How to manage yourself as a business owner

How to put together a top-to-bottom plan for self-management. After all, ‘To manage your business, first manage yourself.’

It’s a good mantra – a method of creating the best possible version of yourself to enable you to perform to the standards you want, to stay on the correct path and, as a consequence, get the best out of others.

Another one we heard only last week was, ‘How can you be a good leader if you can’t lead yourself?’. To truly manage yourself in this context isn’t about making microscopic changes to your day to drive efficiencies; like getting up at 5am to check your emails or taking a post-lunch walk to refocus.

Self-management as an owner is more about stepping back and creating a lasting framework for success – and it follows a process of self-examination, setting rules to keep yourself accountable, and then tracking your progress, bounding towards a continual journey of practicing self-awareness, creating routines, being realistic, finding time to rest and one hundred other attributes to power up your ownership skills.

Time to complete your own staff appraisal to drive self-awareness. ‘As you come to understand where your strengths are, what you enjoy doing, and where your passions are, you are better able to develop an authentic leadership style. The first person you will lead is yourself!’ (asparker.com)

Detach yourself from your ownership role and think of yourself as an employee. What are you good at? What needs work? Where can you benefit from extra learning or training? Does this “employee” find it hard to communicate what they’re thinking or delegate or struggle to prioritise tasks?

Most importantly… is this you? How would you react to an employee performing like this? Why are they behaving like this? Are they overworked or frustrated in their role, do they have the support required to successfully carry out the functions and responsibilities attached to that role?

What would you do in this situation? Answer: you would look for ways to improve their lot. You’d manage them. So why should owners be impervious to being managed?

Think about your purpose and the core values of your organisation and how your actions are impacting on your people, your customers, and yourself. Could your decisions and actions align more appropriately as you stick to the core values that govern your business?

As an owner, how can you manage yourself to make this change? The result? You’ll see a progression of positive commitment-making, to lifelong learning, to understanding how you bring value to the business, to developing your own productivity in the right places and getting clarity on organisational structures, and a whole lot more.

Staying accountable

Set goals, make plans, be patient, stay focused, stay organised, work hard, and reach goals (smallbusinessify.com). Then set new goals, make new plans, be patient, stay focused, work hard, and reach goals.

Managing yourself as an owner also involves being realistic and not setting impossible goals. Create actionable and quantitative goals that are reasonable and within your capabilities. 

‘The most important thing you can do for your business is to be accountable and to consistently hold yourself to a higher standard of performance,’ according to Forbes. ‘This is a foundational ingredient for exponential business growth. And while being accountable may sound like a simple idea, in practice, it takes a lot of work.’

‘Create systems for accountability. Systems are processes that make productive things happen. And the best way to create them in your own life is by creating habits. To do this, set up some reminders or milestones for yourself to keep your goals and commitments fresh and at the forefront of your mind.’

Tracking your progress

‘Consider keeping a daily record of how long your workdays last and how quickly you're able to complete certain tasks. As you implement more and more self-management strategies into your day, you may find that your efficiency and productivity rates consistently increase. If you notice an area that doesn't consistently improve, you can use this information to reflect on your processes and make necessary adjustments. (indeed.com).

You can be practical in how you do this. You could draw up a 90-day plan, make a list, speak to trusted colleagues around how they believe you can manage yourself better and write them down. Those conversations might not include what you want to hear, but it’s a great long-term strategy for making change.

Being an owner requires grit and discipline, and we hear from so many who neglect themselves for the sake of the business, when the reality is that they're holding the business back by being ineffective in all the wrong areas. ‘To manage your business, first manage yourself.’

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