Put First Things First

This the third post in my series of posts about The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. It is my slant on each of the habits, and how each relates to being a small business owner. To read the whole series, click here.

Habit #3 Put First Things First

This is a familiar statement for many areas of life – putting first things first is the same thing as starting at step 1. And that’s important to do in every aspect of your business.

Putting first things first means to begin where you need to, so that you can progress through the proper steps, or channels, to reach your end goal.

Let’s think about this by showing you a few examples:

1. You want to get support in your business. Well, first you need to think about specifically what you need help with. It won’t serve you to start looking for support if you don’t know what you plan to outsource.

2. You want to redo your website. First you need to think about what you want your final product to look like. This will give you much more insight when you are considering a design company to help you make the change.

3. You want to change your target market or specialty. First you need to think about your timeline and the specific steps that you need to put in place to make a smooth transition from one to the other.

Get the picture? Starting with the first thing helps you to get organized and get a solid plan in place to make whatever changes you want to make.

And it’s not limited to changes in your business. The same principle applies to anything you do in business. Maybe you want to increase your networking opportunities. Maybe you want to launch a new product or program. Maybe you need to plan more sales calls in your business activity. Starting at the beginning is the key to anything you do.

I’d love for you to share your insights about first things first on my Facebook page.

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