Setting up your own coaching and consulting business is exciting. It’s the chance to build the business of your dreams and lead the lifestyle that you truly want. It also brings some of the biggest challenges that you will face. One of these is keeping focused.
In a one-person business, you’re wearing all the hats – MD, sales, customer service, marketing director and finance manager. Not to mention ‘chief doer’ of the coaching and consulting services you provide.
So how do you focus your energy on the right things to keep your business moving in the right direction?
Here are two challenges that I have faced and how I’m learning, day by day, to overcome them.
1. Lack of time
This has been a challenge for me pretty much my whole life. I live a full life and there is so much I want to fit in. I am learning to make this work in my business by:
- Blocking out time for client work, marketing and admin, plus flexibility for life’s dramas that crop up.
- Joining a mastermind group of like-minded local businesses for inspiration and accountability.
- Using the free Toggl time-tracking app to see how long I’m spending on tasks.
- Keeping a list of tasks I can do when I’m on the move or in ‘wasted’ time, such as standing in a queue.
Simple things yet they make a big difference.
2. Getting distracted by the next bright, shiny idea
I have gradually tamed my innate FOMO (fear of missing out) by:
- Having a vision and a strategy of where I want to go in my business.
- Creating clearly defined products and services – this has taken me several years so don’t panic if you don’t have these in place from day one.
- Being focused and flexible at the same time – knowing that I can assess every new opportunity as it comes along.
- Reviewing my plans every 12 weeks – frequently enough to keep up with the fast-paced business world but not so often that I find myself chasing the latest craze.
Do these challenges sound familiar to you? What ways have you found to beat them? Or maybe your biggest challenges in keeping focused are something completely different. I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments box below.
Image credit: Annie Spratt via Unsplash
Some great tips there Lucy, thank you. Starting your own business whilst maintaining your current career adds to the challenge and I find that I’m needing to break new ground every day with regards to what I’m learning and how I am working. I look forward to receiving your forthcoming blogs.
Thank you for your comment, Jackie. Building a business while juggling an existing career is certainly challenging but also really rewarding. You’re right that there is something new to tackle every single day!