Sprint to marathon - Running your business

When you are starting out in business you are most like in a ‘give-it-everything-you’ve-got’ mode. You’ve probably given it your energy, your time, your focus and likely your money too. It might be that you are on your own and wearing all the hats and doing tasks and skills that both do and don’t come naturally to you. 

This phase of running business is very much like running a sprint race. Give your all and go as hard as you can to hit milestones and goals of launch dates or financial goals. 

What’s wrong with being in sprint mode?

The problem with sprint mode is, as any runner will tell you, that you can only do it for a short amount of time. Not because you’re not strong enough or good enough but because sprinting harder takes everything from you and it’s not sustainable for long periods of time.  

As a small business owner, you might be stuck in sprint mode and chances are you’ll notice it because you’ll start to burnout. You might drop the ball on tasks or your concentration will be lacking and tasks you could do fast become harder. You might find that you’re more emotional about things in and out business and that your patience is less. I personally notice that I have less patience for everything and everyone when I’ve been sprinting for too long. Sprint mode is necessary for a time BUT it’s not sustainable long term. 

People who want to run long term have to switch it up to marathon mode. Marathon runners, unless they’re the world recorder attempters or the ones with legs up to their arms pits, have to pace themselves at a slower pace than those who sprint. It’s steady, more gentle pacing and it involves fueling regularly and an expectation that the goals will be bigger and therefore take more time. 

How does that translate to your small business?

For your business to survive and to hit those bigger goals you’re aiming for you probably can’t keep sprinting, especially not if you’re on your own or want any kind of life outside of work. And really you do need these things because that’s how you look after YOU. And by looking after you, you are looking after your business. 

Switching from sprint to marathon can feel quite daunting especially when you’re trying to work out how everything will keep going if you do less or slow down.

What might help you switch from sprint mode to marathon mode?

• Automations 

• Taking a moment to work out if anything in your business can be automated could save you time. Emails, forms, sign ups and so much more can be automated 

• Templates

• Have you noticed that your customer service emails often have the same questions and so you are spending time writing the reply? Most email providers have the ability to have email templates where you’ve pre-written a number of email responses. 

• Planning

•  Do you take any time each week to plan what you are doing when? When will you work ON  your business and when will you work IN your business? You might also find it helpful to explore balance in business which you can read more about here. You can also do things like grouping together all your social media creation to one time frames and do email response first thing every morning and then not check again til the next day. 

• A Virtual Assistant

• If you want to get things done quickly in business looking for a Virtual Assistant, like me, who can take on some of your tasks allowing you to pace, to breathe and to keep going long term. Take 5 hours of work off your shoulders each week, for example  and hopefully it’ll feel more like a marathon than a sprint. 

• Rest

• It feels counter productive but building in rest to your work will make you more productive. There’s a lot of evidence that a 4 day working week is as productive as a 5 day working week. But maybe you still want to work 5 days a week but take 2 afternoons a week off or start work one hour later every day. The rest will help you be more productive. 

Need a VA to help get you out of sprint mode?

I can help with getting out of sprint mode in a number of ways and not all of them mean you are getting a VA for long time.

As your VA I can help you build your automations, templates and plan as your move forwards. It can be a temporary project that sets you up for your marathon.

Alternatively I can help by taking over tasks in your businesses that you are doing at the moment. It’s worth considering what you can’t do, won’t do or shouldn’t do for the long terms and then exploring which things you want to hand over to me as your Virtual Assistant.

If you’re ready to explore having me as your Virtual Assistant you can get in touch via the link below to see if I can help you break out of sprint mode.