made some headway.
If you’ve ever heard of debt snowballing – that’s where you make a list of your debts and pay the smallest amount off, task snowballing is similar. Make a list of all the things you want to achieve and start with the smallest, quickest one first, that way you will feel like you’ve made some headway.
3. Juggle your priorities.
If you’ve had the same to-do list for the past six months and your business hasn’t gone under because you haven’t got around to doing the task, it’s obviously not that important. Cross it off your list and put your efforts into more pressing jobs.
If you’ve had the same to-do list for the past six months and your business hasn’t gone under because you haven’t got around to doing the task, it’s obviously not that important. Cross it off your list and put your efforts into more pressing jobs.
4. Delegate.
Just because you had the brilliant ideas, you don’t have to action them all yourself. Pass the responsibility on to a trusted employee.
Just because you had the brilliant ideas, you don’t have to action them all yourself. Pass the responsibility on to a trusted employee.
5. Outsource the work.
Realise you can’t be everything to everyone. Focus on your strengths and pay a freelancer or external company to do the work. For example, if you want a new company logo designed and your in-house graphic designer is up to their eyeballs in work, there’s no shame in outsourcing it to a reputable graphic design studio.
