Making Time To Learn As An Entrepreneur
“What can I do to improve my entrepreneurial skills every week?”
If I never hear the phrase "unprecedented times" again, I would be okay with that. The term feels overused. I prefer post-apocalyptic, weirdest-times-ever, 2008 but infinitely worse. But I digress.
Because of the genuinely bizarre circumstances, we all find ourselves in after the pandemic, we have lost all surety of organic growth in our small businesses. We can't count on our ideal clients to spend money on our products or services as they did before when they can't rely on what will happen tomorrow. And herein lies the entrepreneurial dilemma - plateaus and declines in growth.
Taking steps to implement creative growth strategies as a business owner actively is more important than ever. Adaptability is imperative. If that sounds overwhelming, I get it.
But intentional business growth practices can don’t have to require a significant amount of time and effort to achieve.
Instead of panicking and googling "how to go back to school for a doctorate," we should all be asking ourselves:
What can I do daily or weekly to improve my entrepreneurial skills and grow my business efficiently?
If you're reading this, the buck stops with you. It's likely entirely, or at least partially, your responsibility to make time to learn and grow so your business can be versatile and adaptable in the coming years. Props to you for taking the reigns.
Gone are the days of simply managing day-to-day operations. We're learning and growing this year. All the time, energy, and effort you've spent to grow your business will not be in vain. Small, consistent efforts to learn can be significant conduits for growth.
My Five Tips To Make Time For New Information and Growth
Marie Kondo, the shit out of your schedule. Assess your current plan and deep dive into each task that you perform. Is it necessary? Is it providing results? Can I delegate it to someone else? It would be best if you were ruthless here; the goal is to create as much space in our schedule as possible.
Automate, automate, automate. Take time to develop automatic systems and processes for tasks you repeat regularly. Click here to download my automation checklist to save you HOURS each week.
Play with your sleep window. Hot take: Email Girl was built between 4:30 am - 6:30 am; I'm not kidding. Getting adequate, restful sleep is crucial, so do not (I repeat - DO NOT) try to eliminate rest to create more time to learn. But DO look at when you're going to bed or waking up and consider whether that's optimal. For me, prioritizing an earlier bedtime to have uninterrupted creative time in the morning proved extremely valuable to my business and mental and personal health.
Control the intake. All of the information in the world won’t help you unless you can implement it. Create a system for learning that suits your schedule and lifestyle. Just because you are consuming the content does not mean that knowledge will go to work on your behalf. You must create a system to write down actionable tasks from what you're learning and then be able to convert those tasks into actual blocks of time on your schedule.
1/2 Learning / 1/2 Implementing: Divide your Liam Neeson-esque “I have a very specific set of skills” time every week in half. Delegate the first half to learn and the second to implementing your learning. Skip this step, and the rest is pretty much pointless. Don’t skip the implementation phase!
The accomplishment that comes with implementing growth and learning into your regular schedule is like nothing else. You will feel like you're moving the needle toward big business goals. Doors will open to new ideas and opportunities you may not have thought otherwise.
Remember, intentional business growth practices don't have to be something that requires significant time and effort to achieve. Take 30 minutes every few days to learn and implement to see serious growth inside your business.