Diary of a Small Business Owner, Jackie Nees Virtual Assistant Edition: How I Focus on Developing My Business

This week Jackie shares a technique she uses to develop her business.  Missed Jackie's diary entry from last week?  Read it HERE

I recently incorporated a concept into my workweek that frankly scared the hell out of me on many levels at first, but now I find myself wondering what took me so long!  The concept?  Business Development Day.

For years I’ve heard of people talking about how they would set aside one day a week to focus only on building their business.  I honestly couldn’t understand how anyone could dare take a day away from clients and projects to do this but I had to admit, the idea sounded intriguing.

I neatly tucked away the idea in the back of my head for a day when I was uber successful and I had the luxury of “taking the day off” to brainstorm.  Then I started to realize I was thinking about it the wrong way.  I started getting overwhelmed really fast with all I had to do and began to wonder how I was ever going to move forward in my business if I was constantly too busy to think ahead.

About a month ago I revisited the Business Development Day idea knowing that I had to do something to regain control of my business and my life.  I decided Friday would be the day that I would set aside for developmental types of activities and proceeded to schedule it on my Outlook calendar.  Instead of scheduling one day though, I created a weekly standing appointment because it somehow made it more official in my mind.

After I had my little private panic attack about it, I realized it would be easier than I thought to stick with this plan.  My week is, for the most part, flexible as far as projects go.  I generally have client phone calls on Mondays (another great way to lump similar activities into one day), and I usually know in advance what I’m going to be working on for the week, so if I played my cards right I could make Friday available each week.  As it turns out, I was right.  I have to say this was also a great motivator to stick to deadlines and get my work done by the end of the day Thursday so I could breeze into Friday completely guilt free.

I’ve got to tell you that the “day off” I initially talked about earlier, is no day off by any stretch!  Some of the hardest work I do all week happens on Friday when I’m molding and shaping my business into what I want it to be.

So what do I do on these sacred days of business development?  Any number of things that keep me thinking and moving forward.  Sometimes it’s market research or networking online, other times it’s reading a personal development book or brainstorming new ideas on my white board with colorful markers.  Oftentimes I’m writing, planning new services and future products or updating my website.  It’s my day to dream, scribble, doodle and play with possibilities.  For me there is no right or wrong way to do it as long as I show up with an open mind and a willing spirit.  I’m so glad I came back around to this idea especially since so much good has already come from it, including the idea for my brand new business which I mentioned last week.

Speaking of Business Development Day, it’ll be here before I know it so I’d better get back to work!
Have a great week!