How to Be More Consistent

What separates successful small businesses from great ideas that don’t get past the startup stage? Building a successful small business doesn’t happen overnight — it takes time, creativity, hard work, and maybe even a bit (or a lot!) of luck. But that’s not all. When you’re building a small business, there’s no substitute for consistency.

Is consistency really that important? Absolutely! Being consistent may be one of the most important keys to moving a small business from startup to success story. If you’ve ever found yourself wishing you had a superpower that would set your small business up for success, becoming more consistent might be the answer.

Consistency isn’t about doing the same thing over and over, or sticking with a plan that’s no longer right for your business. Instead, consistency is about staying focused on things that will help you build and grow a successful business, without getting distracted by things that won’t.

If you find you’re always extremely busy, and not getting any closer to what you want to accomplish, you might need to boost your consistency. Consider these actionable, impactful tips. You might find they’re the inspiration you need to elevate your consistency and set your business up for success.

Stay Focused on The “Why”

Sure, there are stories about fortunate small business founders who experience fast success. Unfortunately, that’s not how most businesses are built. Behind every successful business — even ones that seem like overnight sensations — there’s likely a long road filled with hard work, obstacles, failures, small victories, and at least one diligent entrepreneur who’s got a never-give-up attitude.

It’s absolutely possible to build a successful business, but it’s not realistic to expect it to happen overnight. As an entrepreneur, it’s important to stay focused on what you originally set out to accomplish and why, even when things aren’t moving as quickly as you’d like. Think about it this way: you set out on this road for a reason. That’s why it’s important to stay the course, even when progress seems slow or setbacks come up. The more obstacles you overcome on the path to achieving your goals, the more experienced and resilient you’ll be.

When things aren’t working out exactly the way you planned, moving forward can be challenging. That’s totally understandable! But in order to accomplish your dream, it’s crucial to stay laser-focused on the reason you began this journey, and consistently work toward your goals.

Make Sure Your Goals Are SMART

Speaking of goals, it’s a good idea to review your business goals and ensure they’re crafted in a way that’ll set you up for long-term success. In other words, make sure your goals are SMART goals.

Now, a goal can be smart (as in intelligent or wise) without being SMART. That’s not what we mean. What we’re talking about here involves setting goals that are:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Actionable

• Reasonable

• Timebound

When your goals are SMART and you use them to guide your actions, you’ll find that consistency comes more naturally. After all, it’s a lot easier to stay consistent when you can clearly see how your actions are helping you move closer toward your goals.

Give yourself some bonus points if you can get in the habit of checking tasks against your goals before adding them to your to-do list. If a task doesn’t support a goal, it might not belong on your list (unless it’s a compliance requirement). This is an easy way to get in the habit of strategic alignment!

Resist Distractions

Even when using SMART goals to stay focused on your “why,” it’s still easy for an entrepreneur to get distracted by “shiny things” — distractions that’ll impact your consistency.

For example, let’s say someone calls and asks for a service that’s outside of your scope. You agree to do it anyway, even though doing so will take you away from your plan. Sure, landing a new customer is a good thing, right? Well, it depends. Before you get diverted to fulfill a request that doesn’t fit your business model, it’s good to consider if doing so may cost you more than you’ll gain.

Getting more customers (and cash flow!) is usually a great thing for any business. But when it distracts you from consistently working on your core business, it can delay the development of your core business. And that’s not ideal. Plus, once you chase the first one-off sale, it’s easy to rationalize doing so time and time again. It may be better to stay in your lane and focus on finding customers who can benefit from what your business does have to offer.

Consistency: How Do You Measure Up?

Could you benefit from being a bit more consistent? Start by learning how to build (and maintain) positive habits that benefit small business owners.

Consistency Today, Success Tomorrow

Being more consistent is really about working smarter. It’s about focusing on your business day in and day out, and tackling the tasks that will help you achieve what you set out to do when you decided to start your organization.

When it comes to building a small business, consistency is every bit as important as creativity — maybe even more so. To succeed as an entrepreneur, you’ll need to find the balance between putting in the steady, consistent work that will set you up for success, while also recognizing and acting on opportunities to build the business of your dreams.