Keep Going!

There are so many ups and downs when running a business and it’s impossible to fully prepare yourself for the realities until you are actually doing it! Sometimes the downs may over shadow the ups and you wonder 'Can I really do this?' But the answer is YES...YOU CAN DO IT! Remind yourself that the lessons you are learning right now are an important part of the future success of your business. I try to find time each week to write down any worries so I can re-evaluate and change any negative thoughts into positive actions. It really gives me the motivation to keep going. My three main worries:rn1. TIMErn2. RESULTSrn3. GROWTH Here is how I changed my worries into positive actions: TIME – running a business generally means juggling ten things at once and there’s never enough time to do everything. If you find yourself going round in circles, dealing with lots of little things and getting nowhere, take a step back and plan how you will use your time more effectively. You still might not have enough time to get everything done, but at least you will be more organised and find that you soon achieve real results. At the start of each week, write down the most important tasks for completion. Break those down into daily tasks or a ‘To Do’ list. Be realistic about what you can achieve each day. Obviously things will crop up that you will have to deal with but if you include some time for dealing with emails for example, it won’t feel so chaotic. If you find that you are not giving a task your full focus and it is taking a long time to complete, move onto the next thing on your list and come back to it later. You will have a fresh approach and you will find you are more effective. RESULTS – setting targets is hugely important to remain focused and improve your business. The pressure of having targets to achieve can overwhelm you at times, particularly if you don’t achieve your desired result at first. But, you can even break down the target into smaller tasks if you find your current targets are not being met. Be realistic about what you can achieve and persevere. When you do achieve those all important results, it is worth all the hard work and it will motivate you to move forward. As an example, my target for attracting people into our website was not met in the first few weeks after launch. As a new website, it was to be expected but you must have something to strive for and when we actually hit that target it is amazing! You get motivated when you see results; it drives you to keep setting and achieving targets, all the time you are improving your business. GROWTH – all businesses want to grow and improve. It can be uncertain in the early stages of a business whether you are offering what people want. This can put you on edge. As daunting as it can be, you have to ask for honest feedback. You cannot please everyone of course, and you might hear things you don’t want to but the opinions of your audience really matters; the success of your business depends on it. I used email, forums, social networks and friends, to ask for feedback. With the exception of one or two not so positive comments on forums, the majority of it was constructive and positive. It’s funny how you seem to remember the one negative comment and forget all the positive ones! You cannot let this get you down, use it as a driving force to prove them wrong! With the list of positive feedback, we have made some good changes and improved the business – which is what we set out to do. My motto is - Use the negatives to challenge you and the positives to motivate you! In conclusion:rnIF YOU MANAGE YOUR TIME EFFECTIVELY, YOU WILL SEE RESULTS AND GROW! Thank you for reading! Best Wishes, Cassie Lang. http://www.insp1re.com