One of the most common challenges facing small business owners, is a lack of resources. They know they could do so much better, if only they had more time, money, energy, clarity etc.
In most cases, their lack of resources is caused by an over-willingness to say “yes!” The challenge here, is that by saying yes to too many people, you can find yourself spread too thinly.
- By saying “yes” to too many opportunities, you make it extremely hard for yourself to succeed. The farmer hunting 2 rabbits at the same time, will usually miss both of them. Similarly, when you chase too many opportunities at the same time, you tend to miss out.
- By saying “yes” to too many projects, you risk under resourcing all of them and missing the bigger prize. For example, when Steve Jobs rejoined Apple in 1997, Apple were focusing on over 300 projects. Within only 18 months of Jobs’ return, Apple were focusing on just TEN! When asked why, Jobs explained that he wanted his A-Team working on everything Apple did. It worked. Beautifully.
If your business is under resourced right now, look for things you should be saying “no” to. Get this right and you stand a great chance of being able to say “yes”, to all the things that matter most.