Why I Keep Monday Mornings for Myself

When the work runs out, I promote. When the work comes in, I produce. Round and round.

I am by no means an expert on management. But I thought you might like to hear about one action that worked for me.

The up and down

As a sole trader, I do all the jobs in my company.

Week to week, I am so busy producing that everything else in the business gets ignored. When the work then runs out, I get busy promoting until the work comes back. Then I am busy producing again.

So I have a constant up and down, depending on whether I am producing or promoting. And nothing much else gets done. No wonder I never grew beyond this!

What I took from a weekly meeting

I started going to the weekly meetings of the local Business Expansion Club. What I liked most was that I got to step outside my business and look at it objectively.

So I decided to make a time to do that in my own business. After all, I created the business, so I needed to create in it.

I call it my "Executive Time".

What I do in it

Every Monday morning, I sit down and work out my statistics for the past week. Then I set my quotas for the new week and decide how I will reach them.

That tells me how, who and what to schedule for the week.

Of course, this only works if you have statistics set up in your company that measure your production in the key areas of your business. They are key to any success in business. Let me know if you would like help setting them up!

The rest of my Executive Time goes on the other jobs that would otherwise be ignored: studying any technical issues, planning a website to be set up, marketing and promotion, and anything else that needs doing.

That leaves the rest of the week organised and ready for production, and I know my customers are being serviced well.

What happened

Since I started, my statistics have been going up. My customers have been happy with the work, all done on time. And my business has grown as a result.

Then, a few weeks ago, I made a mistake. I scheduled a new customer on Mondays, so I lost my Executive Time at the start of the week.

I found myself not so in control of the business, and floundering a little.

My customer kindly agreed to move to Wednesdays. So I have my Executive Time back, and I look forward to it again next week!

If you try one thing today, pick a time each week to step outside your business, and keep it free.

As always, keep it simple and... Flourish and Prosper

Lisa