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Why Entrepreneurs Must Slow Down to Speed Up

Written by: Melanie Benson Strick

Article Overview: I know you are probably thinking that slowing down to speed up is an oxy-moron. But it’s true. You have to slow down to speed up your results.

Why Entrepreneurs Must Slow Down to Speed Up

I know you are probably thinking that slowing down to speed up is an oxy-moron. But it’s true. You have to slow down to speed up your results.

Let me explain. When I started my business, I had a brilliant coach named Michael Stratford who had a saying…

Slower + Smoother = Faster

At that time, I was running like a bull in a china shop. I was determined to make my life and my business a success. But the problem was…I was breaking things along my fast-paced journey to the top.

And when you break things, you have to slow down even more to fix them. It’s almost like you have to do double the work.

The truth is I hated him when he would remind me that slowing down would get me there faster. I didn’t want to slow down. I wanted it faster. (Maybe you can relate?)

It reminds me of how a friend of mine goes about house projects. He will go to Home Depot with 17 projects that have to get done now. He gets his mind set on accomplishing all this stuff in one day. Weeks later he will realize that he didn’t measure everything properly (because he was in a hurry), didn’t think through everything he needed for the projects (multiple trips back to Home Depot and 4 – 5 times the cost) and his one day project has now morphed into a week of his time.

What finally got me thinking differently was a major realization. You know those a-ha moments when a light bulb goes off in your head and it’s as if your brain reprograms itself?

The cost of my fast-paced business growth was becoming too painful.

Here are some things that I realized were happening. Maybe one or more will sound familiar to you too.

• I was exhausted and my body was showing signs of chronic fatigue.

• I was making expensive mistakes like picking a bad web designer, joining all the wrong networking groups and throwing money at any solution that promised to “fix” my problems.

• I wasn’t clearly communicating to my assistant so she was making mistakes.

• The quality of my administrative follow up was suffering so people were confused, frustrated or unhappy with the “process” of doing business with me.

• In my urgency to accomplish results, I wouldn’t slow down enough to plan so things cost more and took longer than I imagined.
Ugh. I still remember the feeling when I woke up and realized that trying to move at the speed of light was actually causing more damage than good.

The remedy was, and I still have to remind myself of every day, is to slow down to speed up.

Here are four new habits I practice that keep me in the slower + smoother = faster mindset:

• Create space for me first. I take Mondays and many Fridays off. I go to the spa, a lot. Sometimes I just sit in my chair outside and read a book. If I start to feel stressed, I ask my assistant to block some big chunks in my calendar to regroup. Taking care of me is vital to having the energy to manage my business.

• Start with a lifestyle plan. If you don’t know what you want your life to look and feel like, you will absolutely build a business that fills up all your time and energy. When faced with a decision for growing my business, I always ask myself, “How will this help me experience more freedom?” It’s easy to get distracted with what you “should” do versus what will get you the lifestyle you want.

• Plan first, execute second. My team and I have a process of meeting to plan out how we will accomplish a goal, then writing it all down, then starting the action. It ends up saving us tons of time, avoiding miscommunications and getting the desired outcome faster!

• Hire good people slowly. It doesn’t matter how great someone looks on paper. Hiring the best contractor or employee requires some certain steps and clarity on your part first. If you follow the proper process of bringing on good people, you will avoid the massive problems of having to fire a bad apple. Our Virtual Team Building Secrets is a powerful tool to learn this system.

I know that you want to accomplish a lot of things this year. Your list is probably at least five pages long. Just remember to check in on HOW you are getting there. There are some costs you can never recover.


About the Coach:

Melanie Benson Strick, The Entrepreneur’s Success Coach, teaches entrepreneurs how to stop feeling overwhelmed so they can create more money, more freedom and more prestige.

If you’re ready to stop working in your business and start working on your business, go to www.virtualteambuildingsecrets.com to learn the secret to growing your company to a six and seven-figure success without employees or a 90-hour work week!

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Re: In Praise of Slow by Carl Honore - Thanks for sharing GT - very interesting! According to Amazon Kindle, the two most highlighted passages from the book are: [quote:1tn0ii6a]Slow philosophy can be summed up in a single word: balance. Be fast when it makes sense to be fast, and be slow when slowness is called for. Seek to live at what musicians call the tempo giusto—the right speed.[/quote:1tn0ii6a] [quote:1tn0ii6a]Slow is the opposite: calm, careful, receptive, still, intuitive, unhurried, patient, reflective, quality-over-quantity.[/quote:1tn0ii6a]
CEOs and Email - Slaves? - I wonder if the emails they are responding to are filtered thru their assistants first 'cos they seem to spend a lot of their off hours responding to them. True they are successful but I'm not sure I'd be willing to pay that price. I'd be interested to know what's the in the typical day planner of Entrepreneurs on the Forum. Entrepreneurs are a different breed than Paid Employees- so it would be interesting to view the contrast.
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Re: SES Toronto Next Week - In that case, how about the following? Track: Get Me Up to Speed * State of Search Marketing in Canada Track: Practical & Actionable * Beyond Linkbait: Getting Authoritative Online Mentions Track: Advanced * User Search Behavior * Social Media Success * Web 2.0 & Search Engines * Giving Credit Where It’s Due: Which Campaign Sold What?
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