“I need to get my ducks in a row.”
“I don’t have the bandwidth right now.”
“I don’t have budget.”
“I need more help”
“We’re going through a rebranding”

…all the while, our competitors are capitalizing on our excuses and reaching, nurturing and closing our missed sales opportunities.

Sure, many of us make promises to ourselves. Eat better, exercise more, drink less, travel more, set goals, blah blah blah. Those would be the most common ones we’re all familiar with. And I’m absolutely not disparaging any of those common (admirable) resolutions. In fact, they’re all on my own list.

This Year’s Priority

For me, this year’s priority is the health of my company’s Sales and Marketing. Not so much about the strategy itself – I’m talking about the hard part: actually doing it.

As the co-founder/President of emagine, I’m fortunate to have our CEO/Co-founder, Brett Cohen, share a lot of the day-to-day distractions and disturbances that do not drive revenue. In fact, I don’t know how anyone does this without a partner. (Stay tuned for a future post on that topic)

Yet, even though I’m in a decent position to focus on Sales and Marketing, I find myself a mere fraction of how productive I need to be. Not a day goes by that I don’t beat myself up over how ineffective I feel in executing the necessary items that will grow revenue.

I can pretty comfortably say that my negligence isn’t laziness. I’m in work mode 24/7/365. Whether that’s actually working, thinking about work or talking about work. (My wife and my sister are even on the emagine sales team. We literally never stop talking about business)

“Sometimes when looking at the big picture, the picture can be too big.”

My Co-founder, Brett, recently said something really astute to an employee that resonated with me: “Sometimes when looking at the big picture, the picture can get too big.”

And I often find myself a victim of that reality, trying to focus on so much that I’m often barely focused on anything at all.

The more the business has grown, the more strategic I’ve become. The more I’ve tried, succeeded and failed, the more real-life lessons I’ve learned. The more clients I’ve observed, the more I’ve benefited from that free education. We’ve certainly done a lot right in selling millions and millions of dollars worth of our services, employing 50 people, creating a great company culture and establishing ourselves as a leader in our target markets.

But, I know how much better we can be. I know how much better I can (or should I say, have to) be. With all of the daily distractions, my excuses might be “valid.” But who cares? Are those excuses going to drive business revenue? Is my sob story going to generate and close new business?

Bottom line? Find a way to do what needs to get done.

Business won’t wait for you to “find time.” Or to “get your ducks in a row.” Make the commitment. Create a plan. Do it. Period.

I am.