by Stephanie Pollock | Featured Contributor
I have this pair of jeans that every time I wear them I end up feeling like a frump.
You know the kind, right?
After a few hours of wearing, the tightness fades and you’re left with a loose, ill-fitting, baggy pair of jeans that make your bum look ten times bigger (and saggier) than it actually is.
I love these jeans for about 45 minutes, right out of the drier.
And then, I hate them. I feel frumpy and fat. I slouch when I walk. I cringe when I catch a glance of myself in the mirror.
And yet, I keep wearing them.
It dawned on me today that this is pure insanity.
Why would I tolerate something that gave me so little joy, confidence or R.O.I (return on investment)?
It was just dumb.
But that got me thinking about business – and what YOU might be tolerating in your business.
Do you have a website that doesn’t stand up to the job? (If you don’t want to share your URL with anyone, that might be a clue).
Is your message old, out of sync with your current vision, or lacking the right words to bring it to life?
Are you tolerating clients that ask for more than you can give, don’t pay you on time or just don’t do the work?
Like anything in life, it’s easy to find yourself tolerating seemingly small things. It’s one little formatting thing here, one bad client there, 5,000 unopened emails — until your business is surrounded by a whole bunch of ‘little’ things that are adding up to a lot of unnecessary stress and frustration (and maybe some lost revenue too).
If you’re looking to go PRO in business, you can’t afford to turn a blind eye to the areas of your business that you’re barely tolerating. It’s your responsibility to get these things handled so that you can focus on your genius work.
So, where do you start? Here’s a three-step process:
1. Zoom up 30,000 feet and look at your business from above. Do your best to look at it as a whole. Notice what’s there. Look at each area of your business (finances, clients/customers, marketing, branding, administration and content creation) and ask yourself, “What’s not working here? What am I tolerating?” One easy way to know? What do you either complain about regularly OR stick your head in the sand about (e.g. managing your books). Create a list (and don’t forget the little things – they add up!).
2. Now that you’re aware, it’s time to create a plan. You can’t fix it overnight, but you can map out a timeline to get each one handled. Some will be easy – you can do quickly and with little effort (get those handled STAT). Others will require more time and energy – get them on your calendar, figure out who you need to help you and just get it done. No excuses.
3. Make a commitment to yourself that from this point forward you will no longer tolerate the intolerable in your business. Remind yourself that your business requires you to nurture it and tend to it – even the parts you don’t love. You’re a PRO and that’s what PROs do. (And hey, feel free to outsource anything you really hate – just get it handled!).
I promise that within hours of taking care of these items, you’ll feel a renewed sense of purpose, focus and motivation. You’ll feel more confident and ready to take on new opportunities to grow your business. And you deserve that!
As for me? Well, the jeans are now in the To Donate box. And my bum couldn’t be happier.
Photo Credit: Chez C. via Compfight cc
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Going Pro Business Strategist – Stephanie Pollock of Stephanie Pollock Media Inc – Calgary, AB, Canada
Business activator + leadership coach Stephanie Pollock is the founder of Stephanie Pollock Media Inc, a company devoted to helping talented women in business GO PRO with their dreams, stepping into the spotlights — and revenue streams — they so richly deserve.
She’s the publisher of Going Pro Magazine, and author of the forthcoming book: Claiming Greatness – How to Stop Hovering Around Your Potential and Actively CLAIM it! She’s been recognized as a Top 40 Under 40 changemaker and has been profiled and spotlighted in national media. She’s completed an elite Leadership Training program, coached hundreds of women entrepreneurs, and received kudos from the Governor General for her business prowess.
Stephanie has a timely reminder for half-hearted entrepreneurs: hobbyists rarely make history. To truly create your own economy — with an irresistible brand + ideal clients for miles — you’ve got to give your dream the respect + commitment it deserves, face your greatness . . . and CLAIM it.
With her signature Primed for Profits business activation program, e-courses and 1-on-1 Going PRO Power Sessions for emerging industry leaders — Stephanie is proving that business success has nothing to do with where you live, what you’re selling, or what your résumé says you’re qualified to create — it’s about the mindsets you hold, and the choices you make.
Build a business. Then go beyond it — at StephaniePollock.com
You can follow Stephanie on Twitter @steph_pollock or on Facebook
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3 Replies to “Are you tolerating the intolerable? by @steph_pollock”
Becky Sangha
Stephanie, great advice! I recently started a “no tolerance” list of things I was tolerating, but really don’t want to any more, and started widdling away at them. I now devote 10 minutes a day to it, and I wrote a blog about it http://bit.ly/ZcYEkI to help my readers use some of the same techniques and hold me accountable to actively wipe everything off the list.
Slowly but surely I’m getting there!
Dona Collins
This is fantastic advice. I was talking to a friend of mine the other day about his martial arts school. When he opened, his website was great, but things have changed and now it’s definitely not top-of-the-line. A lot of things have changed, with the economy, and he tolerates far more than he should (from customers, vendors, etc). It’s time to take a more objective approach to reviewing the business practices and revamp what isn’t working.
I think this is hard for people because they’re afraid change will scare their customers away. I think, in the end, one step back is alright if it means two steps forward.
Becky Sangha
Dona,
I think you are right, it’s especially hard to change things in your business that mean you change how you handle customers.
I’m a video producer/marketer and one of my coaching clients who is a business consultant recently reached out to me to ask if I thought she should change her prices because she seemed to be doing a lot of estimates, but not converting them into sales. After a review of her income requirements, competition and target market, we found that she was marketing her time to the wrong audience.
She created a program to address the needs of solo-entrepreneurs and very small businesses (under 10 employees) that included a self-help video info product and coaching program that required very little of her time (the product was delivered by autoresponder and she coached via webinar call 2 hrs/week), and refocused the greater amount of her time traded for dollars on businesses with larger budgets and raised her prices! We changed her marketing videos to better reach her target market, and she reports higher sales this quarter!
Change is good for business
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