How to Enjoy Work More as a Business Owner

Entrepreneurs who start their own businesses are often motivated to do so out of a particular passion. However, as you get beyond the formative stages and deal with the daily challenges of building your business, it’s easy to lose sight of that passion and, in turn, your motivation to be as great as you can be.

So how can you preserve that passion and enjoy your work more as the owner of a small business?

Here are some tips:

• Don’t judge your success by what competitors are doing. I’ve seen it again and again: small business owners who seem to have an unhealthy obsession with matching the success of larger and more established competitors. But guess what; if you only measure your success by what these companies are doing, you’ll never be truly fulfilled with your own work. When you’re just getting started, you need to stay focused on your own growth, your own successes, and how you can improve based on what you alone are doing. Don’t compare your results to those achieved by others. Simply outperform them.

•  Keep a narrow focus in the early going. When you’re just getting started with your business, you’ll have a gigantic list of goals and other tasks that you want to accomplish. However, trying to tackle all of these tasks at once is guaranteed to burn you out. Instead, focus on what needs to be done today, and only move when these tasks are finished. Not only will this help you to stay motivated, but you’ll be more productive over time when you’re not working on dozens of distracting tasks at once. Make your daily goal.

• Keep moving. Don’t over-think your tasks or your goals; over-thinking often leads to inaction. Instead, leap into action and keep moving. You’ll be much more likely to produce results, which in turn will keep you motivated to keep working and growing. Take a moment to celebrate the small wins every day. But keep moving forward.

• Keep your lines of communication open. You’d be amazed at what communicating with your customers can do for your motivation levels. It can be incredibly rejuvenating to hear even one or two small compliments about what you’re doing with your business. It’s also important to stay in constant communication with employees and colleagues. The more involved they are, the more they will go the extra step to support your goals.

• Take breaks and reward yourself. Sometimes, it’s good to get away and give yourself the gift of time to recharge. Nothing wrong with that. In fact it’s pretty much critical to block out formal recharge time. If you’ve been working hard and have seen some success, reward yourself with a break in the action and come back ready to get even better.

Don’t fall victim to interim plateaus in your success; recognize them, smile, and then push forward to the next goal target.

John J. Hall, CPA