8 Ways to Slow Down in Business Part 2 Eps: 22

Don't you love those facebook groups where you can pop in and pop out and search for what you need

and not get spammed or feel obligated to sit in the group all the time? I do too. So I created one for you

for small business owners like you and service professionals who are rocking it out there but may need a

little extra support when it comes to growing your business and spending more time with those you love.

So if you want a community like that facilitated by a certified professional life coach, look in the show

notes for the link to the group or search facebook for the name business owners rock with an exclamation

point after it. I hope to see you there. 1s Hello. Hello. I'm Teresa Prim. And happy New Year. I hope you

all had a fantastic Christmas and you're having a blessed new year. Today is part two of the eight ways to

slow down in business, even if you think you can't. Right before Christmas, I recorded the first half of

this episode, which is episode 21. This is episode 22. So you may want to go back and listen to episode

21. And I talked about the first four ways to slow down in business, even if you think you can't. The first

way was to delegate. And this doesn't mean to pay people. 1s This means to delegate and use what you

have. I described that in episode 21. The second way is to create a new system or a process in your

business. Whether or not you have a small business, a larger business, you have employees creating a

new system or revising the processes that you have already going in your business. And this is especially

important with the new year. I mean, we are so excited for the new year. And so if you want to slow

down in business, and you should in episode 21, I tell you the importance of slowing down in business.

Creating a new system or revising some processes is definitely a way that you can do that. Number three

was stop hustling. I know it. Boy, did we do a lot of that around Christmas, didn't we? And I just don't

like that word. But hustling, hurrying, pushing through, forcing, selling aggressively. Stop 2s hustling. I

know it sounds counterintuitive, but when you stop hustling, it is a way to slow down in business. And

number four was to take more vacation time. And before we go to the intro, I am going to challenge you.

You've made your goals, right? You've put down your 30 day goals, your quarterly goals, your yearly

goals. Maybe you have a vision journal. I updated my vision journal last night. I read it to my husband

and he was like, sounds good to me. So he's in there too, by the way. But maybe you have a vision

journal. You scheduled all your stuff, but have you scheduled in your vacation time? Have you scheduled

in half days off, a few hours off every week, a couple of days off. Have you scheduled in your vacation

time? That should come first. So today we're going to go over steps five through eight on eight ways to

slow down in business, even if you think you can't. I am Coach Theresa Prem, your host for the You First

Business Second podcast. And I help small business owners, small, small business owners too, and

service professionals generate a lot more income in a lot less time while always putting themselves first.

Welcome to the podcast today. Let me ask you, are you a multitasker? I know 1s there is a belief let

me give you a story. There's a belief that I took on as a business owner and trying to get better as a

business owner that said, I should not be multitasking. You know, these big gurus say things like don't

multitask, do one thing at a time. Time you can focus better. Yada, yada, yada. But I'm going to tell you,

my friend, we all multitask. We do. We drive and we listen to the radio. I listen to music when I'm in the

shower, I listen to podcasts when I'm mowing the grass, for gosh sakes. I'm doing needle felting when

I'm watching Law and Order SVU at night with my husband. Yes, we're all the way almost all the way

through all the episodes. And I don't know what we're going to watch after that. But I'm always

multitasking, doing things, I'm watching a training while I'm cooking. And here's the thing. What advice

we're going to accept and which advice from the big business gurus and the quotations that we read that

we won't accept. And so the way to slow down in your business is, in my opinion, that's just my opinion

is not to quit multitasking. 1s But it's to multitask on the right things. And so how do we do this? Think

about how productive you are when you multitask with two things. So when I mentioned I cook while

I'm listening to a training, okay, I will tell you that I can't say I can cook with my eyes closed, but I'm a

pretty good cook and I like to cook, but I'm not getting the full benefit out of that training. So if it's

something I need to sit down and take notes at, I won't do it at the same time I cook. So think about two

things that you do that you multitask with right now. And can you focus on both of those the best way, or

do you need to take those and put them with something else that you multitask with? So it's not a matter

of getting rid of multitasking. It's a matter of multitasking on the right two or three things. If you can do

three things at once, great, but the right two things at the right time. So it's multitasking versus focusing.

Think about this. If you multiply task on the right things, put the right two things together, it would allow

you to slow down in your business. 1s It will try it. Set a goal for one week and say, I am not going to do

these two things together because I know they're not productive anymore. Take one away and add

something else. It will work. I've tried this before. It will work. Number six. The next way to slow down

in your business is planning and productivity. This, this is at my heart and this is so important. And you

will never have this mastered this side of heaven. But you come up with your ways to sit down and plan.

And I'm not talking about goals. I'm not talking about your vision journal. I'm talking about planning

your day, planning your week, planning your month. Okay, you take your goal, but then you work

backwards and you create your plan. Who are you going to call? What appointments are you going to go

to? What products are you going to create? How are you going to sell all the planning? And you take all

of these tasks and you put them in your week. I do it every single Sunday night. We have schedules

everywhere. We have a three month schedule hanging up in our kitchen. We have a one week schedule

hanging up on our refrigerator, which my husband just absolutely loves it. I have my plan book that

shows a whole week. Right? When I open it up, it's eight and a half by eleven. It shows the entire week.

It's taken me tons of planners to find one that I like. 1s Planning and productivity. Planning will make

you more productive. So planning and productivity and then stay the course. And when you plan I know

this sounds odd again. 1s Spending an hour on a Sunday night seems like it's a waste of time. Looking

over your planner in the morning after you get up and have your cup of coffee seems like a waste of time.

It is. Absolutely not. It will save you hours of time during the week. Number seven as to how you should

slow down in business, even if you think you can't set better boundaries are your boundaries to keep

things out or to keep you away from other things? 1s When I started real estate years ago, I had a hard

time with boundaries because I wanted to be there for my clients at all times. 1s But after few years, I

don't know how long it took, I realized that if I answered my phone at 08:00 or 09:00 at night, people

would think they could call me at 08:00 or 09:00 at night. When I quit answering my phone after seven.

Then they realize that I have a life too, and I'm not going to be available after 07:00. I then started

using language. Like, I would answer the phone and I would say, oh, hey, I know we're in negotiation.

What is it that you need? And they'd say something. I'd say, by the way, don't let anyone else that I talked

know that I talked to you after 07:00. Oh, that's okay. I didn't mean to take your time. I was like, no, no. I

wanted to take your call. So setting better boundaries will help you slow down in business. As your

business grows, and it will as your business grows, you will need these boundaries anyway, so you may

as well start them now, because you're going to need that time in order to expand. You're going to need

that time in order to delegate, which was number one. You're going to need that time in order to leverage.

So you may as well start the boundaries now instead of feeling the frustration and the pressure and

everything. When things get so hard, when you're working on Sundays or you're you're working on

Saturday nights or you're answering your phone, we hours of the day, and it's taking up your family time

and it's taking up your personal time, you may as well create better boundaries now. So that is one way to

slow down in business. And number eight. Be consistent. Now, this one's a tricky one. I'm glad I left

this for the last on one of my previous episodes, I talked about consistency. And there was something that

I had heard a while back that said consistency is boring, and entrepreneurs don't like to be bored. And it's

true, consistency seems boring, but consistency will help you find time to slow down. And you're

probably thinking, okay, Teresa, how is being consistent going to help me find time to slow down? You

want to know? I'll tell you why. 1s Because as you do things over and over and over, they get easier and

easier and easier, and you can do them faster and faster and faster. And so then when you have something

that you do over and over like a habit, and you're consistently doing it every single day, once a week,

twice a week, whatever the consistency is for you and your business and your life, it gets easier. And so

therefore, when something gets easier, you can do it sometimes 25, 35, 50% faster if you're not

consistent. And you do things, you do something today, and then you don't do it for another three weeks.

Well, you forgot how to do it three weeks ago, and it slows you down. 3s Going fast is going slow. Being

consistent is speeding up the task and so therefore it's helping you slow down. So there you have it, the

eight ways to slow down in your small business even if you think you can't. Let's go over summary.

Number one is delegate. Number two, create a new system system and revise your processes. Number

three, stop hustling. Number four, take more vacation time. And I challenged you in this episode to

schedule in your vacation time. Now that it's the first of the year. Number five is to multitask on the right

things. And we talked about multitasking versus focusing. Number six is planning and productivity.

Number seven is setting better boundaries, realizing are your boundaries to keep things out or to keep

you away from things, right? For me, it was being overworked. It was calling people at eight or 09:00 at

night. And then number eight is being consistent. So thank you for joining me on the you first business

second podcast. I am Theresa Prim, your host and bye for now. I will see you next week. I am your

thankful to be in business coach.