As a solopreneur, it is absolutely critical that you work as efficiently as possible. When you wear all the hats in your business, every minute matters. One of the challenges is knowing what to be doing and how to prioritize what you will and will not do. There is an almost infinite number of things you could be doing to grow your business, so there’s no way to do it all. The only way to be successful is to work smart and selectively and that’s where working strategically can help.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of just adding more and more business-building activities to your solopreneur business. At every turn, there’s a different expert or even an average person telling you about something you HAVE to be doing or your solopreneur business simply won’t survive. You can do more, work harder and spend more time up to a point, but after a certain limit something has to change or your business really won’t survive.
Beyond that limit is where strategy becomes critical to your solopreneur business. Strategy will get you off the frantic treadmill of doing more and more and help you expend your efforts where they have the most impact. When you are simply doing, you aren’t working in a smart and cohesive manner in a way that maximizes your chances of success. When you are working strategically, you are focusing first on those activities that have the most chance of bringing you success.
Strategy isn’t that complicated. Start with an educated guess at what will work. Don’t just jump into something because somebody said you should. Have some reasons why you think a particular tactic will be successful for you. Before beginning any new activity, know what you hope to achieve from it and how you will measure that achievement. Watch your measurements, and adapt as you go. Pretty simple, eh?
Unless you are extraordinarily lucky in this respect, just jumping in and doing more and more activities will not lead you to success. It is highly likely that you will have to try several or even lots of things before you find the recipe for success in your business. By working strategically, you’ll always be moving toward the optimal use of your time and effort. Be measuring your results, you’ll be able to tell what the highest priority activities are for your solopreneur business.
How do you use strategy in your business? What have you learned by measuring your results? Tell me about it in the comments.