You want your business to grow, right?  I mean, what business owner doesn’t? 

In my years as an accountability coach, I’ve yet to meet a single client who wasn’t interested in driving their business growth and doing so in the fastest amount of time possible.

And notice that one keyword there: Time.

Because there’s only ever 24 hours in the day, and how well you use them will directly influence how fast you can grow your business.

And so, on that note, let’s look at five things that you can do right now to help you get more done each day, and thus, drive business growth.

I’ve seen these simple tweaks work wonders with my clients, and keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive list by any means.

Drive business growth by setting clear goals.
Drive business growth by setting clear goals.

#1 – Set Clear Goals

This is the first thing I do with every single client I work with.

Why?

Because having clearly defined goals will show you exactly what tasks you need to prioritize each and every day.  

This takes the guess work out of what you have to accomplish each day and allows you to focus your efforts from the moment you start moving. 

You won’t be lost in big picture dreaming, or wasting time on tasks that won’t bring you the results you need. 

Instead, you’ll be busy in the trenches doing what it takes to drive business growth. 

#2 – Plan and Prioritize Your Day the Night Before

Believe it or not, this simple piece of advice once earned a consultant $25,000.  And that was in the early 1900s.  By today’s standards, that’s more like half a million dollars.

As the story goes, Bethlehem Steel Corporation CEO, Charles Schwab, was looking to improve the efficiency and productivity of his corporate staff, so he hired a respected productivity consultant, Ivy Lee.

Lee consulted with the Bethlehem team of executives, but declined any payment …unless his method worked.

Lee told Schwab, that he could send him a cheque for whatever he felt it was worth, and it didn’t take long before that cheque was in the mail.

So what exactly did Ivy Lee tell those executives?

He recommended that at the end of each day, to plan and write down the most important things you need to accomplish for the tomorrow.

Keep it limited to five tasks or fewer, and prioritize them from most to least important.

The next day, concentrate on the first task and nothing else. 

Complete that first task before moving on to the second one.

Approach the rest of your list in the same fashion.

If you have unfinished items at the end of the day, simply move them to a new list for the next tomorrow.

Rinse and repeat.  Every single day.

#3 – Block Your Calendar

This is another way of saying, “schedule your time”, but with a twist.

Instead of just scheduling a start time, block out an entire chunk of your time for a specific task.  This will improve your focus and ensure you finish the jobs that you start.

For example, Tuesday, 12:00pm – 2:00pm.  Batch emails for my subscribers.  Or whatever the task might be.

And one other tidbit:  Keep appointments with yourself like you would an appointment with your doctor or lawyer. Treat yourself with that same respect and don’t let yourself slide.  No excuses.

Drive business growth through strategic time-blocking, and you’ll see a huge boost in results.

#4 – Forget About Multi-Tasking

Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to stop everything altogether until a specific project or task is finished. 

But it does mean limiting interruptions, calls, meetings, emails, texts, scheduling or anything else that takes you away from your current focus at hand.

All those starts and stops kill your momentum and you can quickly lose focus, prolonging the time it takes you to finish a task or having to postpone and reschedule it altogether.

When you commit to a task, strap yourself in, dial up the focus knob and give it your full attention and dedication. 

#5 – Think Energy Management

We started this article with a mention of time.  And while time management is absolutely essential, energy management is also a key if you want to drive business growth

Because, I think we can agree that growing a business takes a lot of work, and to do a lot of work, you need a lot of energy, right?

And energy comes from sleep, exercise and proper nutrition.

So how are you doing with that?

Are you getting to sleep early enough?  Putting that phone away well before you want to be asleep so it doesn’t keep you awake? 

Avoiding caffeine after the early evening and doing some form of daily exercise?

How about avoiding processed foods, junk and empty calories and replacing them with whole foods instead?

Simple tweaks like this to improve your sleep hygiene and your nutrition will go a long way in giving you more energy and also greater mental clarity.

And if I can recommend one thing, it’s to be honest with yourself.  Identify and ruthlessly expose your weak links and make changes one at a time. 

This will give yourself some quick and easy wins so you can build your momentum without feeling overwhelmed.

And there we go.  More energy equals more action, and more action means you get to reap all the benefits today, and in the weeks and months to come.

Drive Business Growth by Taking Action

There you go.  Five simple business coaching tips you can apply right now to improve your productivity and drive business growth.

The only thing left to do is go do it.

If you’re ready for more info, you can check out the benefits of business accountability coaching.

Here’s to your success!

Nigel Cook
Accountability Coach

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