The Business Of You – Part 3
May 27th, 2021 // 11:12 am @ Scott Manning
We’ve invested the last couple weeks into the “Business of You” and working on making yourself more valuable to your life and to your business. The fact is most entrepreneurs just get caught up in working their business as a job and they still never break free from living pay check to pay check. The only thing that gets bigger and better is their lifestyle expenses but with that comes a burden of requiring more effort to sustain it.
When you step back and ask yourself what is the return you are getting on you as a business, you think differently about everything from life balance, dedicated family time, to the organization of your actual business as a whole. You learn to not just look for but to create more leverage over your results so that you can have a better and healthier business of You.
I hope you’ve been inspired to consider just how you are taking care of yourself… your mental, emotional, and physical health. What you are putting into your mind and your body – what you consume in every way from your reading to your environment to your friends to your food affects your output.
None of this means not to have fun and actually quite the opposite. It gives you more autonomy and the ability to have fun. At the same time, it is true that you signed up for it. The responsibility of it all. You hired yourself, you understand.
I’m going to say that again. You hired you. That’s why you should make it worth it, make it fun, make it everything that you could ever imagine it to be.
And you should be very realistic with the facts of life and business that if you want things to be a certain way in your life then you have to do certain things to create and sustain it.
Which brings me to a very important point as we head to a close on the “Business of You” as actual CEO and Lead Investor in yourself… remember that while growth and expansion of the company is critical (and on the personal front that means your own knowledge and skills is as important as anything else), stay focused on your ultimate goals and the fundamentals that will get you there.
Often what happens with entrepreneurs, whether it’s because of bright shiny objects or flat out boredom or just getting caught up in the doing of it all, they forget to care for the foundation of the business, to pay attention to the things that got them to where they are, and they don’t value reinvesting in the maintenance of the business.
You know what happens when you neglect maintenance on other things whether buildings or automobiles or equipment. So, bluntly, in the business of you, are you going to be a CEO who values and focuses on maintenance and sustainability by being proactive and focused on the long-term success or are you going to be reactive and only deal with problems when they arise.
The result is: the more proactive you are, the more you will have the ability to be in control and have more time, energy, and resources to invest into the future versus the alternative where every resource is depleted, there is no time to ever do anything because someone is always trying to solve problems, and everyone is consumed with just keeping the ship upright.
Okay, question time…
In your life and business, what would you consider your foundation that must never be neglected and deserves proper maintenance?
Your people, your customers, your marketing, your experiences, your systems, your profitability, and your deliverables. It’s easy to stray far from the fundamentals – inherently, they are dull and rarely change. Yet, that’s exactly why you built a foundation upon them.
It’s about doing what is necessary to keep your business running at a tip-top shape and everything dialed in to prevent problems before they happen.
This is about one of the greatest responsibilities of a smart business owner and a successful CEO – the caring for the ship itself – not just for where it’s going, not just for what it carries in its hull, but for simply how it stays sails.
Avoid being short sighted or giving into the immediate gratification of the rush of success that is easy to have once in a while; whereas the building of something that is sustainable is not nearly as alluring but the results and the significance that can be achieved are so much greater.
When you look back at the job description you wrote week, did it include any mention of this?
How can you better prioritize your time, energy, and effort to work on proactive initiatives that bring together a balance between sustaining and growing, stability and ambition, core principles and exciting opportunities. Achieving this perfect balance will result in a greater return on your investment.
When it comes to the business of you, it’s far better to have a steady hand that might bring about a little less exciting and adventure but the net gains from your consistency and stability will be far bigger.
And don’t forget, once you capture those larger returns, you’ll have the ability to take bigger risks and pursue the more extreme opportunities with life changing potential because you will have built a solid foundation in your life and business. All because you put the time in now to chart your course and right your ship.
Category : Blog
