10 Areas You Need To Focus On To Turn Your Passion Into Profit (Part 2)
By Doug Bennett aka The Goals Guy®
Once you’ve established your business ideas and put some solid foundations in place, it’s vital that you reality-check your business goals against your life vision.
It’s common for new business owners to dream about the “freedom” that comes with self-employment – and with the right structure and discipline, you can stop your business from turning into a nightmare (where you work around the clock with few boundaries).
In this blog, we’ll explore five more topics that I cover with my coaching clients so that you can keep your dream alive and flourish in your personal life and in business (to see part one of this blog with the first five topics, please click here).
6) The entrepreneurial promise
Most entrepreneurs who leave a 9–5 job (and all of the perks and benefits that it offers) have promised themselves they’ll earn more money and enjoy a better quality of life when they’re self-employed. The first year is often a major wake-up call, especially when you discover just how much there is to do! It’s crucial that you take the time to tune into your vision so that you don’t lose yourself in the busy-ness of your business; and this vision is what will keep you going when you’re faced with challenges.
7) Acres of diamonds – do you have the right tools to excavate them?
Whenever you’re thinking of innovative ways to bring in new business, remember the phrase “acres of diamonds”. It’s the title of a book by Russell H. Conwell which tells the story of a man who had acres of diamonds underneath the land that he lived on; he had no idea and instead of excavating them, he travelled the world seeking wealth!
In other words, you often don’t need to look elsewhere for opportunity, achievement or fortune because the resources might be right in front of you. For example, look in your mobile phone and establish how many contacts you have; you already have a relationship with those people, so why would you use your precious time to try to build new ones? Imagine that you write wills for a living: how would you feel if your best friend’s daughter called you up and told you that your best friend died last week* and you know that he or she didn’t have a will? How would you feel?
Remember that you provide a valuable service – start to offer it to those who are nearest and dearest and let the ripple effect work its magic.
8) Automation and delegation
I’m not a technical person but I am a big fan of automating and delegating wherever
possible so that I can focus on delivering my expertise; you’ll save so much time and frustration when you automate. You might like to use a booking system (click here to read my previous blog 5 Online Tools That Free Up Your Time To Build Your Business) to ensure that clients only schedule an appointment by providing information you require in advance (for example, who the executor of their will is, or how they want to distribute their assets).
9) Devise a starter pack from the get-go
If you needed extra support in your business for one day, what could that person do without you talking them through every single step? Unless you have created a “how-to” guide or a set process, you’d spend your whole day training them, and your business and you would not progress (and the person would have been little or no support at all!).
When you create a “how-to” guide or starter pack from the get-go, you’re in an excellent position to bring in support at any point without wasting time. This guide can include the most basic scripts, such as the greeting you want them to use when they answer a client call, right through to how to put together an information pack (essentially, all the stuff that’s in your head and would be best on paper!).
You can also create templates that you use to make sure that you are delivering a consistent message in your elevator pitch or networking meetings.
10) Complete a brain dump
Running your own business is exhilarating and at times exhausting. You can have less of the latter by making time to clear your mind. Pour your thoughts, worries and ideas onto a blank sheet of paper and then colour code and prioritise the ones that require action. Click here to read my earlier blog How A Brain Dump Helps Entrepreneurs Reach The Next Level.
Further support
If you’d love my professional coaching support and advice around running a new business (or sorting out your current one!), click here to book a no-cost discovery call.
And if you’re wondering what to do between now and your discovery call, you might like to click here and buy my book to find out how I made the shift from financial oblivion to millionaire. It’s helped lots of readers get back in the driving seat.
* In my Financial Advice practice, when discussing life assurance or significant illness cover, I always kill my clients off last week, as I really do not want to tempt fate!