3 Secrets to Staying Motivated with Your Small Business

Today’s economy is no doubt a difficult atmosphere to enter small business ownership in. However, many of us are doing it and succeeding. No matter the economic environment of the time, owning, running, and managing a small business is going to be a challenge. Any small business owner has a significant amount of self motivation, but there are always times that a little extra encouragement is useful and even necessary. There are always going to be those times that we lose sight of our drive and feel run down by our busy days. When that happens remember these tips to help you remain motivated in your work and living.

Set Honest Goals

The first and most important step to remaining motivated and excited about your work is setting reasonable and achievable goals for yourself and your business. Goal setting can be a difficult thing to truly master. Many of us suffer from either setting goals that are too high for the period of time we set aside or we set goals that are too easily accomplishable. Neither of these scenarios is truly motivating or helpful for your business. You want to create goals that encourage you to really push to accomplish something without setting yourself up to fail. Create a list of goals that are both long term and short term. Your short term goals should be prominently displayed in a place that you can see them, so that you are reminded to strive for them each day.

Schedule Your Days Intelligently

Part of staying motivated each and every day involves planning your days out in a successful way. There are certain times of the day that you are going to always be more productive than other times. Get to know your most successful work schedule. If you find that you get more done in the first few hours of your work day, arrange things so that you are working on difficult tasks at that time. Schedule your days so that you can be as productive as possible when you are trying to be productive. We’re all going to have some dead time during the day. It’s hard to stay focused and at the top of your game for 8 hours straight. However, if you can plan out your days carefully and make the best use of that time, you will be more successful and stay happily motivated by your work.

Limit the Distractions

Of course, distractions are one of the most problematic things when it comes to staying focused and motivated. It can be hard to stay motivated on a difficult work task when you know there are so many other things you would like to be doing. For this reason, it is important that you create a successful work environment that is void of negative distraction. This is not to say that you should work in a boring and dull atmosphere. Rather, try to create a work atmosphere that is inspiring without being distracting. Keep your work area clean and organized. If a lot of your work takes place on a computer (as most of ours does these days), be sure to keep your computer free from distractions as well. Stay off of Facebook, YouTube, and other distracting sites.

Jemima Lopez is a freelance blogger and writer who writes for Zen College Life, the directory of higher education, distance learning, and best online schools. She welcomes your comments at her email: lopezjemima562 @ gmail.com.