I want to wish everyone a blessed Thanksgiving. This is the time of the year when we need to reflect on the good things in our lives and give thanks for the many blessings we receive each day.
As a Growth Coach, I feel it is important to live a balanced life, and to me, that means spending quality time during this season of thanks with those I love the most. One of the ways I am doing this is to refresh the memory of those of you who have been reading my column of where your journey with me began. If you are new to reading my column, this will be a valuable starting point for you. This week, the emphasis is to understand that repetition is how you become good at doing the things needed to do to grow your business and balance your life. With that said, I hope you enjoy the following.
Most business owners, professionals, managers and entrepreneurs are usually busy being busy. This means they spend most of their time working “in” their business and rarely take time to work “on” their business. In other words, they’re reactive to the day-to-day details of running their business.
Instead, they should spend time being proactive. In order to be proactive, they need to take time to step back and analyze what’s working well and determine what’s not working well. They should take a few minutes each day for their own personal Strategic Time Out Process (STOP). This is time they should spend determining what’s “broken” and developing a plan to fix it if needed, or getting rid of it if it just doesn’t need to be done. It’s also an opportunity to refine and improve what’s working well.
At The Growth Coach, we recommend the following STOP quarterly approach to working “on” a business rather than “in” a business. By doing this, you’ll start and continue to take your business to a higher level:
Weeks one through three: Spend 15 minutes each day, Monday through Thursday, on STOP. On Friday, spend 30 minutes.
Week four: Repeat the Monday through Thursday process, but on Friday, spend two hours on STOP.
Weeks five through seven: Repeat step one.
Week eight: Repeat step two.
Step five: Weeks nine through 11, repeat step one.
Step six: Week 12, repeat step 2.
Repeat this 12-week process each and every quarter on an ongoing basis to fix what’s broken, eliminating things that can and should be eliminated and refining what’s working well. Before you know it, your business will be headed in the right direction for substantial growth.
Established in 2002, The Growth Coach is based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Over the past decade, it has grown to over 140 locations across North America and Puerto Rico and has helped thousands of small businesses grow substantially. At the same time, the owners, professionals, managers and entrepreneurs have learned how to “let go” and start living more fulfilling personal lives.
Rick Brines is the owner of The Growth Coach of Chattanooga. He can be reached at 423-886-6095 or R.Brines@TheGrowthCoach.com.