Being a creative person, I always have the next best idea floating around in my head. It has taken me almost 7 years to quiet the ideas and focus on one thing at a time with my business.
For this month’s theme, I wanted to put more of a focus on wrangling the overflowing amount of creativity that most of us have. Putting the focus on what you are good at and being able to use that to grow your business!
Because most of us work from home, we can get a bit sidetracked with even the smallest things in our business not too mention all of the big creative things. Here are some tips I have learned that help me to focus on what I am good at so that my business (and clients/customers) benefit from it.
It’s no joke, I have a whole box of notebooks with ideas that I have thrown around…these range from party planning to a few new businesses that I know I would love to start. I find that working through the ideas on paper helps me to get them out of my head so I can focus on my existing business. It’s also helpful to look back every now and then at some of the crazier ideas. Yes, even though I have NO professional baking experience, that cupcake bakery sounded like such a good idea at the time!
So all of those ideas may not be all bad right? Although the one about opening a cupcake bakery may not fit with my existing business, the idea about expanding my Eco friendly office line into journals would work for the future. I like to keep these “existing business expansions” in a notebook that relates just to my existing business. When inspiration is low, I have a whole notebook filled with ideas that could potentially help my business.
If you have serious goals for your business, you are less likely to dwell on those “could have been” dreams. Make weekly, monthly and yearly goals that will help you to grow your business.
As creative people it is natural for us to dream up new ideas. Take that juice and make it work for you. Brainstorm ideas for different ways to market your business…focus that creativity for the good.
Ok, so if all else fails and you still want to go forward with this new idea, take a week to flush out the potential good and bad. It is amazing what a week can do to change your mind. You may realize that unless you can live off 30 minutes of sleep a day, it just may not be possible to add something else to your plate right now.
Of course, every now and then we have our minds set on something and just go full force into it only realizing a short time later that maybe some extra time really planning out all of the details would have been a good idea. (Yes, yes I am speaking from experience on this one.) Don’t worry, it is a step by step process and it doesn’t hurt to pull back when you realize that the plan just isn’t working out.
I hope these ideas will help you to focus on your existing business and grow it organically as you need to.
I designed a little companion of sorts to go along with this post. I hope this PDF will help to make your focus a little more creative. You have to get those juices out somehow! 😉 Just print them out and get to making those goals!
Editor’s Note: Join Lisa & I this Thursday (October 13th) for an #OMHG chat on keeping your creativity under control from 1-2EST. Bring your questions, ideas and strategies to share with us + learn new tricks and make some friends. See you there!
