Summer is here; and whether you’re a parent with kids out of school, with grown kids, or even without, it’s the onset of a more relaxed season. The difficult with spare time is it is often squandered whilst deciding how to spend it. This article is here to help you make this your best summer yet for your business. We’ll discuss how you can use this extra time to not only sharpen yourself as an entrepreneur but how to sharpen your business and pursue new avenues of success at the same time.
Relax
Let’s start with the easy one, but often the most daunting. It has often been quoted that “idle hands are the devil’s playthings.” In the hustle and bustle of the nine to five life, we are conditioned to be busy. And if you are an entrepreneur that conditioning is no doubt coupled with an extremely restless spirit. Let’s face it, sometimes it feels absurd to not be busy. It is a good thing to have that motivation within you, but it is equally important to know when to take it easy.
The first thing you should do for both the benefit of yourself, and your business is to firmly pencil in some time to relax and rest. Relaxation helps relieve stress and de-cloud the mind so that when you are working, you’re giving it 100% of your mental capacity. Make sure you set time aside to do things that bring you peace and find yourself returning to work the next day with a greater motivation and clarity.
Take Up a Hobby
Part of relaxation is finding regular activities that bring you fulfillment. You need positive outlets to keep your mind and spirit in tip-top shape. More importantly, you need to find hobbies that help stretch you outside of your business skillset. What I mean is, if your business is making bird houses, you need to find a hobby that does not also make bird houses.
Hobbies are a great place to expend and stir up creative energies. As you unwind, hobbies give you time to process and create in ways that you may not be able to during the workday. It may not seem like it immediately, but creative energy is something that needs to be regularly generated and replenished. So while painting, fishing, or whatever other hobbies you may find may not build skills that can be applied to your business; they help you in your creative process which can then be funneled back into thinking creatively about solutions and new avenues for your business.
Learn Something New
A great way to get ahead this summer is to take the time to learn something new. Whether this be though a class, an online course, or from reading a book, it is beneficial to stir that spirit of learning within yourself. Not only that but at the end of the summer you’ve accomplished something; whether it be a skill, an art, or a new subject, that you had not attained before.
This can also be directly applied to your business. Summer is a great time to encourage new skills and new knowledge for both yourself and for your employees. With everyone’s schedules a little more flexible, it is a great time to encourage conference attendance, schedule trainings, and provide avenues for your employees to become more masterful at what they do.
Catch-Up
If you found yourself overwhelmed in the hustle and bustle of the school year, summer is also a terrific time to get caught up. If you have unfinished projects laying around, emails left unanswered, and goals left unchecked, summer is the perfect time to make waves towards your year end goals. Take advantage of this time to rebound from any setbacks you’ve had this past year.
As the country returns swiftly to normalcy, now is the time to make up for lost ground within the past fifteen months. Use the extra down time of you and your team to refocus on missed goals or opportunities from this period.
Get Ahead
Summer is also a perfect time to get a jump start on goals yet achieved. Taking advantage of the extra time and energy can help your team set itself apart for the coming season. This is the part where you can channel that creative energy into new ideas and new projects that not only move your business forward, but that take advantage of the talents held by your team. Even if you don’t make leaps and bounds towards new profit venues or capacity building, make sure that your team takes the time to collectively brainstorm and decide where your business should head next.
Pursue New Ventures
As an entrepreneur, you are most likely hardly ever involved solely on one thing. There’s an itch that never feels quite scratched. Your extra down time in the summer is a great time to put that drive into gear and to pursue new ideas. These can be within your pre-existing business and without. Summer is a great time to experiment and to make steps towards new ventures, new partnerships, and new ideas. So whether this be starting an entirely new business or extending the capacity of an existing one, summer is a great time for you to put your creative energies, entrepreneurial drive, and extra time towards something that will last.
Invest in Others
Time management and business management all come down to a simple question; what are you investing in? Are you investing in new business assets? Investing in yourself? Others?
As important as it is to make sure that your own needs and that of your business as a financial entity are taken care of, it is equally important that you invest in those working underneath and side by side with you. Make sure that you use your time this summer to mentor, give back, and to appreciate. Let your team know that you care not just for the work they create for you, but for their lives and ambitions as well.
Conclusion
There are many ways that you can spend summer of 2021. Make sure that you take the time to relax, pursue new avenues of personal and professional goal, and to make not only your own life easier but the life of your team as well. By providing avenues for growth within your hobbies, life skills, and your business you can ensure that you and your team approach the fall refreshed and with new skills to boot.
Featured Image:
Image by Daniel Dan outsideclick from Pixabay
