Growing a business is NO joke, and as you hit new levels in business, different problems and obstacles get thrown at you. And so we wanted to sit down today, to share with you our top five biggest pitfalls we want you to avoid as you grow and scale your business. 

If you’re an entrepreneur looking to grow and scale your business and avoid all sorts of headaches, frustrations, setbacks, and overwhelm you need today’s episode. 

 

Wasting time doing things you don’t need to be doing

Staying busy can stroke our ego and make us feel productive and successful. But busy ≠ productive. 

80/20 principle: 20% of our time makes 80% of the impact. Meaning 80% of what we do is often wasted time. YIKES. We HAVE to focus in on that 20% and be extremely strategic with what we’re doing with our time and why. Sometimes we struggle with this because we lack clarity on where we’re trying to head (and therefore what needs to be done) but that’s a whole other topic for another time.

The bottom line here is: you have to have complete clarity on where you’re trying to head and then break down what will get you there and THEN focus in on that 20% and let everything else fall to the side.

 

Avoiding things you don’t want to do

Who here is guilty of this? Raise your hand. How often do we put something off in our business that needs to get done or needs to be managed, but because it’s difficult to understand, not fun, or complicated, we turn a blind eye and focus on more of the “fun” parts of running our business?

Did we just call you out? We’ve been there. Maybe for you, the thing you’re avoiding is:

• Setting your business up legally
• Going over your monthly books/finances
• Setting up automation or workflows
• Marketing avenues that feel overwhelming

Set a timer for 10 minutes and do the hard thing for 10 minutes. Just start doing that task you don’t wanna do. Oftentimes it’s that initial resistance that prevents us from doing something that feels complicated or hard. But once we start it’s easier. And you’ll probably find once the timer is up, you’ll be in the groove to continue doing it.

 

Teams (hiring & managing)

Two mistakes we see happen with a lot of entrepreneurs as we grow and scale are around building teams and outsourcing.

Mistake #1 – Believing the lie that you’re the only one who can do what you do and therefore you can’t outsource it and have to run a one-man show. In other words – you don’t outsource at all.

Mistake #2 – Feeling so overwhelmed and KNOWING that you can’t do it alone, so you hire a team or outsource and then throw the tasks at them and run. In other words – you expect your team to handle everything perfectly, know what to do, and live up to expectations without keeping close tabs on them as a leader and managing their work and results.

Either one of these mistakes can lead to frustration, unnecessary roadblocks, wasted time & money, and burnout. 

With mistake #1 — you are NOT the only person who can do all of what you do. Period. And trying to do it all yourself as you grow and scale WILL hold you back from the growth you want AND lead to burnout. Don’t do this. 

With mistake #2 – A good manager and leader trusts team members but also recognizes that they have to train, encourage, correct, and overall monitor their work and results. It’s so easy to throw and run, especially if you’re outsourcing something that you don’t love or that feels overwhelming but you CANNOT. Whether it’s your finances/taxes, some marketing avenue, admin: you HAVE to have KPIs and regular check-ins and keep yourself aware of what’s happening within your own company.

 

Time management

This one’s for our multi-tab girlies. The entrepreneurs who wake up, open their computer with no game plan, and start randomly opening tabs, bouncing from task to task just trying to be “productive” so you feel like they did something for your business. Working from home can be a beast sometimes when it comes to the topic of managing our work time.

Does anyone feel guilty working from home when you look over and see that the dishes need to be done? Or the laundry isn’t folded. So you bounce from work to suddenly doing the dishes. You feel like a basket case with no direction, and therefore nothing gets done. In order to scale your business: you have to know where you’re headed so you can manage your time accordingly.

 

Burnout

When running a business, especially one that we love doing, we can find ourselves blurring boundaries or work hours to do work because we genuinely love what we’re doing. If we don’t catch ourselves and implement boundaries in our business as we grow and scale, our business will overtake our lives. 

So what are some warning signs that you might be experiencing burnout?

• You find yourself dreading the thing that you once loved. 
• You constantly feel like you’re running on empty. 
• You can’t think of the last time you hung out with a friend in real life just for fun. 
• You wake up and immediately open your laptop or phone (and it’s the last thing you looked at before bed). 
• You feel like the mountain of work that you could do will never end. 
• You feel this constant sense of urgency around work that leaves you having dreams about it, struggling to fall asleep, unable to take time off, and working long hours constantly… without ever feeling the urgency fade.

If that’s ringing way too many bells for you, how do you begin to fight back against that burnout? Go back to the first pitfall at the beginning of this episode. You’re burning yourself out with a lot of things you probably don’t even need to be doing (or at least not creating urgency and panic around). Take a step back and think: “Am I building a business I love and am I heading in the direction I want to be heading in?”. Then once that roadmap is clear, begin to identify the 20% that makes 80% of your impact and progress in your business. TAKE. BREAKS. It may feel counterproductive but trust us: it’s one of the most productive things you can do.

 

 

Show notes 

Instagram Bio Freebie: www.theheartuniversity.com/bio 

 

The Heart Conference: www.theheartuniversity.com/conference 

 

Honeybook: share.honeybook.com/heart

In addition to a FREE 7 day trial, get 35% off your first two years of HoneyBook!

 

If you want to connect with us and other listeners in the Heart and Hustle community join our Facebook group here.

 

PODCAST10 for 10% off anything from The Shop!

www.theheartuniversity.com/shop

 

Follow along:

www.instagram.com/mrslindseyroman

www.instagram.com/evierupp

www.instagram.com/theheartuniversity