Taking care of business in 2011

04/01/11

We asked life and business coach Rasheed Ogunlaru to give us his tips and advice for the New Year. He is a leading life and business coach whose clients include entrepreneurs, entertainers and high achievers.

Rasheed is also running 'Your life, your business', a special weekend retreat exclusively for business owners seeking business success and life balance on 27 - 29 May 2010.

Rasheed's New Year tips

We're very familiar with setting New Year’s resolutions in life, but far too few entrepreneurs set clear, compelling and challenging goals for their life and business. There is never a better time to set goals than the start of the year when you're feeling fresh and focused.

The key thing with setting goals for your life and business is to ensure that they are strategic, holistic and realistic. One of the reasons why millions of people make New Year’s resolutions - only to break them within weeks - is they do not set holistic goals in all areas of their lives and very often they do not seek out the help and support they need to make them a reality. The other key to setting business goals is not just for one year but for one to five years.

If you are setting goals for your business here are some tips:

Identify your overall life and business goals for the next three to five years. This helps you to get clarity on where you are going.
Set specific goals for the three key areas of your business: finance, marketing and operations, zooming in on the next one to three years.
Set realistic time frames for achieving your goals - this will help break the task into bite size chunks.
Set some key milestones and measures to check that you are on track.
Identify the tools, resources, people and support that you will need. Identify both what you have and what you will need.
Simplify: clear up your desk, files, stock and let go of things that are not important.
Systemise: your work, files, time-management and use technology.
Strategise: be clear what is important on a day-to-day basis, based on your overall goals.
Organise your time and activities on a day-by-day basis, use calendars, diaries, phones, software or whatever works for you.
Review and recharge: put in ten minutes per week to review your progress and be sure to put in regular breaks and time out too.