A wise friend posted this weekend, in Twitter, “Treat
your business as your #1 customer.” Now, I’m not sure if that is Mia’s original
thought, but it was quite timely for me.

Once a quarter, Esther Fleming and I set aside a weekend
to work on our businesses.  We call them,
If I Only Had A Weekend (IIOHAW). Our time during these IIOHAWs has been spent
praying, fasting, and focusing on our businesses. We come to the weekend
prepared to give advice, encouragement, and complete attention to each other
and our respective businesses.

This weekend was very special as we each are saying goodbye
to a client. This gap in our businesses has given us a clearer purpose for
meeting and strategizing. So, we spent a lot of time looking for direction,
being clear about action steps, and identifying our motives. This may be hard
to grasp, but neither one of us wants to run a business for the sake of running
a business. We want the passion we had when we first started our businesses, me 9-years ago and Esther 5-years ago. We spent quite a bit of time this weekend
falling in love with our businesses again.

For me, I can say that I like things plainly defined. I
want to look at a map and understand exactly where I’m to go next. So, I went
back to my life map I created earlier this year. It sits in a prominent spot in
my office (on the wall above my monitor). In the center of my life map is a
picture of the world with God spelled out in the middle of it. For me, taking
my business back to the beginning means reconnecting with my faith. This is what
this IIOHAW afforded me. On the first day, I organized my office, my thoughts,
and created my plan. On the second day: I sat quietly in meditation and prayer,
I revised my business budget (cutting costs and adding expenses for training),
I created the beginnings of a marketing strategy (get out of the office once a
week for business development), and I just did a lot of soul searching. On the
third day, I finalized my budget (I still have a few cuts to make, but it is
pretty much done), and I finalized my marketing strategy by creating a plan
with activities listed for the week and month. I am excited about what I’ve
created with the help of Esther. We have even added an accountability component
this upcoming quarter, to meet weekly for 15 minutes to talk about our progress
in keeping with our plans.

When was the last time you stopped to survey the health
of your business? Is it still on track? Do you need to take a weekend to refresh
yourself on your mission? Take it! Do whatever you need to in order to build
(or rebuild) what your heart desires!

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