By Todd Smith
At Blue Horizon Venture Capital we work with entrepreneurs and business owners who want to grow their businesses. One of the first questions we ask is how they want to grow their business. We want to know how their business needs fit with our solutions. From business plans to financial modeling and investor presentations, our clients have confidence that we can help them. Finding focus is one of the keys to identifying need and solutions.
Here are Six Tips for Finding Focus:
- Ownership of Time: Many new businesses require the owner to wear many hats covering everything from product and website development to marketing and accounting. This causes many of us to lose track of our own calendars and our time is no longer our own. Take a step back and see where you might be able to change how you’re doing business, if you need to hire a professional do it, this site will help you out. You may be able to do a phone call rather than a face to face meeting saving you drive time that can be used for something else.
- Go Where the Money Is: Are you spending time on business networking events that are yielding poor (or no) leads for business? It might be time to step back from that event. Your time and money can be better spent at events that generate good leads or referral partners. Keep in mind there is an element of relationship building that goes along with networking and one meeting will more than likely not yield anything. Over time you will see trends that will help you make good decisions.
- Identify Your Ideal Client: When you are asked who your ideal client is how do you respond? “Everyone” is NOT your ideal client. By identifying your ideal client you are enabling yourself to say no to the opportunities that are not aligned with who you see as a key client. That doesn’t mean you say no to everyone outside the scope, it means you can say no when you want to and it is a decision aligned with how you want to grow your business.
- Take A Break: Constantly focusing on your business is a great way to burn out on what was once your passion. Taking a break from your business gives your mind a break and may even spark creativity or solve a business problem.
- Assess where you are today: Take time to look at how far you have taken your business. What have you accomplished? What do you want to accomplish? You may be surprised to find things you once thought key to your business are no longer important. On the flip side you may see key items to add to the plan that you didn’t have at the outset.
That’s where we can help you grow your business. You may see that your business plan needs updating or that you need presentation materials for investors. You may want to hire consultants for the areas in which you are weak so you can focus on your strengths. Finding focus is the first step to making your business dream a reality!
