Take A Break From Work And Look At Your Business!

posted by Christopher on November 10, 2008

{{chris}} As a business ower you need to remember to take a break from doing work and have a good look at your business!

As owners we’re laser focused on developing our business. Many things in the business compete for our attention and we try to work on them all. Developing new business, working on existing clients, hiring, marketing, collecting money, and more. After a while though you may realize that you’ve not worked on your business in a while. That’s why I’ve learned to do this one particular task atleast once a month.What is it?

Take a break from working and actually look at your business to see what’s going on. What’s working, what’s not. Are clients generally happy with the results their getting? How is your staff doing? Are they busy and motivated or bored and not challenged?  All of these things are signals to you about how your business is doing. I happen to be more on the technical side of the business so here are the things that I like to do a reality check on at least once a month:

  • Current Customers. Are your teams delivering for the customer you’ve already got? What challenges are they faced with and how can you help them?
  • New Customers. Are your teams starting new business on time or are they too busy to get new projects going? Maybe you need to do some hiring.
  • Your staff. How are your staff doing? Is anyone standing out as being stressed, overworked or bored? Pay attention to the signals and address issues head on. Be fair and blut but get to the point fast and help them out.
  • Sales and Marketing. Is the sales team firing on all cylinders? Do they need more technical training or technical assistance in sales calls? Find out how they are doing and see what you ca do to help.
  • Accounting. How is the accounting team doing? Are they accounting for all of the extra work you do that should be billed for? Find out and make sure they have what they need. Perhaps you have to change some internal processes?

Every business is different so you’ll likely have different areas you need to look into. I promise – if you take the time to look at your business you’ll be on a more direct path to growing a successful business sooner. By paying attention to what’s happening in your business you have the opportunityto proactivey drive it i the right direction instead of reacting to situations when they bubble over.

So, take a moment right now and schedule some time your calendar each month to take a break and do a reality check on your business.

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Comments (11 Comments)

  1. » Take A Break From Work And Look At Your Business!
    November 10, 2008

    [...] Accounting . How is the accounting team doing More [...]

  2. judith
    November 11, 2008

    How right you are. My husband has been self-employed for 25 years and works far too hard. I wish he would take some time to chill out and relax, but he always says “I’ve got work to do”. My reply is, “I know, but it won’t matter if you leave it for half a day”, but work always wins. Whilst I admire his determination and commitment I do fear for his long term health.

  3. Aurelius Tjin
    November 11, 2008

    That’s very true! I take periodic vacations off work as I have a home business too. I would stop to ponder on things and get back refreshed and with more fresh ideas for better application on my online business.

    It pays to stop and smell the grasses, instead of overworking yourself in search for the proverbial ‘greener pasture.’

  4. ferienhaus in danemark
    November 12, 2008

    This is true, it is essential that you take a break from your usual job in your business to check what’s really happening inside. Just like in painting, after painting for some time, you must pause or stop painting for a while and step back to see how it looks so far and assess if you painted it evenly.

  5. Bella
    November 14, 2008

    Been there done that, was heading in the wrong direction, until i realized, I made no money.

  6. Mind Power Blog
    November 20, 2008

    Some great. Especially as a freelancer, I’m always stuck with the accounting stuff. Chris always thinks outside the box in his every article.

  7. Mark @ the anniversary Gifts
    November 20, 2008

    I should do this once a month, but I’m lucky if I do it twice a year. When I do step back and take a look I always find things that can be improved, some small and some large. Just this last time I found we were losing hundreds of dollars a month in shipping costs because of the way items were being ordered in small quantities by each department, now orders are grouped together for huge savings.

  8. alan adı
    November 23, 2008

    you are so right…but the inner evil drives us to go on with the usuals. but from time to time have to step back and have to look some different on our business.

  9. Big Marketing For You » Blog Archive » Take A Break From Work And Look At Your Business!
    November 25, 2008

    [...] ckata wrote an interesting post today onTake A Break From Work And Look At Your Business!Here’s a quick excerptInternet Marketing Toronto AKA Christopher Kata As a business ower you need to remember to take a break from doing work and have a good look at your business! As owners we’re laser focused on developing our business. … [...]

  10. Justin
    December 1, 2008

    Your post is especially true right now. With everything going crazy in the economy and the markets, it is easy to get caught up in everything that is going on and not pay attention to your employees and/or customers.

    Very good and timely advice!

  11. Muqeet
    December 1, 2008

    and what is work is my business , then waht ?

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