Owner Focus Tips
How do you know if you’re focusing on what you should focus on, as a business owner / leader? It’s SO HARD to not get lost in the weeds. Here are some leading questions that might help as you ponder this one.
Where’s Your Next Blue Ocean?
Is there anything you can do that's NEW to increase revenue? I like to think of something brand new each year to shake things up. I love the idea of "Blue Ocean Strategy" for this. Instead of doing more of the same, staying in the same overly competitive market, all providing different flavors of the same, how can you adjust and modify and go into new, less competitive market space without contradicting your current mission? Can you modify TT, do more TT's, retreats, is there a new related service you could bring in?
Who Owns The Less Desirable Jobs?
Who owns Operations, Cleaning, Hiring & Training? These are big jobs and you want to be clear about who is doing what. With more and more locations, more and more staff, I might worry about this getting swept aside and I see studio after studio suffer for it.
Delegate More. Dammit!
What do you love about your current job? What do you dislike? How can you Delegate More? How can you delegate those tasks that weigh you down? Do more of what you like? Be clear and honest about these things and work towards the work that lights you up, a schedule that helps you stay sane, and boundaries! It’s a great idea to tell your team the best way to contact you and when. You don’t have to be on 100% off the time forever. I told my staff I would not respond to texts between 7pm - 7am, unless it’s a true emergency.
The Undone
What isn't getting done that needs to? Can you find the time for it? Do you want to? Can you hire someone to help with it and somehow tie their compensation to performance? For me, this was marketing and teacher feedback and class consistency. I never found the time!
It’s hard to keep sane in adult work life, isn’t it? It’s even harder when you take on a business or role you are super passionate about. Often, that passion blinds us to our successes, and where we can best spend our energy. For example, I could hire yoga teachers easily, we had so many trainings in town at my studio and others. So, why was I teaching 25+ hours per week? Part of it was that I love teaching, but not at the expense of the evolution of my studio baby. Good luck with that ever elusive work life balance. It’s never perfect.