Four Smart Moves to Anchor Your Results (Be the captain of your ship.)

There are times when we let ourselves get fooled into thinking we have no control. In fact, there is much we can impact with our daily decisions. Markets evolve, global events occur, and family issues arise. Learn to get comfortable with the shifting sands under your feet. Even when navigating turbulent times, you can confidently chart your course. 

Here are four key decisions to anchor positive results:

1. Decide where you spend your money. Take the time to know your business partners and the people behind your investments. For example, gone are the days when we purchase without checking social media. We search the links and articles associated with potential partners and vendors. Whether you’re a solopreneur, an influencer, or a business owner, it matters. As the saying goes, money talks. 

2. Be mindful of your speakers and sponsors. Are the people you’re inviting to collaborate demonstrating the awareness you expect? The same applies to your advisors and mentors. It’s best not to be surprised by information available with the click of a button. 

3. Define what you look for when hiring contract talent, employees, or consultants. As a business owner, be intentional. Engage the talent that helps you thrive in all areas of your business. 

4. Hold fast to the boundaries you set. Be purposeful about who and where you spend your time. To keep your energy high and remain focused, ask yourself who inspires you, who challenges your thinking in a healthy way, and who supports your life and mission. Make time for those individuals, and say no to the rest.

On any given day, you can wake up to a sea change, and the landscape looks different. Identifying individuals with unique and valuable perspectives who support and uplift your business is like unlocking a treasure chest filled with knowledge and experience. This level of inquiry, exploration, and decision-making is a worthwhile and necessary process. 

You’ve dedicated years to building your personal brand, maybe even your business. It is essential to proactively choose the partners, team, and support systems that enable smooth sailing toward your mission and goals.

Building a Foundation to Revive and Thrive

As we post our goals, journal our dreams and visualize the future, can we also create moments of rest and reflection? How about a few deep breaths that lead us to a hearty revival of energy and spirit? Let’s take some time to reflect on how to build a solid business base in a steady yet manageable way.

One step we’re taking is preparing to add more talent to the equation - part time, contract, hourly, weekly, it’s not a one-size-fits-all. The gig economy offers a variety of options to find talented people with flexible schedules. The challenge is, we still have to set aside time on our calendars and do the research. It means slowing down (interview, train, communicate feedback) to then move faster. Admittedly, this feels daunting, but in reality, it has to be done to grow.

Here are a few things we’re doing to move forward and create the space to thrive:

Document Tasks to Hand Off

Over the course of the last six months, we’ve started to document tasks that we could delegate. It’s nothing fancy, a page on a tablet where I scribble a few words. (Rugged loves his workshop tasks, so his list will follow.) I’m making a running list I can trim later, but it’s a start. It feels like progress to write it down. I’ve been much more aware of the tasks I’m doing and the time spent doing them. I’m also aware of what else I could be doing. For example, unlike many people, I enjoy writing content, so that’s not something I want to hand off. I’m also the client-facing professional. However, operational items (inventory, shipping, research, invoicing, packaging, reports, templates.) are tasks I’d happily stop doing. It’s a chicken or egg decision. Do you add talent before you bring in the extra revenue or will more time in the day accelerate business? We’re wagering on the latter.

Virtual vs In Person Help

This decision boils down to whether the task has to be done on site or not. Packaging, for example, can’t be done online. If that’s a task we want to hand off, we need a person come here, have an area for them to work, access to the studio etc. Important things to consider. Or, reports, research, templates, these are all things that can be done from anywhere. As I jot down our wish list of tasks to delegate, I split them into virtual or in person.

Ask Around for Sources of Talent

We’re not the only ones in this situation and neither are you. Ask your business owner friends and colleagues who’ve hired, and their experience with the hires. (Cheap is not always good.) Research options via podcast interviews (see this blog for suggestions). Be sure to ask people who are close to your stage of business so you get recommendations on par with your budget. I’ve been on the phone with Belay to better understand their offering, and had UpWork recommended to us. This is in addition to the usual online options of LinkedIn, Indeed etc. Time and research are required here.

Start Creating Process Guidelines

This transition will be much smoother if there’s some kind of guideline for a new hire to follow, even if it’s bullet points. I’d like to skip this step, but logic prevails. I know I’ll pay later and spend all my time on the back-end fixing what I really wanted people to do, and not moving the needle on the company. And we’ll frustrate the talent too. So, the last time we shipped gift boxes, I sat down immediately afterward and wrote bullet points on all the steps we’d just completed. It was two pages long, and more steps than we realized. (I need to do the same thing when I post this blog too.)

Write it down, calendar it and set a timeline. This is a less glamorous side of business, however, it’s the part that will add freedom and time to enjoy the other things that make it all worthwhile.