Social Distancing for Small Businesses

1. It’s not easy, but it is worth it.  Never be afraid of hard work. Something that seemed so natural a few generations ago, something that was revered and considered a key part of a good work ethic has become a challenge to circumvent. We hear things like “Work Smart, Not Hard” and rather than being a force for efficiency, it becomes a mantra for those trying to find the easiest way to get a job done. I am not opposed to that in theory, but there are many times when hard work is the shortest route to achieve your goal. Spending 45 minutes searching google for an example of the best way to write an email might have been spent buckling down and just writing that email. (don’t worry, we’ve all done it!)
2. You can do it all, but you shouldn’t.  I am a DIY gal at heart. I have taught myself photoshop, illustrator, and countless other software so I could save the money I would have paid a professional, and instead, I created what my business needed myself. In the beginning when I had more time than money this was usually a decent strategy, but looking back I wonder how much faster my business would have grown if I had been marketing instead of designing logos, business cards, and websites. I could find and work with great people for affordable prices (Fiverr anyone?) but at that time, and still today, I am the best at marketing my business and securing future profitability. 
3. Time spent planning is an investment.  Mind mapping, business planning, goal setting, these are all planning tools that often get brushed aside during the startup phase. They are seen as something we will get to one day, but that day rarely comes. These tools can be essential to identifying your ideas, narrowing your niche and creating strategies for success. Don’t shortchange yourself by skipping over them.
4. Big or small, you need a business plan.  Business plans don’t have to be 100 pages with charts, graphs, and endless financial worksheets. Business planning is an exercise where you put pen to paper and make sure your idea has merit. Developing a solid business plan can serve as your validation of your ideas and can create a roadmap for your business for years to come. 
5. Surround yourself with positive supporters, but listen objectively to the naysayer.  We have all been there, you have an idea that has you dancing around, talking excitedly to anyone who will listen and ready to take on the world…and then you talk to a Debby Downer who rains on your startup parade and has you doubting your future as an entrepreneur. When you are launching a business one of the best moves you can make is to find a group of like-minded individuals who can support you on your journey. They will help keep your motivation up, help you work through issues you encounter, and serve as a sounding board for future ideas. They will be your safe harbor when it feels like success is so very far away. Refuge with them, let their enthusiasm feed yours and keep you motivated, but occasionally invite in constructive criticism. Understand that the very best idea ever won’t be successful unless there is a market for it. 

If you’ve been around the MentoringU blog for any length of time, then you’ve probably heard me get on my soapbox about the benefits of 90 Day Plans. In 90 days you can accomplish amazing things. It’s the perfect amount of time. It’s not so long that you never reach your goal, and it’s not so short that you have to put off everything else in your life in order to make change happen. In 90 days you can Brainstorm, Plan and Execute.

One thing that is so important to remember is that sometimes getting started is the hardest part. A lot of the resources that we develop at MentoringU are intended to inspire action. Our action planner follows along with this concept. When we first developed the action planner, it really was an effort to help entrepreneurs think through what they needed to do to make a difference in their business. We wanted you to break down your goals into actionable tasks that you could put into action.

So for instance, if you want to build your email list to 5000 people… what are the actions that you take to get there? Your 90-day goal likely would not be ‘build my list to 5000 people.’ That’s not realistic for most entrepreneurs. However if the actions that you’re going to take to get to that final goal of 5000 people on your list include things like – conduct 3 webinars, develop a new lead magnet, and run $200 worth of Facebook ads…those are actionable items that you can put on your to-do list that will eventually help you get to your goal.

The action planner helps you take one goal and break it down into what tasks you need to do to be effective. Every one of those items that we just listed has other actions that need to happen before they become an effective promotion. You’re not just going to hop onto zoom and hold a webinar. You would be holding it to crickets.

You might need to

1. Develop an outline of what you’re going to teach.
2. Begin building your presentation
3. Create advertising graphics for social media channels and email
4. Create advertisements on Facebook and Instagram
5. Create a marketing email campaign
6. Hold a trial run of your webinar
7. Hold your webinar

What this really shows us is that even something as simple as ‘hold a webinar to grow my list’ has multiple steps and actions that come before it that will all take time and effort. Using a tool like the MentoringU Action Planner, or even just pen and paper, you can back out things to the lowest common denominator, the smallest task where you start and then begin to put that in play. To-do lists become difficult and we feel like we’re not accomplishing anything because we put big multi-step tasks on our to-do list.  We can’t cross off hold a webinar to grow my list until we have done everything else that it takes to lead up to having a webinar, to maintain momentum and motivation, we have to start thinking smaller.

Our single-minded, somewhat obsessive focus at MentoringU on the 90-day strategy is really an effort to help you start thinking smaller. If we work on the small tasks we begin to see big results. Our entire planner system, the online action planner, and most of the tools and resources that we provide in the skills lab are all focused on leveraging small building blocks to create a big success.

No matter what time of year it is right now is the best time to start planning. It’s never too late and you are always just 90 days from a more consistent and intentional business. What do you need to accomplish in the next 90 days to consider your direction and growth successful? Do you need to grow your list, do you need to develop new content, are you launching a new product, what is going to make this year a success for you? (And be sure you are defining success in both financial and emotional ways.)

Once you what you will consider a success, let’s back it out and figure out what steps we can take to accomplish that in the next 90 days. If you haven’t already given the online Action Planner a try. It’s going to prompt you to define a goal and a timeline, and then begin to break that down into actions that need to happen and tasks you need to tackle. When you finish it’s going to summarize all your inputs, and send it to you via email so that you can plug it into either your MentoringU planner or you can plug it into an online calendar like Google Calendar, just be sure to use something that’s going to hold you accountable. And if you need more accountability, come on over to the EntrepreDOERs Facebook group and let us help you.

Whatever method you prefer…just start somewhere! Pick a goal. Pick a task. Take action.