Focus on the few -> Make meaningful impact now

Every entrepreneur is ambitious. It’s who we are. It applies across industries, business models and size of the business. With each stage of growth, a key to success is knowing where to focus and building skills for how to focus on the few to make meaningful impact now.

When you hear of successful serial entrepreneurs, you learn of their transition points. When they moved from being involved in all aspects of the business to less and less. Those that make the transition well are those that move from one stage to the next stage without stalling for long. They see what’s not working and they find the change that needs to happen.

Doing less to do more has become cliche and feels wrong. Focusing on the few (for now) can feel right. It’s not to ‘give up’ on all the ideas or improvements, it’s about FOR NOW. It’s about what is most important now and what will move the needle now. It’s about what which improvements will set up the others. And leaning into patience yet driven in the time spent on the few now to make meaningful impact on the business.

This idea is connected so much to the purpose of MWC monthly newsletters. It’s providing one meaningful tool to go from inspiration to implementation more!

When to stop being a jack-of-all-trades

There comes a time when you can’t keep doing what you’ve been doing.

What worked before is not working as well now.

One solution that can be tough to come to is when to hire extra help. A lot of my clients have little to no experience working with a consultant before so it’s tough to know is it the right time to hire a consultant. One of my favourite projects to work on with people is actually when they need to hire a new key position in their business.

Questions that I often ask to know whether it’s the right time include:

• What do you love doing and what to get back to?

• What do you want to lean in to more to lead the business forward?

• What is getting in the way? What is key to the business that someone else could do?

Energy is key to momentum. Being a jack of all trades is needed to start a business but not to grow a business. Whether it’s hiring a consultant to re-engineer or set up new roles and tools for the business (like I do) or hiring another project-based role or a new team member, it can free you to get back to what you love and to challenge yourself with new stuff that energizes you for the great opportunities on your doorstep. Trust when you know you know it’s time ;)

Software & Skills

Software does not solve a skills gap.

It is tempting to implement a new shiny software to solve a sills gap within a team. It’s all ready to go and the software seller does a great job showing how great it CAN work. The software may help with one area of the business, like project management/ planning, but if implemented without the right foundational skills, it will be a waste of time and money to implement too soon.

Being patient with ourselves, as business owners, leads to consistent progress and sustained success. Ask the question ‘what is the 2-3 steps before the software?’ ‘What consistent behaviours and results need to happen for the next 3-6 months for the next level of success in this area?’.

We all know the excitement of solving a problem then the disappointment over the thing that we thought would solve the problem falling short. Working on the 2-3 steps before the software will lead to the consistent progress we all want.

Check out the Plan-on-1-Page tool for growing your team’s project management skills in everyday ways today :)

Everyday ways

Tools connect ideas -> to -> action.

That’s how I see it :) Whether it’s a way of looking at a challenge in our mind or on paper, it’s still a tool. The more often we use tools, the more easily they come to mind to use them when we need them.

Here’s to a week of celebrating all the tools you already have in your toolbelt and to practice-practice-practice the new tools until they become your go-to’s.

Next Stage

What’s next on the to-do list? And next? And next?

I’ve become confident in the belief that when we take on big things, we have to have faith. We will not know all the steps in advance. We will know the next few steps and we will even know big milestones to reach along the path but we will not know all the steps between all the milestones from the outset.

When facing the next stage, we need the right next few steps and the big milestones. And have the ability and confidence to, as we hit a new milestone, to plan out the steps to the next milestone.

Here’s to a week of seeing the big picture and filling in the steps to get to the next milestone. I hope this week is full of confidence in what is coming for you. It’s on its way!