Focus Your Efforts (Or How to Stop Multitasking and Start Growing)
As a business owner, you probably feel pulled in about a million different directions. And that’s on a good day.
With the enormous amount of things you have to manage and always a few fires to put out, it’s easy to get distracted from the big things. And by the big things, we mean your main offer, your short and long-term goals, and what your audience really wants and needs. In other words, the foundations of your business.
Never fear; there is a solution. And the solution is … focus.
Easier said than done, right? Let’s walk through what it looks like to ditch multitasking, say goodbye to distractions, and finally make progress on your goals.
Why a lack of focus is hurting your business
As an entrepreneur, you’re no stranger to hard work. And that’s something to be proud of. You’re a doer. And the world needs more people like you.
But all that doing—especially doing all the things in your business (and doing them forever because you’re convinced you do them best) is one of the biggest stumbling blocks we see our clients facing.
Staying busy is not inherently good.
We don’t doubt you’re serious about growing your business, but … how do you spend your days? Switching tasks every 20 minutes? Taking a few steps forward on a project before turning your attention to the next thing? Staying in creation mode instead of research or marketing mode? Busy doesn’t always equal good. As a business owner, your job is to identify what matters most and work on that.
Listen, we love a good tangent. Hours of ideation and daydreaming. Sometimes those “unproductive” days can help you stumble upon a new idea. But if you want to hit financial marks, scale your business, and reach big goals, you have to focus.
To do anything else can quickly turn your passion into discouragement, anxiety, and stagnation.
Keep it simple
So many people associate simplicity with “basic.” With “not good enough.” We actually take the totally opposite approach. Simplicity is beautiful. It’s effective. And it’s impactful.
When it comes to scaling your business, first and foremost, consider how simple you can make the steps to getting there. When the path is clear and defined, you tend to travel it a little more quickly.
We recommend focusing on one goal at a time. Just one primary objective. That might be building your list and engaging your audience ahead of a launch, or it might be finally systematizing, automating, and refining your email campaigns. Or maybe it's conducting research and optimizing your offer.
What’s the one thing you’ve been wanting to make moves on? Maybe ten things spring to mind. But just choose one for now.
There’s a season for everything
After you’ve chosen your one thing, commit to it.
If you're a commitment-phobe, don’t worry. This isn’t an until-death-do-us-part situation. We’re just asking you to commit to focusing on that one thing for a season.
A season can be three months, it can be a quarter, it can be half of the year, or even a whole year if you want. The point is to set aside a reasonable amount of time to dedicate to the one goal you’ve chosen.
Everything else? Eliminate it or delegate it if you can. Say no to new things (or at least “not right now.”) And then commit your energy, effort, and focus to your goal.
We promise you’ll build a lot of momentum. And probably a whole lot faster than you think.
Where you focus matters
When you select one goal to focus on for a season, here’s a bit of advice: don’t choose the easy thing. Choose the thing that truly needs to get done.
We see a lot of entrepreneurs avoiding some of their most essential work. The stuff that could springboard their company from so-so to through-the-roof.
Why does this happen? Most of the time, it’s a result of fear.
Maybe you know that you need to connect with your people—your audience. And they’re on LinkedIn. But you agonize over posting original articles and networking. It’s time to put your anxiety aside and get yourself out there so the right people come to know and trust you.
Or maybe, time and time again, you put all your energy into building out new offers instead of optimizing your main one. There’s nothing wrong with creating multiple revenue streams! In fact, we encourage it.
But before you tack on more products and experiences, make sure that your main one, the big one, your flagship, is optimized to generate the revenue you need. Put your energy there first.
Why focus is a game changer
We swear focusing on a single goal for a set period of time will revolutionize how you make progress in your business.
But you might be wondering why this works better than multitasking for eight hours a day.
Because when you focus on one thing at a time, you master it. Not only do you make progress in your business, but you become something of an expert in the area you’ve been pouring your energy into.
And guess what?
Your mastery of that thing tends to make every goal you tackle after that a little bit easier. It allows you to go deeper.
Say hello to a whole lot more confidence.
Offering you tips, tricks, tools, and methods to streamline your business so you can skip the trial-and-error and get straight to more freedom, cash flow, and momentum is kind of our thing at Encore Empire.
We want to see you step into your role as a visionary, confident business owner.
If you want weekly live learning, join us in our Facebook Group, the Empire of Unstoppable Women.