One of the great assets of every small business owner is their entrepreneurial spirit, drive and focus. Unfortunately, I’ve seen that amazing drive leave them blind to problems slowly creeping in. Worse, when potential needs come on the horizon they are ignored since it’s not critical today.
I shared the following with a client to help put things in perspective as we planned and set goals for the coming year. He found it helpful and hopefully you will too.
This morning we talked about identifying potential projects and goals and making a list of them all. In the process you discarded items because they’re “not a priority right now.” This is a good reason to not have them on the front burner. But they still need to be captured and re-evaluated later.
When you started your company 15 yrs ago, how important was a cell phone?
10 years ago, how important was email?
5 years ago you checked email (maybe) once a day.
2 years ago you didn’t NEED email on your phone.
1 year ago it wasn’t important to share documents with your employees.
A few months ago you were fine writing everything down in your [insert expletive] notebook. You didn’t need the RememberTheMilk.com or dedicated lists. And you could remember everything that needed to get done.
What’s tomorrow going to bring?
To repeat what I’ve said over and over again: Get EVERYTHING out of your head. Capture today. Review tomorrow.
Hopefully you found it helpful and will work to write down all your needs; even if they’re not fulfulled for another year.
All Things Dave 