Have you ever felt totally overwhelmed because you were surrounded by clutter? When you work in a cluttered environment it crowds your thinking and easily distracts you. Not only that clutter wastes your time and your money.

John had an air conditioning business which he ran from his home office.
He found that whenever he didn’t keep his office tidy, his cash-flow would slow down.

When he did his invoicing to clients, he would lose money because he couldn’t include all the costs associated with each job. The paperwork would get buried under all the clutter.

What are you focussing on achieving in your business in the next 90 days?

Do you have any idea? If you don’t then you better come up with a goal or outcome otherwise you may find that another 3 months has passed you by and you’re no further ahead than where you are right now.

When you’ve got a clear focus, you can easily say ‘no’ to activities and people who distract you.

Simple things like turning email and mobiles off, closing the door, working elsewhere and only having what you need to on your desk all help to stay focussed, however there’s often other areas that take you off track. ..and that you can be completely oblivious to!
John’s Story

Gary has a business, employing 7 staff. When he contacted me he was at a point where the stress from his business was so bad, that he would constantly wake up 3 or 4 times a night worried about everything …his cash flow, staff, lack of clients and the affect all this was having on his personal well-being and family life.

He didn’t use a diary, had no way of planning and kept everything ‘in his The Productivity and Profit Homestudy System head’. Often his staff were idle because he hadn’t spent time training them. That ensured the work didn’t get done therefore causing Gary to lose clients.

This is it. The end of another year.
For some of you the next few days will either be frantic or quiet, depending on the business you are in.

I hope those of you who are quiet are spending your time reflecting on the past year and then wisely planning what you want to achieve for the new one. For the rest of you no doubt, January will be the time when future plans will be made.

Mary is a typical small business owner, she keeps herself busy doing the ‘hands on’ work. In her case it is doing beauty treatments and she told me she keeps doing this because she really enjoys it.

Her clients constantly told her how great she was, which made her feel appreciated. However it trapped her into staying ‘on the tools’. Mary had 5 people on her team, and she struggled with letting them handle her clients.  She also complained that it was challenging finding competent people. Mary stayed up late most nights working on her business doing the basic administration and ‘trying’ to squeeze some time in for marketing. There was barely any time for her to spend with her husband.