I’ve been feeling like a hamster on a hamster wheel recently. Do you know what I mean? You work really really hard but don’t seem to achieve the goals i have set out. It’s unusual for me to feel a bit jaded, i’m very much a positive ‘get up and go’ person but just feel dragged down at the minute.

And talking to lots of people I think there’s alot of it about. I think it’s quite common, particularly in a recession. If you are running your own business there’s more temptation to be tactical and working ‘in’ the business rather than ‘on’ it. Even if you work in an organisation, you probably find that you are having to cope with the same (or more) work with less resources. So there’s no surprise that everything seems harder..it takes longer to get the money in these days….negotiations are tougher….decisions to proceed are difficult to pin down…so is there any wonder we are working twice as hard just to get to the same place as before!

Well I’m not sure. I think we are all under a hell of alot of pressure but it is also easy to fall into the trap of becoming busy fools. Where we are working our socks off but not achieving very much and I do believe there is something we can do about it. It’s something we know we should do but often never get the time to do. But we have to make the time as it can really make a difference and it can help us step up business.

And that is to take a step back. Not backwards! Just a step back. To stop, sit down and look at our business to see what we are doing. Unless you step back you will continue doing the ‘same’ things and by doing the ‘same’ things you’ll often achieve the ‘same’ results. So this is about looking at what you do, what you do well, what you could do better and what you could do differently and making it happen. It’s about being strategic.

We’ve just had a rubbish August. It’s often quiet in August and we did have staff off as well as ourselves but I think we are all a bit exhasted too. I think because we are a creative company, we are never short on ideas and coming up with the next creative idea. The danger then is that we lose focus and spread ourselves too thin. And somewhere along the lines the processes don’t live up to our own pace and standards of working so you get this ‘running around like headless chickens’ scenario! We all must have been there are some point or other.

Anyway, September is here and I’ve decided it’s time we stepped up! Not literally. I’ve got a fantastic bunch of people working for me and I couldn’t possibly ask them to work any harder or commit any more to the business. No stepping up is about working smarter, about changing the way we do things to make our lives easier. To do this we had to stop. Take a step back and think about what we are doing, how we work, at every aspect of our business and be completely harsh and honest with ourselves. It’s an exhausting process but very worthwhile.

We’ve come up with a 3 month action plan. We’ve reviewed our processes entirely and documented them in great detail so that we all know what is expected of each other and what to do in just about every situation. The trick now is to put it place and follow it for 3 months.

As well as reviewing our processes I’ve also looked at our strategy, to check that we are still focused, that we haven’t gone off track and whether we need to tweak our activities.

Stepping back has given me back my enthusiasm to continue growing my business. We do it all the time for our customers, helping them to ‘see’ things in their business that they can’t see, but it’s very difficult doing it for yourself. You either need to take the time to step back and put yourself through this exercise or you need to bring in a consultant to help you do it.

Either way, I highly recommend it!