To be an effective leader and business owner, you must understand that you can’t always get the results you want, simply by working harder or trying for longer. You need to be the person who works smarter. To put a little distance or breathing space between you and the challenges you may be facing, so you get a broad overview of the whole situation, rather than a narrow, in the trenches viewpoint.
To step up as a business, you need to step back occasionally. It’s a tactic that not only helps you problem-solve more effectively but also determine the future direction and trajectory for you and your business.
Understand where you want your business to go
It starts with understanding where you’re headed as a business. As the sole person in your business, you started out doing everything alone. You had to take on every role in your business to achieve your goals.
But as your business grows, you reach a crossroads. Stay as you are or grow larger.
You may already have a small team in place, but are they the right fit for where you’re headed? Do you want to step away from being such an integral part of your business, or do you still want to be the heart and soul of it? Are you looking to grow it to 6 or 7-figures, or keep it small and intimate? You can only find the answers if you take the time to step back.
Get clear on the strategic plan to get you there
Stepping back gives you space and time to create a clear plan of action for your business. A strategic plan is an essential business document. Your plan is the framework your business will follow, to achieve the sales, growth and profitability it wants. It gives you a sense of purpose and a clear plan of action.
You can ascertain if you need to step up more, or step back, to achieve those goals.
Because whether you plan big or small, a strategic plan gives you the clarity, roadmap and motivation to take your business to its next stage of growth.
[Not sure if you need a strategic plan? Read Why every business needs a strategic plan. If you’re looking for help with creating your strategic plan, head here to find out more about my Strategic Mapping Session.]
Clarify what role you’ll play to achieve it
And that clarity will help highlight how best you can step up, to achieve the results you want. As the visionary of your business, you may relish the opportunity of bringing someone else on board to manage it all for you. You may decide that it’s time you started being the CEO rather than the business owner, so you can continue to be the visionary who has the dreams and plans. You can then hire an integrator to put those plans into action.
Because it’s your choice about how your business will look and grow.
And when you start stepping back to step up, you give yourself the gift of space and time, so you can decide what role you want to play in it all. Because running your business does take you on a massive journey. But as the visionary and leader, how that looks and is implemented is up to you. You decide whether you want to step up, back or aside to make that happen.
If you’re looking to ditch all distractions, and move forward with focus so that you can create your business vision with ease, get in touch. Let’s have a no-strings call and see how hiring a Director of Operations can give you space and freedom to not only step back to step up but also take your business to the next level.