How Are You Treating Your Business?
I work hard. Often times you will find me answering emails at 2 in the morning and I have been known to stay up all night grading papers or preparing for a class or workshop. I try to always answer phone calls and spend lots of time helping others in their pursuit of entrepreneurship. Is this good? Will it make me successful? I’m not sure. It’s what I do. Sometimes we assume that if we just work hard, keep our nose to the grindstone, catch up whenever and however we can, we will be successful. I think about that a lot. The real answer may be found in the words from a cheeky young red-headed lad from Britain, who is taking the music world by storm and called one of those “You Oughta Know Artists”. He played at the Queen’s jubilee with Elton John and other famous musicians! In an interview with one of the tabloid magazines, (yes, I read them, especially on vacation) Ed Sheeran said he attributed his success to treating his music career” LIKE A JOB”. By day, he went into the music studio and recorded or wrote songs. EVERYDAY. okay, at least during the week. By night, he played gigs, whenever and where ever he could.
That got me to thinking. In the time I spend with entrepreneurs, I do notice a difference between the ones that treat their business seriously (I do that) and those that treat their business like a hobby. But what if I treated my business more LIKE A JOB? When we work as entrepreneurs, sometimes, especially, if we don’t have a full staff or hours where we have to be at the office or store, it is easy to merge our worlds together and work hard, maybe even work smart, but not necessarily stay accountable to the daily ins and outs of our business such as going to work everyday at a certain time, staying on task or worrying about meeting specific productivity agendas, goals or deadlines if there are no consequences (like getting fired or getting a pay raise).
Today, I’m paying attention. I came to the office, although later than I intended, because I answered a phone call from my husband about tile for our house and then my friend called about some personal issues she was dealing with and I felt it necessary to be there for her. That made me get to the office about 10 instead of 9. At the office, I got in a couple of hours before I got distracted by a few emails that aren’t work related but managed to capture my attention. Remembering that I’m holding the monthly Agency 12 meeting tonight, I note that I have to finish up early so I can clean up and prepare for this evening. Already it is lunch time and of course I’m hungry, so I order from downstairs so I can eat in and work on writing this blog. Back to work, more calls from my husband about tile, research on the tile, measurements, etc., back to work, a couple of personal calls, back to work, trying to get a proposal done, following up a speaking engagement, three calls (business related), more emails (business related) and now it is time to clean up, and finish preparing for my meeting. Wow, I didn’t even check FB!
Okay, so the final assessment, I was busy all day, I got a few things accomplished, (not everything on my list although I did finish my blog post), but if I had a boss, I think he/she would have fired me for all the personal time I took. Starting tomorrow, I am going to give a full month of acting like I have a JOB, and will report back on what I find. How about you? Are you treating your business LIKE A JOB?
xo, jan