Oh what a tangled interweb we weave….! I am buried under a deluge of assistance and help, advice and ‘How To’ guides, checklists for success and registers to make sure I don’t miss a thing. I have gone wild with my bookmarks and lists and they are simply a mess, despite my attempts to be organised. I have hundreds of folders with folders inside dedicated to supporting my business. Yet I am no further forward, how can this be?
Being new to running a business I am acutely aware that all advice must be directed at me, and it is my duty to absorb it all! The people who have blazed a trail before me have sage advice to dispense, advice that will enable me to avoid pitfalls and disaster that lurk everywhere. Perhaps it is because I am a Sole Trader (why does that sound like Lone Wolf in my head?) and I therefore have nobody to bounce ideas off. I have nobody to talk things through or support my ideas. Success, or failure, will be mine and mine alone. To feel less alone I drown myself in the internet’s bottomless pool and come up gasping.
This week I will be ruthless and strip my bookmarks down to the bare essentials. They will directly support my work or be discarded as distractions. Once that is done, I will return to basics and dig out my business plan. I will write down every challenge and every problem, go through each section of my business plan and ask myself ‘What do I want to do about this?’ Each issue will get my individual and undivided attention with a clear response to each challenge. I will trust my decisions and simply do it without second guessing myself or checking with an unknown entrepreneur whether my decision could be calamitous. I will ask the questions and answer them myself.
Once this process is done I will update my business plan to take my business to the next stage. My social media, mail and bookmarks will be cleared and restructured. I will trust my own instincts and follow those up with targeted research only. I need to remove the folders within folders (sometimes within more folders) before I run out of mouse pad space.
Life is like a department store, choose your floor and shop from the list. Shiny things distract and you end up with nowhere to put all your purchases. Be honest, did you even remember why you bought that?
Being new to running a business I am acutely aware that all advice must be directed at me, and it is my duty to absorb it all! The people who have blazed a trail before me have sage advice to dispense, advice that will enable me to avoid pitfalls and disaster that lurk everywhere. Perhaps it is because I am a Sole Trader (why does that sound like Lone Wolf in my head?) and I therefore have nobody to bounce ideas off. I have nobody to talk things through or support my ideas. Success, or failure, will be mine and mine alone. To feel less alone I drown myself in the internet’s bottomless pool and come up gasping.
This week I will be ruthless and strip my bookmarks down to the bare essentials. They will directly support my work or be discarded as distractions. Once that is done, I will return to basics and dig out my business plan. I will write down every challenge and every problem, go through each section of my business plan and ask myself ‘What do I want to do about this?’ Each issue will get my individual and undivided attention with a clear response to each challenge. I will trust my decisions and simply do it without second guessing myself or checking with an unknown entrepreneur whether my decision could be calamitous. I will ask the questions and answer them myself.
Once this process is done I will update my business plan to take my business to the next stage. My social media, mail and bookmarks will be cleared and restructured. I will trust my own instincts and follow those up with targeted research only. I need to remove the folders within folders (sometimes within more folders) before I run out of mouse pad space.
Life is like a department store, choose your floor and shop from the list. Shiny things distract and you end up with nowhere to put all your purchases. Be honest, did you even remember why you bought that?