Growing Our Business & Running It Too
There is a strange conflict between getting things done and getting more things to do… to translate that, the plethora of ingenious new
marketing strategies (well, pretty good ones at least) we have up the iThnk sleeve are currently getting pushed aside by the day-to-day business activities. We are putting heaps of effort into current tasks at the expense of implementing the strategies we know can help the business grow.
Personally I’d like to blog a lot more, I’m trying to read and comment on more blogs, I’m playing with more social media tools, and I’m giving things a crack I previously would’ve put in the too-hard basket. Why? Four reasons:
1) To practice what we preach to others.
2) To upskill and have more in-house capabilities.
3) To get some Google love.
4) To add value to clients by saying “yea sure” and having a willingness to give anything a crack. There isn’t anything that can’t be done, just people that can’t be bothered.
BUT the problem is creating time to complete these activities effectively. So I’ve been reading up about the best way to manage operational tasks whilst implementing new strategies. Alex Whalley’s blog has some good tips as to how to get into the right mindset. What iThnk will be the key for me is be to build up gradually without trying to do everything at once. Like Sam wrote is his work-life balance post, putting each activity into manageable categories, then allocating time for each is crucial.
A not-so-wise man once told me “there is only one way to eat an elephant… one bite at a time”. I don’t really want to eat an elephant so I’m going to take a one-bite at a time approach to world domination, oops I mean making our business a success.
I’d love to hear any suggestions or stories you guys have about how / how not to grow a business, and run it too.
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This post was written by Andy Moore (aka @MooreOfAndy). You can connect with him on both Twitter and Linkedin. |
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Sam Schuurman, Andy Moore. Andy Moore said: A problem we have @it=Thnk – Growing Our Business & Running It Too | iThnk.com http://bit.ly/a1AN8s [...]
Hi Andy,
These are great questions, most of which are somewhat dependent upon the type of business. For web-stuff that involves social media (blogging, etc.) I believe that it is essential to limit your time. Otherwise, you could end up only doing that.
I tend to put together a top 10 list each day of blogs to read. Everyday I fail because I also put a time limit on that activity. The key to that technique is that my true goal is 5, but I am prepared to visit 10. I apply this type of technique to pretty much all of the social media 'stuff' that I do every day.
Have a great day!
Hi Mark,
iThnk I need to do exactly that – set myself some targets and stick to em! Limiting time is an interesting thing for me to think about too… I often find myself playing round with something online then look at the clock and 3 hours have passed (sometimes without really achieving much).
Thanks for stopping by with some good suggestions!
Andy
Hey Andy, man there is some questions in here that have a plethora of answers (nice use of word so I stole it)
I think the important step is to seperate the goals from the objectives and FINISH what you started. Stick with these two universal truths and Ithnk that is the key.
In regards to the analogy, I came up with a killer last night and will be posting it tonight, I think it will hold a lot of relevance to this post.
Nicely questioned post though mate, (didn't get a trackback or pingback re: this?)
Hi Alex, sorry for the slack response – had a few days away on holiday to re-charge the batteries. The goals vs objectives is spot on for me. The overall goal isn't clear enough yet for the objectives to be meaningful. iThnk making a more concrete plan will help get things ticked off that contribute to achieving to whatever goal is set.
Cheers.
P.S loved the jigsaw analogy – very hard to complete the puzzle when you throw away the picture on the box (or never had it in the first place).