Pick one thing and do it

Today we are starting our brand new series for April: Back to the Basics. In this first episode, I want to deal with some topics that I see come up over and over again.  People, women especially, seem to have a hard time just pick one thing and do it.

I see this all the time when somebody comes into the group for Bookkeeper Training School.  They want to add bookkeeping to their VA business and then want to add web design and learn how to become a tax-preparer. And then they want to become an online business manager.

This trips them up when it comes to naming their business. They don't want to name it because they don't know all the things they want to add.

Pick one thing and do it till it's successful

Now, it's good to have some income diversification, but the problem is that many times you want to add multiple streams of income, so you feel you have to add many different things.  But you need to just pick one thing and do it until it's successful. And then if you decide to add something else, you need to make sure that it complements what you are already doing.

In Bookkeeper Training School we have a joke that we imagine that someone comes up to us and says, "Hi! My name is Kristin and I'm a pediatrician-plumber." What would your reaction be?  Would you want to hire that person for either of those things?  Those jobs are so different.

I see this with many of you. You're doing 17 different things. And none of them are related. You have little bits of each one off the ground. But you're not solidifying any of them. And, then you feel stuck.

If you're doing too much

I'm going to be honest with you. As somebody who runs multiple businesses, I'm shrinking back my other businesses as Bookkeeper Training School grows. Why am I shrinking back? Because one, I just can't do everything. And two, unless it's something that is directly related to accounting and bookkeeping and what I'm teaching in the course,  I don't want to do it anymore.

As much as I would love to do other things, I am going to focus on these two things and grow.  And I want to grow Bookkeeper Training School. That's why earlier this year, I announced that I'm leaving the university that I teach for to do Bookkeeper Training School full time.

So if you are struggling with all the things you want to do, and feel like you can't name your business. You can't set up my business, or do anything with it, because you don't know the 95 streams of income you want to have.  I want you to pick ONE thing.

Pour your attention into one thing and do it

Pick a thing and do it. Pour your attention into that thing. But you can't do 95 things. You can't keep going through the cycle. And I know some of you are in this cycle too. You're going to learn how to be a bookkeeper. How to be a VA. And then you're going to learn how to do web design. Then plumbing and how to do hair and nails. And you're stuck in this cycle of learning and never doing anything.

I was there. I did that for a long time. I was taking this course and that course. And it wasn't until I joined the mastermind that I'm in right now that I've been in since 2017 that I never actually started doing or implementing what I was learning.

Get out of the cycle of learning and start doing

You have to get out of this cycle of learning and start doing. Even if you are not sure what you are doing. You need to get out of that cycle.  

If you are in Bookkeeper Training School, you go through the roadmap. Which is our guide for the entire course. The course is 60 hours of content. And this roadmap takes you through hour by hour. You learn. And then you do what you learn. But many times you learn and when you get to the doing part, you aren't ready for that yet. Or you think you don't need to do that. You don't need to write that down.  You're just going to keep going. And so then you keep learning, and then you get to the end. And you don't have anything set up or done.  And then you quit because it didn't work.

Pick one thing today and do that

What I want you to do today is to pick a thing and do it.  Try and commit to that one thing for the month, but just committing for a week will be wonderful.

When you pick a thing, you have to give it a chance. Don't pick a thing and just say that you will learn a little bit. But you don't do any other work in the course. And so now it doesn't work.  

Now you are going to go on the next course. Don't do that. You have to pick a thing and you have to do it. Which means that you have to do the work. You have to do the worksheets. You have to set up your business. You have to do all the things you need to do.

When I go through and read the success stories in the course, I go look at people's Facebook and they're doing exactly what I told them to do on Facebook. They're doing all the marketing and all the networking that they're supposed to be doing. They're going out there. And they're telling people about what they're doing. It is amazing. It is amazing to see what they're accomplishing.

Why focusing on the doing is so important

And then I have other people that come to me after some time in the course and they say, "The course isn't working for me. I'm not getting any clients." So then I go to see their Facebook page and they didn't finish it. They haven't posted on their profile. They aren't networking. All they've done is taken and passed the pro-advisor exam. And so now that they're certified, they have a profile up online so people can find them.  

I always tell them that it's a great start, but that's not going to get you all your clients. You have to network, you have to talk to people. You have to get yourself out there. And I know for some of you, that's like the scariest thing in the whole world to do. But practice, practice, practice. It's very important and it gets easier.

Every time you reach out to somebody it gets easier.  But you have to pick a thing and do it. And that throughout our entire lives.  You have to pick a weight loss plan or an eating plan and do it. You have to pick a workout plan, do it. You've got to pick your vitamins and take them. You've got to get on a schedule for sleep and do it.

Fear of failure should not hold you back

Maybe your fear failing. Since you don't want to fail at anything, you don't do anything. Or you start to do something, but you don't go far enough that you feel like you've failed. So you just think, "I learned about this thing and I decided it wasn't right for me. So it wasn't failing. I just decided it wasn't right for me."

Fear of failure is a big one. Another one is a lack of confidence. And that goes in with the fear of failure. You think, "I can't do this. I don't have the skills to do it. I'm not good enough to do it. And so I'm just not going to."

I'm a really big believer that you can do anything, but you can't do everything. But to do anything you need to make it the thing.

Okay. And I'll tell you right now, I am struggling with this. I have too much on my plate right now.

Pick one thing and do it

I just want to see you succeed. I want to see you win. And it is so hard to do that when you're doing 18 things. It is so hard to do that when you just won't pick a thing and run with it. And so all I want you to do this month, or at least this week, is I want you to sit down and think about all of the businesses that you're running. Think about all of the side hustles that you have and the opportunities that you're considering.

Write them all down.  And I want you to pick one.  Pick on to focus on and grow.

If you have a couple of VA clients, and a couple of web clients,  and a couple of bookkeeping clients, that's fine. Keep all the clients you currently have.  Wrap up your web design projects. You probably have a couple of ongoing VA clients. That's fine. Keep those. You've got your ongoing bookkeeping clients. That's fine. Keep those. But then I want you to focus on one to grow. And I want you to make a push on that and try to grow it out.

When you can't decide what is the one thing that you will pick

If you can't decide which one to grow, grow the one that has the greatest potential for the least amount of time. Because that's ultimately what you want. You want more money and you want more time. And so which one has the greatest income potential and with the shortest investment of time. That's where you go.

So I'd love to know. What did you pick? Comment below. Or go post in the Small Biz Mama community Facebook group.

You can also send me your question by filling out the form at askkristin.net.  And you may end up being in one of the lives that I do this week.