Recently, I was talking with a colleague who said he was “an idea person” and admitted to having a little trouble with follow-through. This got me to thinking about how things are when a person is running his or her own home business and doesn’t have other employees or co-workers to fall back on and take up the slack for undeveloped talents and skills. When you’re running a business where you wear all the hats, you have to learn to overcome your shortcomings and make accommodations for personality “challenges.”
If I had my druthers, I’d be an “idea” person too. I think entrepreneurs are generally risk-takers who are willing to come up with new ideas. Figuring out how to take care of the drudgery of every-day is not something I find fun or fulfilling. However, I do appreciate the accomplished feeling of completing a project or meeting a goal. So, I’ve learned that by focusing on that sense of accomplishment, setting goals for myself and celebrating those achievements, I can pull myself along from the idea stage, through implementation, to completion.
It can be natural for those of us who get excited coming up with new ideas and creative endeavors, to procrastinate instead of jumping in and getting things done. Or, we may be the sorts of people who jump right in–only to lose interest and leave projects and work unfinished as we get inspired by yet another idea or creative endeavor. This can be a tough one. One such colleague told me once that she gave herself deadlines and allowed herself the pleasure of working on two or three projects at once to keep from getting bored and feeling stuck. When she felt tempted to drop a project, she just spent some time working on one of her others until she was ready to get back to the original project. She explained that this way, she could stay productive and NOT get bored.
I love the innovative, creative, problem-solving process–and I definitely can let myself get bogged down in daily details. However, running my own business means I have to take care of the nitty gritty in addition to generating new business. I don’t have the luxury of being the “idea person.” Does anyone else out there wrestle with staying on task and doing the every day steps to build your home business? I’d love to hear other suggestions for coping and staying motivated to get from the idea stage to implementation and accomplishment!