Building the Foundation for Success
When talking with entrepreneurs, so many times they will struggle to find a solution for their problem. They find themselves struggling in their business, not working on their business.
It is in situations like this that one of the best things an entrepreneur can do is to slow down to speed up!
So what does this really mean - how do you slow down?
It is not that you stop working or go on vacation. It simply means you take the time to work on your business, not in your business. Taking the time to understand the problem, to create a solution and devise a plan to execut.
One of the first things to do is to understand the ultimate outcome that aligns with your vision. You need to take the time to figure out what is the one thing you want to accomplish above everything else.
If you were looking at the finish line for your journey, what does it look like? Where will you be? What does it feel like?
The next step is to clearly define the purpose behind your ultimate outcome. So often people work towards a goal and have no real understanding of why they are doing it. Without a purpose, when challenges arise, it is easy to get distracted, discouraged and potentially quit. However when you are crystal clear on the reason why you are going after the goal, it becomes easy to rely on this purpose to overcome the challenges.
Once you understand why you need the ultimate outcome, it is important to define the smaller goals that must happen in order to move you and your company towards your ultimate outcome. Most people never taken the time to define what must happen in each area of their business to achieve the goal. Being able to go department by department, or for smaller teams, person by person, to identify what must be accomplished will provide clarity for the team.
Once you decide on your must-have outcomes, it is important to prioritize them. People often skip this step. However with limited resources you must have the discipline to prioritize and stick to the priorities.
Finally it is time to make your action list. Your action list will be comprised of the tasks you need to complete in order to achieve momentum. This is usually the easiest part as we are all used to creating checklists to operate from. For each of the must have outcomes, create a list of what must be done in order to complete the outcome.
This problem solving process is a proven way to produce results and to be able to achieve success.