💪 Regaining control & getting things done

When we first started together my client, Benoist, complained that he worked a lot but felt like he got nothing done.

A few months later he was able to take a whole month of holiday knowing his team would handle everything, has started paragliding again, and hardly touches his emails.

Benoist had a team, but it felt like he was constantly fighting fires, treading water, swamped, surviving but not thriving. His business was stagnant and it was frustrating.

He worked so hard, why wasn’t it going anywhere?

I asked him to describe his day. He, like many business owners, started his day by dealing with the tasks that he deemed most urgent. He replied to customer emails, he told his team what they should focus on, he dealt with delivery. This felt right, but it was wrong.

The fundamental cause of his problem was a lack of proactivity.

He felt swamped because he started his day by reacting. He reacted to his customer’s emails, to his team’s situations, to orders. These things are important, but WHEN they happen is equally important. Important is not the same as urgent.

When you start your day by reacting to situations it is incredibly difficult to switch to being proactive. A successful business requires you to be proactive. People neglect proactivity due to busyness.

Feeling busy is often very different from being busy.

We are busy when we really do have a lot of things we need to do. Defining “need” is critically important here, and something I always do with clients.

We feel busy when we lack control of what we do. When we react.

With Benoist, we made a simple tiny change that completely turned his business around: the first hour of his day was for proactive time.

He was not to reply to emails, or even his own team, for the first hour of the working day.

Just one hour.

They say “Your email inbox is a to-do list created by other people." If you want to get the most important things done each day, they’re not hanging out in your email. And I’ve never known an email that truly can’t wait an hour.

He was hesitant at first, but committed to the change.

That one change alone allowed us to get more done in a week than had been done in a year previously.

We worked on things that made a real different to the business. We introduced a 3PL, we overhauled his ads strategy, we introduced proper forecasting.

I have only been working with Benoist for a short time, but in that time we have:

• Significantly improved his revenue

  
  

• Allowed him to take his first proper holiday in years. He took a month off, and his business didn’t burn down (much to his dismay!).

  
  

• Replaced low value manual work like packing and shipping with high value work like strategy (and time off!).

A few months can make a big difference. 5 hours per week is PLENTY to make a significant improvement in your business, even including time you spend with a coach like me. You don’t need as much time as you think.

What would I suggest for you? It is always hard to be specific without more context of your situation, but I yet to see a person where switching to being proactive for the first hour of the day doesn’t significantly improve their business and their life.

Don’t deal with email for at least the first hour of your day. Nobody will begrudge an hour, your customers won’t mind, and your business will thank you for it.

1 minute 28 seconds video: Benoist has completed conquered his emails

54 second video: Revenue is up, and everything is easier

Benoist: “I really have the strong feeling I could close my eyes and say, Anam, go for it”. His business now pretty much runs itself. The dream.

I shared this in my Work Smart Wednesday newsletter. Want the full set of related insights? You can read them here: https://worksmartwednesday.substack.com/p/work-smart-wednesday-august-14-2024

👋 Want to work together?

When you’re ready, here are 2 ways I can help you:

🔍 Clarity Call - We will discuss your situation and create a step-by-step action plan together so you know exactly what you need to do next for maximum impact

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