In Ecclesiastes, we read that there is a season, a time for every matter, under heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal. That is some of the best business advice I have ever gotten. It's all about productivity and efficiency.
So many of my business conversations lately have centered around questions like, “Should I do this? Should I do that?”
People asking me, where they should focus? How do I know what the next step is? How do I know what God is, is asking me to do next? And they're looking at all of these things that are all good things and having to decide what is the best.
And so how do we decide. What season is your business in? How do we decide what is the thing that I'm supposed to be doing next?
What is productivity and efficiency in business?
What season is your business in? How do we decide what is the thing to be doing next? So, I want to offer a couple of thoughts on this idea that you can be busy and not do a single thing that is worth wild. We can be busy doing all the things, all the social media and all the blog posts, all the podcasts and all the YouTube episodes and all the, you know, all the things. Busyness doesn't equal productivity.
But if you don't know why you're doing it, then all of this is just sort of empty clutter in your business and life. Your actions can actually be empty actions. Yes, it's activity. Yes, it's energy being expended. But for what purpose? You need to know why you're doing each task. When you know why you're doing it, that will inform the decisions of what you do next so that you can run your business with more productivity and efficiency.
How does productivity impact growth?
Kids are always asking why, why, why. They don't just want to know what or how, they want to know the why behind it. As adults, we need that for our business.
So why do you do what you do? What does it do for you as the owner as well as your customers and clients? What does it do for your students or your alumni? How about the random onlooker who hasn't decided whether or not they're going to buy from you? When you understand the why's of those things, it informs your decisions. It helps you make better decisions.
When you understand the why, that allows you then to set aside the distraction of the busy-ness. Then you can increase productivity and efficiency, meaning your efforts will have greater impact. Instead of chasing what you “should do.” you will focus on those activities that grow your business.
What to Do When for Business Success
You are probably wondering. “What is the best thing that I can be doing?”
You can't make those decisions unless you know what season your business is in. What goal are you working towards in your business? What is the thing that's going to move you closer to your goal? So if you're sitting there saying, “Oh you know, I could, I could spend my time trying to get people lined up to have conversations with and invite them to my course or my high ticket program, or I could go and update my website.”
Well, the easiest thing to do is go and spend a few hours on your website, but that's not going to be the thing that directly impacts people signing up. They're not going to sign up. If you don't invite them to a conversation and they don't have a conversation with you, they aren't going to sign up.
So, the best thing that you could be doing right now is setting up those conversations, reaching out to those people, making those invitations.
Once you, get this next thing launched, then you'll have the money maybe to hire out the website you need. The website is important. I'm not downplaying that at all. It is your business card, so to speak, but when your focus and your goal is to raise income by launching your thing or getting X number of people into your next program, the website can wait.
This is exactly what I needed to hear. I get caught up in ‘all the things’ for various reasons, partly to avoid doing the uncomfortable thing in my business. Then I get upset with myself for allowing those things to get in the way of my goals. Thank you Katie!