02 Jul Rough Mondays

My friend told me that Mondays are always rough. When I asked him why he said budgets and reports. That’s not, obviously, the business he is in, which is highly creative.  But it is a critical part of managing any growing business. He’s very successful and I’m sure that one of the reasons he’s successful is that he has the discipline to spend Mondays slogging through the stuff he hates but is oh so necessary.

Most of us do what we do because we love it. It feeds our brains, our souls and hopefully our pockets. But doing the work we love doesn’t make a business. A business needs sales, marketing, operations, HR and management skills. Admin support and finance. Not exactly the fun stuff.

So how do we get it done?

First we need to figure out if we can get it done. Do we have the skills to do it? And if not, can we learn them? Or hand it off to someone who does have those skills.  Our small business world includes a lot of folks with those skills (like me!) available on a part time or full time basis for help and support.

Next we need to find the time. Can we set aside time for the tasks we hate?  The ones that intimidate us because it isn’t the work we love or are familiar with? Or should we pay someone to do it because our time is better spent in activities that generate income?

Then, if we decide we will tackle it ourselves, we just need the discipline to do it despite how we feel about it, and no matter how hard it seems. We need to find that thing within each of us that drives us towards success and just get the hard stuff done.

Truth is…a business, especially a successful one, isn’t always fun.

After all, why do you think they call it work?