By Reuben Buchanan
Most businesses fail to focus on the big picture.
In my experience, most business owners are way focused on the day to day runnings of their business and forget to focus on the big picture stuff – the corporate strategy which will allow them to get to where they want to go.
No matter what industry you´ve decided to be in, chances are the earlier days will be the toughest and require most of your attention. In fact in the formative years, or if you are trying to grow, rarely will the business be running without some degree of stress and uncertainty.
The best way I´ve found to deal with this is to focus on the big picture. If you focus on the nitty gritty, it can all become too hard. And it´s emotionally draining as well. You can often feel depressed and deflated about the business because you may be putting so much in with little tangible result.
So how do you remain focused on the big picture? It´s easier said than done. So here are some pointers:
1. Get someone with solid business experience and big picture thinking to join your board as a non-executive director. Meet with them once a month as a bare minimum. Make sure they understand what your long-term objectives are and often they will remind you of where you need to go and how to stay on track. Being non executive, meaning they are not working within the business, will allow them to thinkbig and not get caught up in the day to day operations of your business. No company is too small for this. If you think your business is too small to have expert advice, then your thinking is too small to start with!
2. Get a business mentor. This person is someone with "been there done that" experience. Pay them or offer them an incentive to mentor you every few weeks or so. Mentoring is simple – you go to them with your problems for that week/ fortnight/month. They then tell you how to fix the problems. Then you go and do it! It´s no use having a mentor if you don´t use them. They can keep you motivated and heading in the right direction.
3. Education. You need to keep learning about how other people are doing it both in your industry and others. Read business books, read success biographies (such as Richard Branson or Arnold Schwarzenegger), attend seminars, conferences and events that can help you improve your knowledge. You need to schedule into your diary to focus a minimum of 2 hrs a week to continuously build your knowledge. I have met and interviewed many very successful entrepreneurs and this is exactly what they do. So I know it works. If you do one, two or preferably all of the above, it will go a long way towards ensuring your business is successful. One thing is for certain, if you don´t lift your business thinking to a higher level, it will be almost impossible for you to reach your personal and/or financial business goals.
I have met and interviewed many very successful entrepreneurs and this is exactly what they do. So I know it works. If you do one, two or preferably all of the above, it will go a long way towards ensuring your business is successful. One thing is for certain, if you don’t lift your business thinking to a higher level, it will be almost impossible for you to reach your personal and/or financial business goals.
