I’m one of those creative, distracted-by-shiny-new-ideas entrepreneurs (you too?).

I’m really good at using my noggin to come up with really interesting new ideas, metaphors, language.

I’ve had more product and service ideas than I can possibly tell you (mostly because I can’t remember what half of them were).

In short: I’m obsessed with ideas.

Having ideas is awesome. Seth Godin says that you need to have more bad ones.

But it’s also a double-edged sword. Being obsessed with ideas means that there’s not a whole lot of action.

Are you constantly setting goals and then not finishing them?

As entrepreneurs, we tend to rebel against our own plans out of boredom.

Do you ever get distracted by “sexy” activities like picking fonts, tweaking your website, reading self help books, business books, other people’s blogs, watching Netflix?

Do you have the same goals on your vision board year after year? You almost want to pretend that you don’t care because you’re sick of being disappointed.

Do you feel like your business is growing as slow as molasses?

Are you sick of watching other people skyrocket to success in .2 seconds while you sit and wait for your time?

I believe that you struggle with staying focused on your goals for 3 reasons:

#1 – Saying “yes” to one thing means saying “not right now” to other things. Making a choice means being courageous. You can’t prioritize everything. In fact, when it originally entered the English language, the word “priority” didn’t have a plural form.

#2 – The actions that you *should* be taking are boring and scare you.

We’ll get into what those actions are in a minute, but here’s the thing: The things you should be doing to grow your business often require you to be vulnerable and do work that you don’t want to do. Whoever said that “if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life” was lying to you. You have to fall in love with doing the work as much as you are with the destination.

 

“Be as patient as you are ambitious.”

Gary Vaynerchuck

#3 – You don’t have a system to keep you focused.

I used to set my yearly goals every December… until I learned that successful people don’t do that. Successful people set goals every quarter, month, week, and day. They focus on right now because right now is when you need to take action. Not in 3-9 months. Things will have changed drastically by then.

I’ve been (and still am) guilty of all 3 of those things. Being a dependable business owner takes time and work. Trust me, staying focused does not come easily to me. Over the years, I’ve realized that there are 4 main things that I should be focused on in my business.

So what actions should you be focused on in your business?

 

 

I believe as an entrepreneur you should always be focused on the following 4 areas:

The boring work of running a business consists of…

AREA OF FOCUS 1: Building a rock-solid foundation

• Having systems and processes that you can depend on
• Taking care of your money and legal aspects of your business
• Hiring the right people to help you build your dream

AREA OF FOCUS 2: Hustling and making money

• Having strategies to get clients and customers
• Developing amazing products and services
• Positioning your business and your offerings in a way that magnetizes the right people
• Knowing what numbers to track and measure to assess the health of your business

AREA OF FOCUS 3: Investing in people

• Taking care of your clients and customers
• Engaging with your audience
• Building a network of colleagues
• Nurturing your team
• Supporting other entrepreneurs in a way that you would like people to support you (without asking for anything in return)

AREA OF FOCUS 4: Putting yourself out there

• Proactively and strategically growing your list
• Shouting how amazing your business is from the rooftops
• Creating incredible content on a regular basis
• Getting in front of other people’s audiences via media and strategic partnerships

How do you set goals and take action toward each of these areas?

Step 1:

Set a specific goal for each area of focus for the next 90 days.

Step 2:

Decide on the key actions you need to take.

Step 3:

Break down every task you need to take.

Step 4:

Plug it all into your personal project management center (I use Asana).

Step 5:

Get started with the “Sprint Towards Success Action Worksheet” by clicking below.

 

 

I’d love to hear from you in a comment below: Of the 4 areas of focus mentioned above, what’s the area of focus you struggle with most?