Have you ever considered the connection between gardening/planting and running a business?

Once a seed is planted, there's always a waiting period. The seed is buried in the dirt and you can’t see what's happening. You have no idea of what's going on, yet, you trust that things are happening. Right?

Let’s move on to the germination process. While you are waiting for germination to take place, you still have to tend the seed. You have to check the soil, does it need to be watered? Is this something that needs to be in the shade? Or is it something that needs to be in the sunshine? Either way, you're addressing the environment to meet the plants' needs. While that seed is doing its thing under the ground, you are still doing! And the same thing happens in our businesses. 

If your roster of clients is not full or your sales target is not where it should be, that doesn't mean that you should put your head back in the shell like a turtle and sit around waiting, doing nothing. That's not how this works! Can you still do this while leading? Yes, you can! Think of the things that you can still keep doing, while things are not going the way you might have hoped. Jot them down. 

 

You are not going to change your situation by stopping or doing nothing. If you do, who's going to know what you have to offer? The truth is if you're not telling anyone, if you're not talking about it, if you're not putting it out there, that's not going to change that situation. You still need to keep marketing, you still need to keep doing your CEO tasks in your business, whether your client roster is full or not full, there are still things that need to be done and your business still needs to keep going. It would be best if you kept on top of your books, maybe this is the process where you might review your spending and decide that you aren’t going to pay for your video conference subscription because you haven't had a lot of discovery calls coming in. As a result, you’ll be able to fix this before the next payment is due to save some well-earned money. You need to keep a record of statistics, you need to look at your analytics, look at what kind of progress is taking place in your business. 

 

You might still need to do your content creation that falls under that marketing, it still has to get done. If you're active on socials, stay and keep active on your social accounts. If we're honest, if your roster is not at full, you have a little bit more time. Dig deeper into those connections, those people that you've already reached out to, make some new solid connections, and dig deeper into those relationships. Get a better handle of what your audience requires and what is the exact transformation they are looking for. 

 

Determine how your business can bridge that gap for your audience. Always keep learning! As you continue to get better, you will be better equipped to better serve your clients. Keep doing that! Keep doing the backend stuff on your business.

What if you don’t have your SOPs in place? Jump on Loom and start recording those videos for either yourself or your VA or someone down the road to take on. Record yourself doing the everyday processes that you do in your business. 

 

When is the last time you checked your onboarding process? 

 

Are there some hiccups in the process that you can straighten out? Are there some things that you might want to audit? Or should step three come before step two? You might want to change something but you never got around to it. The time is now!

If your business is not where you want it to be, make work of getting it there while you have extra time on your hands. Ask a friend to go through your workflow process, create an account, log in, book an appointment. Evaluate and see how everything flows. Does that email sound like you? 

 

The bottom line here is you need to keep doing all the things that need to be done, even while you are waiting. The doing is not wasted time. By doing while waiting you are busy being productive and working towards your business goals. Sometimes you might feel that's not going to help you get clients, etc. You keep shooting yourself down. It might not immediately but it sets the stage for clients who will come in. And when they do come, you have an awesome client experience that separates you from others

 

If you're ready to harvest, you have to be ready to do the doing. Leverage the extra time to work and streamline the backend of your business, the SEO tasks, that the tasks that are related to running a business. That's the background stuff, that's the underground stuff. You necessarily don't see what's happening there but it’s leading to that transformation. These are all things that set you up for when harvesting comes.

Doing while waiting is the key to consistency. You never know who's watching you when you are being consistent. Your audience is watching you show up consistently in your business, they're watching you be consistent with your marketing. They're watching you be consistent in so many areas, and they're thinking to themselves, I want to work with her. 

 

Why? Because every single thing that she's done has been consistent.

Be consistent in what you're doing, even when no one is watching, because all of that is the same thing that goes into preparing the soil, tilling the soil, getting everything ready for that at seed to drop into just the right environment in order to grow. The same logic applies to your business, plant the seed and continue to do all the work that needs to be done. 

 

Happy planting and doing!

 

Kiva Slade is the CEO and Founder of The 516 Collaborative.

She is a Certified Online Business Manager® who partners with mid 6-7 figure business owners serving as their confidante, voice of reason and manager of all things operations, teams, and projects.

Kiva holds a Master's degree in Public Administration and has operated her own jewelry business. Her 20 years of experience run the gamut from Legislative Director for a member of Congress to chief encouragement officer for her teenage children.

In her free time, you can find her indulging in gluten free desserts, playing in the dirt in her garden, or with a good book.