Here are 6 bad-habit crushers that will transform your business:
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Start to say No. Think about the opportunity cost every time you agree to do something that you shouldn’t. For example, your own time is worth money, and if you own a small business you need to be selling your services or product every day, and bringing in larger clients. The opportunity cost to over-committing your own time could be killing your business. What is it really worth, and where is your time best spent? Do the math before you agree. Saying ‘no’ will put you back in control of your business’s financial future, but sends the clear message to others not to waste your time with meaningless requests.
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Move the wrong people out of the way. Too many businesses carry dead weight for too long, and this energy is literally holding your business hostage. This dead weight is a threat to your corporate culture, and the sooner you eliminate the toxicity, the sooner your business is on a path to big wins. Letting someone go is one of the toughest tasks in business, but weigh the cost of carrying the dead weight. Ineffective or rogue workers cost your company a lot of money each day in lack of productivity, plus they bad for the corporate culture and take everyone else down with them. The shift in personnel, or sheer absence of dead weight, will have immediate positive results.
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Stop walking in circles. Upgrade your skill set and knowledge base to expand your business. Learning new skills is not an optional exercise in business today. Technology, the Internet, and social media demand that we expand our expertise, stretch ourselves, and constantly look for new opportunities. Make a list of the areas where your business could use a fresh focus, then research the ways to get the knowledge you need. Some of these include taking a local course at a community college or online, reading and taking in new information from business leaders like Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of Vayner Media and author of the book #ASKGARYVEE: One Entrepreneur’s Take On Leadership, Social Media, and Self-Awareness, attending expert seminars, or joining a mastermind group of entrepreneurs who bring a wide variety of skills to the table where you can connect and learn from others.
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Cut back on spending. Is your business truly financially healthy? Just like many of us live beyond our means in our personal lives, we do the same with our businesses. Take a granular look at all of the areas where you can cut back, including personnel, and start slashing. Some of the common ways you can minimize immediately include: going virtual, outsourcing talent, moving your IT to the cloud, and rethinking your work space. Starters and authors Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, founders of 37signals, are great examples of a how to build a multi-million dollar company with an entirely virtual presence and staff. They outline their success and productivity tips in their New York Times best-selling book REWORK.
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Practice better habits. Make a list of your worst habits, both personal and in business (be honest, you know what they are), and start rethinking how to put new practices in place. One of the most important areas to improve is your physical health. The health of your business is in direct parallel with your physical health — if you are not physically fit, your business likely isn’t either. For some inspiration, Fundingcircle.com, an online peer-to-peer lending platform, keeps track of how emerging and established entrepreneurs stay in shape. Some examples include Nick Woodman, Founder and CEO of GoPro, Larry Ellison, Founder of Oracle, Oprah Winfrey, Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, Cinnabon’s Kat Cole, and Bill Gates.
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Set clear goals. The enormous benefits of setting clear goals are endless, but at the very top of the list: this is the best way to measure the success of your company. If you chart a path, looking at your business from 30,000 ft, you can then work inward on the micro-issues and chart how to achieve them. If your entire team understands the goals, everyone is on the same path for success and will make decisions surrounding the end game. Along the way, some goals may change course, but the list you create will be your roadmap, and you will feel the tremendous rewards as you and your team tick things off every month, 6 months, year etc… For some tips, author and productivity expert Paula Rizzo illustrates how CEOs, celebrities, and successful entrepreneurs use lists to chart their success in her best-selling book Listful Thinking.
This guest post is courtesy of Paula Conway. She is a well-known starter, media and communications expert, five-time author, guest speaker, publisher, and the President of Astonish Media Group in New York City. Her agency boats among its roster Fortune 500 companies, media conglomerates, celebrities, and early stage startups. An award-winning author and writer, she has contributed to In Style, the New York Times, Robb Report,Good Housekeeping, New York Post, and New York Daily News among others. Paula and her projects have been featured on Fox & Friends, Good Morning America, ABCNews.com, in People magazine, and many more. She is a former Broadway Press Agent, has served in The White House, and holds a Master’s degree from Columbia University and a Bachelor’s Degree from New York University.
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