Have you ever wondered what people are talking about when they say they’re giving something up for Lent? Lent is often described as a time of preparation and an opportunity to go deeper with God. This means that it’s a time for personal reflection. As we take a close look at our lives, I want to challenge us to take a close look at our businesses as well during this reflective season.
As we work to rid ourselves of bad habits and all things wrong, here are five bad habits that we feel you should give up and will help your business growth improve before the 40 days of lent is over.
- Procrastination. Do you think “It’s not urgent, there’s plenty of time” and end up doing something that you want to do rather than need to do? Then not actually getting anything done. It’s hard to realise that you have exactly the same amount of time as the likes of Richard Branson or Elon Musk (from Tesla), well you do. So what are your daily disciplines? Use the right type of task lists, prioritize the stuff that actually makes you money, plan the day before so that you can hit the ground running. Because whatever you don’t do regularly, by routine, by commitment has a habit of not getting done and Lent is all about changing habits.
- Wasting your marketing money. When John Wanamaker said that “half his advertising dollars were wasted, but the problem is which half” there was no real way to track marketing spend. Over 100 years later and there is no reason why you shouldn’t be tracking every piece of your marketing. There are plenty of tools out there allowing you to track your web traffic. As well as plenty of other tracking devices. Use them and ensure you can account for every single cent spent on marketing. This way you can also track what works and what doesn’t in your marketing output.
- Working ‘in’ your business rather than ‘on’ it. You’re doing well, and you’re busy, but are you busy doing the right things. The simple fact is that most business owners spend most of their time doing their thing (be it plumbing or running a driving school or being an accountant) rather than actually building their business. So when are you spending time today, tomorrow or the next day doing the things that will actually move your business in the right direction.
- Running your business with a blindfold on. You’d be surprised how many times we ask the simple question. Do you know how much profit you made last month (let alone last week) and get completely blank looks and very vague answers. The fact is that if you want to grow your business you need a handle on all the important numbers in your business ( “the numbers that really matter”). So spend some time during lent and get to know the numbers that matter in your business from profit to cash flow to cost per lead, life time value of customers etc.
- Listening to the wrong people. It is said you become the composite of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Are you spending time with the right people? Here at the business success club we have several ways that you can spend time with the right sort of people. People who are dedicating themselves to growing their businesses by significant amounts this year. They are not waiting for the right time, they are getting on and implementing stuff that really works. Do you want to be one of them? Find a circle that inspires and drives you to grow your business in the right direction.
Have a great time during Lent and let’s go out there and change the bad habits in our businesses and kick start your business growth.
