What Does Your Business Need Right Now?

One of the questions I ask clients all the time is, "What does your business need right now?"

It sounds like a simple question, but it's one many business owners skip. Instead, they jump straight to the next opportunity. Should I join this networking group? Should I start a podcast? Should I be on another social media platform?

Those aren't bad questions. But before we decide whether an opportunity makes sense, I want to understand the business. Where are clients coming from? What's working? What's getting in the way? What phase is the business in?

The better we understand the business, the easier it becomes to decide where our time, energy, and attention belong.

Opportunities are wonderful, but there’s always a sense of compromise. Each opportunity requires a different investment of time, energy, money, focus, and decision-making. They are not all equal.

When I'm working through an opportunity with a client, we're usually looking at a few things:

Capacity

How full is your plate? Do you have room to take on something else right now? Do you have the energy to take something else on with everything you’re already doing? 

Timing

Do you have the time in your personal life and in your business to commit to the necessary timeline for this opportunity? Is something else on the docket that you’ll have to move to another time, and will it be worth it?

Priorities

Do you have priorities right now that you have agreed to honor? What will happen if they take longer or get put on the back burner? Can you discern between quality and quantity?

For instance,  a networking event is not just 60 minutes of meeting people. It’s about prep time, follow-up, and travel time if it’s in-person.

Being a podcast guest is similar. You’re not just chatting with a friend. It’s an opportunity to share your thought leadership. You’ll have to prepare, then you’ll have to promote the episode. If podcasting is a new platform for you, you might rehearse your content, explore your analytics and those of the podcast.

I asked a business owner I was working with where their referrals came from, and they said most of them came from long-time relationships. Keeping those connections is where she should spend her time. That answer can change. Something that works right now may not be the best answer in six weeks or six months. There may come a point where she needs to spend more time meeting new people. At that moment, though, her business needed her to strengthen the relationships she already had.

I had another client, a creative entrepreneur who had an abundance of opportunities, each one of them unique. She decided to choose three smaller tactics, and her business has flourished. As we discussed her capacity, her goals, and what has worked for her in the past, we were able to make decisions about which opportunities were the right ones to focus on now. Once we understood her goals and capacity, the right opportunities became much clearer.

One business owner came to me frustrated that their strategy wasn’t bringing the results they wanted. But their strategy was misaligned with their audience, their chosen platforms, and their timing. So we took a step back and worked on building relationships first. The strategy wasn't wrong. It just wasn't what the business needed at that point.

Most opportunities are good opportunities. It’s probably a great networking group, or a wonderful podcast, or a valuable marketing strategy. You need to replace “what should I do next?” with “what does my business tell me it needs next?” 

• Where do things get stuck?

• Where are you getting your clients from?

• What activities actually produce results?

• What has become harder as you and your business have grown?

The business owners I work with find success when they are making decisions based on their goals, their capacity, their data, and what’s most important right now. They don't necessarily need more ideas. They need to spend more time paying attention to what their business needs right now.

And the more in tune you are with what your business needs right now, the easier it becomes to decide what deserves your time, energy, and focus.

If you’re ready to build a structure that will help you follow through on what really needs to get done, you should consider my CEO Momentum Community. It provides weekly rhythm with other like-minded businesswomen working to move their businesses forward.