By Chloe DiVita
Like most small business owners, I constantly find myself trying to balance working in my business and working on my business. I know that my client’s needs are my main focus, and also what brings in the money, but in order to give my clients the best service I also have to spend some time working on how my company offers those services. What works best? What doesn’t work at all? What can we do to improve?
The difficulty is in how to prioritize the workload. I can plan to spend a couple hours in the afternoon working on my business, but if during the morning I get a call with something pressing, then I never get to that working on part. It’s amazing to me how often things just come up.
I know that many of my clients struggle with this same challenge. In small growing companies there is an evolution of what the company does, how it does it, and who accomplishes the tasks. In the beginning, I did it all. Ran the errands, met with clients, kept QuickBooks files up to date, paid the bills, did the invoicing, and whatever else was needed. Over the past couple years my role has changed, and it continues to change. Growth is the biggest reason for the change. Something I cannot say is unwelcome, so I must change with it.
The new challenge becomes: when do I stop being an employee and start being a consultant for my own company? I’ve told myself recently that I need to pick an afternoon a week where I hire myself to consult on what ideas I have for myself. It's important to call it "hiring" myself. If I am my client I can give myself the attention I require. If I am only "planning" on taking a few hours to dedicate to myself, then I feel obligated to set myself aside should I be needed elsewhere. Something I would not do if I was working with a client for a few hours straight. I need that "hiring" time to start working towards new goals. Without it, I end up being pulled in many different directions and getting very little accomplished. The more potential I see for growth, the more apparent it becomes that this time is a necessity.
I encourage each small business owner to take at least a few hours a week where he/she can hire their own self and work towards accomplishing all the great ideas each of us constantly has running through our heads. Not only will there be a sense of accomplishment, but it can also put us back in touch with the pride we had when we started our businesses. It’s easy to feel bogged down by the workload that piles in front of us. But we must remember, we started our own company for a reason, and that excitement can be felt again!
We would easily give that attention to a client, so why not to ourselves?
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