Focus on the Big Picture - Len McDowall
In my experience, most business owners are way to focused on the day to day running of their business and forget to focus on the big picture - corporate strategy which will allow them to get to where they want to go.
No matter what industry you’ve decided to be in, chances are the earlier days will be the toughest and require most of your attention. In fact the formative years, or if you are trying to grow, rarely will the business be running without some degree of stress and uncertainty.
The best way I’ve found to deal with this is to focus on the big picture. If you focus on the nitty gritty, it can all become to hard. And it’s emotionally draining as well. You can often feel depressed and deflated about the business because you may be putting so much in with little tangible results.
So how do you remain focused on the big picture? It’s easier said than done. So here are some pointers:
1. Get someone with solid business experience and big picture thinking to join your board as a non-executive director. And meet with them once a month as a bare minimum. Make sure they understand what your long term objectives are. They will then remind you of where you need to go and how to stay on track. Being non-executive, meaning they are not working within the business, will allow them to stay high level and not get caught up in the day to day operations of your business. And no company is too small for this.
2. Get a business mentor. This person is someone with “been there done that” experience. Pay them or somehow incentivise them to mentor you every few weeks or so. Mentoring is simple - you go to them with your problems for that week/fortnight/month and tell then about it. They then tell you how to fix it. Then you go and do it! It’s no use having a mentor if you don’t use them. They can keep you motivated and heading in the right direction.
3. Education. You need to keep learning about how other people are doing it both in your industry and others. So read business books, read success biographies (such as Richard Branson or Arnold Schwarzenegger), attend seminars, conferences and events that can help you improve your knowledge on business. You need to schedule into your diary to focus a minimum of two (2) hours a week to continuously build your knowledge.
I have met and interviewed many very successful entrepreneurs and this is exactly what they do. So I know it works. If you do one, two or preferably all of the above, it will go a long way to ensuring your business is successful. One thing is for certain, if you don’t lift your business thinking to a higher level, it will be almost impossible for you to reach your personal and/or financial business goals.