I held my regular monthly meeting with John recently; since we started working together we have put the basics in place: cloud accounting, an annual budget, cash flow forecast and some lead tracking. He can measure his key metrics and is ready to grow his business.

Except he isn’t.

Although John needs more customers and cash flowing into his business he’s suffering from a problem many entrepreneurial business owners think they face. A lack of time. We talked about some actions he could take to engage with his ideal clients and I mentioned a couple of tools he could use. I even referred him to some resources he could access to implement these tools.

As the meeting closed I said “So do you want me to send you those resources?” You can probably guess what his answer was: not right now I’m too busy. I thought about this as I made my way back to the office. A classic 80/20 conundrum. Too busy doing the 80% of things that produce very little in terms of results to do the 20% that makes all the difference.

And he isn’t alone. A lot of us entrepreneurs suffer from this affliction. Whether it’s the voice telling us not to take risks or step outside our comfort zone, or the nagging fear that we may slip up and look foolish, or just the ‘what if it doesn’t work’. We are never short of excuses not to take action.

It’s what separates successful from unsuccessful businesses. Successful business owners know what it is that they do that produces results, and they do more of it more often. They know that to get a new customer they have to work harder than their competitors, to close  a sale they have to make one more phone call and to improve their cash flow they have to be on top of their numbers.

It isn’t rocket science, but too few business owners do it consistently.

So here’s the thing. What if, starting tomorrow morning, you only do the things that will bring you the results your business needs? More leads, more sales, better prices, lower costs, more cash….whatever it needs and whatever it takes.

I know people who couldn’t possibly make a cold call, run a webinar or stand on stage and make a  presentation…..until they did. Because they had to. If you have children or know people who do, what do you think they’d do if their child was sick? Hope they’d get better? Not likely. They’d be on the phone to the doctor, hospital or whoever could help. They’d leave no stone unturned. So why do so many business owners suffer mediocrity, or worse, because they either don’t take action or take the wrong actions?

Are you too busy to be successful? Success is a choice. What will you choose?

I have 3 slots available in August to work with ambitious business owners who want to grow their business. Email noel@guilfordaccounting.co.uk for more details.