Don’t be too busy to enjoy what you do.

For the past three years I have worked with inspirational business owners, dealing in a variety of sectors from tarmacking to search engine optimisation and helping each and everyone to identify and plan the achievement of their goals and objectives.

What is remarkable is that every one of these fantastic people had the same problem, they were to busy for the most important things in life, life itself. The business and the people within were being so demanding that the whole reason for creating the business, in the first place, was lost.

I have learned that the most important thing in life is enjoyment, if you don’t enjoy something then why do it? Don’t get me wrong, I know that sometimes we all have to do things we don’t like doing and life itself throws us the odd curve ball but on the whole it should be enjoyable.

My first objective when meeting a prospective client is to discover what they truly want, whether it be to grow the business, have more time, work less hours, semi retire, hand down to siblings, keep the business as it is or to just sell the lot.

The above seems to be the easiest thing to achieve however this is what usually takes the most time. It is rare that a business owner or senior manager is asked to consider what outcome they want for themselves and in what time scale, most business drivers never take the time to ponder and instead just keep the same old wheels turning.

My job is to interrogate the business and its owner, determine what is desired then plan, plot and communicate how that desire is to be achieved and by when. We all think we know what we want and if we do then we don’t always know how to get there and I must admit, sometimes neither do I, but between the staff, owner and partners we manage to achieve some, if not all of the desired goal.

Being the business owner, MD or senior manager can be a very lonely place, everyone looks to you for all the answers and you are fortunate if you have someone to bounce off, most SME’s don’t, therefore work is taken home embroiling partners in decisions and encroaching on the really important stuff, Life…

I teach and offer advise more from the mistakes made than the successes achieved because if you can avoid the mistakes you can only have success.

Take the time to ask yourself if you still enjoy what you do, if your staff enjoy working with you, what you may want from the business and most importantly how to get it? and if you need help just let me know.