“Today is my last day with the company.
”With one phone call and a brief conversation, my time in Corporate America as an Executive was over. I was both thrilled and elated because years of working double duty as an Executive by day and a CEO by night was over. Or, so I thought.
Now, looking back over the first two years of being a full-time business owner, I can honestly say I’m thankful for taking the time to prepare all that I needed within the business before making the big leap. However, I would soon learn that all of the preparation in the world doesn’t help when the business world throws you a curveball.
Within the course of my first two years of business, I would not only become the CEO, Chief Strategist, Marketing Specialist, Executive Assistant, and Collections Representative but I would also be responsible for creating a vision to grow the business.
What I quickly learned was that the same skill used to multi-task my days within Corporate America and then as a new business owner was the core fundamentals in growing the business. If this is your goal, which I know it is because you see the value in charging for the services you have to offer and expect a handsome reward in return, then here are three steps in “Business Growth 101 – Keeping it Simple”.
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- Delegation – As soon as profit, of any size, is available to hire help within the business I would recommend you do it. Whatever tasks that you handle repeatedly each day in the business find someone else to take care of that. Don’t have processes and procedures documented? This should not be something to stop you as you can expand the job description to include the new team member to take on this responsibility.
- Tithe & Offering – I cannot emphasize the importance of giving back to the One that provides it all to us. Scripture tells us to tithe a tenth of our earnings. Wwhen I first started doing this in my business it seemed as if it would put me into hardship. It was only after I realized that through my giving builds a covenant with the Lord that will cover me in times of need. Before we move on to the next point, allow me to clarify the point on giving. It isn’t that God needs our money, what He desires is our obedience to Him and that shows up as the sacrifice of giving financially.
- Keep Small Talk to a Minimum – One of the keys to success in the early stages of my business was that I kept socializing, lunches, coffee chats with friends to ‘after work hours’. It was important for me to keep track of my activity throughout the day and to create a schedule that would build the discipline I needed in the business. Keeping a schedule within your day as a CEO will help to settle the moments when anxiety creeps in and you start to doubt that any movement is happening in the business. Each day I would keep track of a few categories and at the end of the day celebrate a small win while also looking at what I could do better.
The categories I tracked then, and still, today, are:
- The number of sales consultations booked vs. How many consultations held
- Daily and Weekly Sales to Date
- How many hours of prospecting or follow up did I accomplish?
- Did I stay within the set hours that are allotted for non-sales activities?
This may seem stringent and just downright not fun the lesson is to create stability within your schedule, which builds a solid discipline within the business and from there the business can grow.
