Get Ready to Grow…and Go!
It’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon in Arizona. The sky is blue and with wispy white clouds, the breezes are still balmy – not like the hairdryer blast they will turn to come July. Parked by the pool with my laptop, it’s a perfect time and a perfect place to plan for the week ahead.
You can’t plan for everything, the life of an entrepreneur is rarely predictable, but you can get ready for what you know is on the calendar and make the most of your time. We all are doing more with less these days. But with a little planning…and a little luck… everything falls into place.
Getting Ready
Keeping things exciting means being ready to react to and capitalize on new opportunities as they appear. Here are a few strategies that work for me:
1. You are what you read. Things are happening and changing faster than ever before, I found a great tool that puts all the latest happenings at my fingertips. This link takes you to my AllTop page. My list may not be your favorite reading, but the cool thing is that when you sign in you can configure your page for the stuff you want to read and stay up to date on. And best of all its free!
2. Clean up your email. Look through your In Box and your Sent Items. Flag as follow ups things you need to touch back on or reply to, File important messages in folders for future reference, and delete the rest. Nothing is more depressing than trying to figure out what to do with thousands of emails that have been accumulating for weeks.
3. Do your homework – You know what you have planned for the week ahead. Take some time to do a little research – check out the newest developments online. If it’s a company or an organization you are visiting – check out their News or Media page. If you are meeting a new contact, look them up on Google or Linked In. Your meetings will be more productive for it.
4. Plan your trips – Whether you are heading across town or across the country – think about who you know who is close to where you will be. Call them and set up a quick coffee or time to drop in and see them. That way you leverage your travel time and can get much more accomplished with every trip.
5. Set aside time for new developments – There’s nothing worse than discovering a new opportunity but being too busy or booked up to seize it. Keep some time available to pursue something new when it pops up. Because if you are open to discovering new opportunities – they are out there – and they will find you!
March is a great month for planting seeds of opportunity that will spring up into growth opportunities later in the year. So lay out your plan, get ready to grow…and go!
