9 Tips to Improve Yourself and Your Business

by Doug Smith, President, The Woodhaven Group, LLC.

As an owner or key person in management you must grow your business and increase the cash flow needed to achieve the goals of the company.

I have found most owners do a good job of addressing both the short and long-term needs of the company.

However, there is one area that usually does not get addressed. That is the failure of the key person to take care of himself.  If the top person does not take care of himself then the success of the company is in jeopardy. I know.  I have been there and learned a few tips I want to share:

1. Maintain good mental health:  It is too easy to get fixated on day-to-day crisis management.  At some point this can affect your ability to focus and solve problems.  The best solution I have found is to have friends outside the business that you can use to unwind with.  It might be a weekly golf outing or attending a ballgame.
2. Maintain good physical health:  This means exercise.  Not only will exercise help keep the blood pressure in line, it will also help alleviate stress.  The best way to exercise is to treat it like a meeting.  Schedule it into your day at least 3 times per week.  Also, don’t forget that annual checkup.
3. Educate yourself:  This can be on business or nonbusiness topics.  If nothing else, we all can spend time staying current on how the latest developments in internet marketing affect our sales!
4. Pay yourself first:  You deserve to make a fair return on your time, effort and risk that you are taking.  Pay yourself enough dollars that you have money left over to spend on something frivolous for you or your family.
5. Set aside dollars for the long-term:  Make sure you are allocating money for the long-term needs of your family such as retirement or that vacation home.  Your company has long-term goals that need funded.  You should also have personal long-term goals that get addressed.
6. Stop beating yourself up:  There has not been a CEO or owner yet that is right all the time.  Stop stressing over that past decision that did not work out.  Keep looking to the future.  You will more than make up for old mistakes with the wise decisions you will make going forward.
7. Hire the best, pay them, and get out of their way:  Do I need to repeat that?  Make your job easy by hiring people better than you are.  That means you will have to pay those key people good money and then do not micro-manage them.  Some of the most fun I have had as a CEO is watching managers develop and being there to help them when they stumble.
8. Don’t procrastinate! Make the decision:  Failure to make a key decision such as closing a branch or letting someone go can hurt the company, sap cash flow that is needed for projects to grow the company and destroy morale.  For the good of the company, don’t put off doing what has to be done. It goes with the job title.
9. Ask for help if you need it:  Many owners and CEOs let their pride get in the way.  If you are not getting the results you need ask someone from outside the company to help.  It might be another CEO, a consultant in your industry, or a retired business owner.  They can take a fresh unbiased look at your problem.

Remember, your business can not grow if you are not on top of your game.

Take care of yourself while taking care of your company.

 These tips have worked for me. I would be interested to hear from others who may have tips to add to this list.