3 Ways To Up level your Business

Regardless of your goals for the year, it’s important to hit the ground running for the first quarter and continue to up level your business and your mindset.  Here are 3 ways to get started on the right foot. 

1. Get real about what your "One thing" is.  It’s been said time and time again – but those who achieve success do so because they’ve mastered “one thing.” extraordinary results happen only when you give the best you have to become the best you can be at your most important work.” That means specializing in one niche area of offerings and doing the work to ensure that you’re the very, very best at it. Make this year is the year you double down on whatever this is for you.
   Once you’ve identified your ‘One Thing’ that you have a bit of talent in and want to focus on, invest in yourself. Find courses other experts in your space have taken. Read all the books and watch all the videos. Work harder at it than anyone else, and in time, you’ll be the very best at it. And those who are the best in one area are guaranteed to succeed, especially because they can price however they’d like. 
   Then, take your ‘one thing’ outward. Become the best in one SECTOR.
   
   
2. Prioritize building a network.  Next, make goals for what you want your network to look like. Perhaps it’s full of other entrepreneurs who share a love and passion for your “one thing,” or a group of developers or salespeople who have skillsets that can be complementary to what you’re building.  There’s a practice I like to share with people: assess what your current network looks like by making a list of everyone you had plans with last month and have plans with this month. Then, next to each person, just add a checkmark if your time with them helped you to further your goals. Every single person’s name should have a checkmark. If not, you aren’t taking things seriously enough. 
   In addition to managing who you spend time with, start to grow your network by setting standards for yourself, such as three networking calls each week or two coffee chats a week. Reach out to people on Linkedin or in Facebook groups related to your business or passions. Ask everyone you meet to refer you to someone else. 
3. Find ways to outsource projects.  Finally, make sure you’re building for efficiency. There are only so many hours in a day, so there’s only so much you can do to make progress on your goals. That means no time wasted on things other people can do for you. If you want to work 10 times the hours, you have to hire 10 times the people.  That doesn’t mean you have to immediately hire a full time team, but at least consider hiring a virtual assistant to work on some projects for you in the background, which is a great way to go initially. The New York Times listed benefits of outsourcing (as opposed to hiring) such as the ability to start new projects quickly, reduce risks, and control capital costs.
   Hand over all busy work to the virtual assistants. A good way to figure out what to outsource is to do a time audit over the course of one week. Time how long it takes you to do certain actions, from responding to emails to building out the week’s content. Then, determine what takes the most time and what can be outsourced. 

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