Wear the hats of business like a boss

As a startup owner we find our time divided between many tasks. Suddenly we find ourselves not only working in our business, but also on our business. Marketing, Sales, Promotion, Website, and Finances all compete for our attention if we are to keep our business viable.

We often hear stories of business owners working excessive hours to keep up as we bridge the gap between having to handle it all ourselves and being in a position where we can pay people to do these things so we can focus on “Managing”.

As a fledgling Manager, one thing that business teaches us is that there are systems that help manage our businesses and having a system for getting stuff done can help you meet the many demands of your business.

Assigning roles to days

One of the easiest systems to apply is assigning particular roles to particular days. This allows you a focus on one of each of the business hats each day but also helps consistency. If you do not spend time on Marketing then you will not get customers in the door. If you do not deal with the website — whether it be orders or fresh content or driving traffic then the website will stop delivering, and the biggest issue — if you do not dedicate time to looking after the finances then the business will crumble.

So set aside a portion of each day to a specific business role and give that day a special name… “Marketing Monday, Task-master Tuesday, Website Wednesday, Think-ahead Thursday and Financial Friday”

Marketing Monday

Marketing Monday is a great way to start the week — this is the day for getting out of the business, meeting with customers, working on the marketing plan or preparing marketing materials. If it is a Marketing related activitity then Monday is the perfect Marketing day and the day you wear your Marketing Hat. It also sets the week up nicely because you start building momentum in your business for the week ahead. Meeting with potential clients brings in work and opens opportunities.

I like to use Mondays for going for coffee and chatting with my clients. Often general conversations over coffee lead to new work. Also being out in town gets you seen by other potential clients. Many of my new opportunities have come about because I have been having coffee with someone and they introduce me. The first question is always “What do you do”, and many times just telling people what I do has led to new work.

Task-master Tuesday
For me, my job is very much about “Teaching” so for me Tuesday is “Teaching Tuesday”. The names of the days need to work for you, so choose a word starting with T that works for your business.

For this article I decided on calling it Task-master Tuesday because Tuesday is the day you put on your “Task” hat and focus on “Doing”… creating resources or doing the work you would do in your business — a day dedicated to physically working your business — doing the tasks that your business does and owning them (Mastering them) — so it is more a task-master than taskmaster.

There is a subtle but very important nuance here. Your business activities should be fun, it should be what drives you to get up in the morning, the thing you are most passionate about, so the minute you loose that it is time to reframe … it should never become a chore, it is about doing the thing you love and loving what you do.

Website Wednesday
You might wonder why I set an entire day to my website and be of the opinion that a website is something that you set and forget, however your website is the face of your business, and one thing that lockdown has taught us is that our websites are crucial, because once we are stuck in our houses doing our work, the website becomes the face of your business. It reflects your business and needs to be fresh and relevant. Freshness is a metric that search engines use to rank your site. Your content has to be changing, relevant. There are a number of tasks that can ensure your website stays top of mind for your customers and Wednesday is the day to ensure your site doesn’t fade into the background. I could go on for hours on this subject alone having been a web developer for years, and cannot stress this one highly enough — your website needs work whether checking metrics — what is working and what isn’t, which pages are performing informs you one which content your customers want and need more of. Website Wednesday is the day you put on your web-Master hat and focus on making sure your website (your unpaid employee that can automate many of the tasks that you may have to pay someone for — such as scheduling appointments, responding to clients, finding and transitioning clients from browsers to prospects, from prospects to paying customers) is making money for you while you focus on working your business.

Thinkahead Thursday
Thursday is strategy day — this is where you plan your business … where you want to take it in the next week, month, year, 5 years.
For the next week it is planning…
Which customers do I want to catch up with on Monday… How many customers do I need
What marketing jobs will I focus on
What tasks need sorting on Tuesday
What part of my website will I focus on Wednesday
What financials need my attention on Friday
What goals do I need to focus on next week

Financial Friday
Financial Friday is the day you don your accounting hat. You may cringe at the thought of Financial Friday. If you do, flip it — Friday is the day you figure out how to reach your financial goals for your business. I have a figure that I try to meet each week. All of the activities that come from your other weekly hats drive what you do on Financial Friday — send invoices, sort your bookwork, and focus on financial activities of your business. How much is going out, how much is coming in, what you need to pay for in the next week and ensuring these activities don’t slip and become daunting or crippling.

If you focus each day as above you will be able to keep on top of the many tasks required of you as fledgling business owner. It can be a tricky balancing act trying to ensure you keep each of these activities going, but I have personally found that this system ensures you stay on top of each of the many hats you wear as “Business Owner”.