Sometimes in business you feel like you lose your purpose and things just get too hard.  This is when you need to stop and think, even if you believe that you don’t have time to think. 

When I ran my multi-million company (which I sold) there was a lot to do and mostly I loved it.  There was one time where I stopped and thought what my purpose was and how can I get to the next stage in my business.  I then called a mentor of mine who said “Sit back in your chair and put your feet up on your desk then your hands behind your head and just think”.  He also asked me to do this once every week for an hour and then document my ideas. 

I tried this and came up with some great ideas on how to increase efficiency, productivity and most importantly billable time.  I then documented my plan and presented it to my staff along with some training in line with the objectives.  The results were outstanding and generated over $10,000 additional revenue in the first month. 

Now that you are reading this I want you to make a list of the top 5 business issues that you have.  Just jot them down on a bit of paper. 

The next step is to prioritise them in order of importance and we’ll just work on the top two for now. 

Now get two pieces of paper and write the issue at the top of the page.  Draw a line down the centre of the page and make two headings.  “Change Benefits” and “Change Threats” 

Now list down the benefits of making the change.  Do the same with the threats but also write down the consequences of not making the change in this column.  Be totally honest. 

If you really wanted to address the issues then you will have more benefits than threats. 

It’s now time to take action, so make an action plan on how and when (set a date) the plan will be implemented.  Communicate this with your staff members or customers and reap the rewards. 

I did this with the objective of working less and taking lots of holidays.  After implementing the plan and seeing the results I booked two trips away, each of them 3 weeks apart.  My business ran extremely well when I was away so my plan worked.  As it worked so well I was then able to take another six weeks leave over the year which once again gave me time to think so the cycle continued. 

Your feedback would be appreciated so please leave a comment.