Early in my business, every summer I ran an email series called “The Summer of Success.” I was cleaning out old files and ran across these old emails. I read the content and found it is still relevant for all business owners today. 

There’s a saying that goes, “If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep having what you already have.” Maybe it’s time for you to do something different – or to keep those promises to yourself, your business, and your team to get them done finally. 

Most business owners kind of already know what they need to clean up, but they lack the system to get it done in a way that’s not overwhelming and daunting.

For the rest of the summer, I’m going to send you a blog a week with one system to clean up sometime this week. Most won’t take you more than 4 hours of time (unless you go deep into the full system), but you will need to factor in the time to keep up with the series.

Along the way, I want you to reward yourself each week as you complete the systems for that week.

Ready? Let’s Go!

Week 1: Where to start?

I find that many business owners are running around every day putting out the fires in their business, doing all the things, juggling all the plates, and barely keeping up. Yes, I do this myself at times, too. The problem? This is not sustainable! You can keep it all spinning for a short amount of time, but it’s out of balance, teetering on edge, and just waiting for a rock to be launched into it. Then it topples and you are left holding the pieces.

Broken Pieces Hinder Growth in Your Business

If you’re always putting out fires and spinning all the plates, you cannot grow your business. You’ll reach a point where you max out. Then either everything will fall – including YOU – or you will hit your maximum capacity, maximum earnings, and not be able to take on any more clients. 

Hmm… was either of these your objective when you went into business? Did you say I’m going to be successful until I just can’t stand the pressure of it all any longer and then fail? I’m sure this is a sound NO! Did you say, I only want this many clients and this much earning potential and that’s all. Probably not, although I do realize this may be a “yes” depending on your business and where you are in your life at the moment. If you are the only talent in your business, there is only so much you can handle. I do say I would challenge you to think outside the box to make a bigger impact. If you are a mom with young children, right now might not be the best time for you to grow a very large company. Times and priorities will change. Now is the time to make sure you are sustainable. Systems will work in your favor, for sure. 

This week we’re going to identify the spinning plates in your business. 

Download the template here: Identify Your Spinning Plates Template 

Print the template.

Grab yourself a clipboard and your favorite pen. This template is going to be your companion for 5 days of work. 

Be very diligent to write down EVERYTHING you do for your business each day. Turn the paper over or print more than one copy if you run out of room. (Print out another copy if you want to track your “life” plates as well)

Do not apply any feelings to what you write. Just note the activities and move on.

At the end of the week, download the Spinning Plates Writing. This is meant to extract the data and figure out what the data means to you. There is no right or wrong and no judgment. Please try not to judge YOU about anything you wrote down. It’s data and stats, just math and logic. 

Then let yourself use the data and stats to identify all you handle. Wow, it’s probably a lot of spinning plates. 

Be grateful for the opportunities to spin those plates. Give thanks.