Our last newsletter series discussed how a website can help grow your brand and your business. We?re going to shift gears a little and consider how we can sometimes get in our own way and actually limit our success.

As business owners and professionals, we made the decision to open our business for many reasons. The first one is (or should have been) because we have a love of what we do. We want a worklife focused on what we love doing and what we?re most skilled at doing. The second reason is often that we want control over our lives: We don?t want someone telling us what we?re worth.We want to control our schedule. We want to control our life.

We start the business and suddenly discover that, in addition to doing what we love, we also have to be the Purchasing Manager (looking for the best price on office supplies), the head of Facilities Management (making sure the heat is on in the winter and the air conditioner works in the summer), the Vice President of Information Technology, and the Chief Custodian (keeping the ?executive washroom? supplied and clean).

As we build the business, we can get caught up in the mindset that we need to perform every task ourselves. We?re hyper-conscious about the need to watch expenses and, even though our revenue is growing, our first reaction is often to do things ourselves.

The more time we spend on tasks that take us away from the core of our business ? the things that we do so well that others are willing to pay us to do them ? the less profitable, the more stressed, the more exhausted we will be.

At some point, each of us needs to bring others into the business so our time is spent doing what we do best.

There are grocery stores that will deliver your food; personal chefs that will cook your meals; bookkeepers who will pay your bills; and plenty of other experts who are willing and able to help you with tasks that need to be done but that don?t necessarily need to be done by you.

You may be thinking that you can?t afford to hire someone to help you. You can?t afford not to hire someone to help you. Hiring professionals is not a cost. Hiring professionals to help you is an investment. Yes, there?s money spent but there should be a specific return on that investment. For every hour gained, you should be able to generate more business, do more work, and increase your profitability. You should also gain important thinking time: Time to come up with a strategy for landing that sale, to decide how to solve that problem, to create that new product or program. In other words, things that only you can do.

Here?s a challenge for you. Make a list of all the tasks you perform in your business that do not directly produce revenue. In other words, they?re not core business tasks. Between today and our next issue, keep track of the time you spend on those tasks. You?ll use the information when you read the next issue.

Pardon us while we toot our own horn
We were really blown away when we got the news that the image we created for our client, GGJM Luxury Limousine Service, was named one of the top 100 rebranded images for 2005 by ReBrand 100?.

Coming Attractions
We?re very committed to helping you grow your business and your brand. We?ll soon be offering a teleclass designed to help you do that. More on that in the next issue, so stay tuned.

Pause to remember
Today, June 6th, is the 42nd anniversary of the invasion of Normandy, also known as D-Day. Please take a moment to pause and give thanks to those who served and sacrificed so much to give us the life we enjoy today.

? 2006 Abiah Designs. Visit http://www.abiahdesigns.com for additional articles and information on building a brand that resonates with your target market and to view their portfolio.

Abiah Designs is a brand strategy / full-service marketing firm whose unique, proprietary research process creates and revitalizes brands that resonate with their target markets, leads to increased brand awareness, develops strong customer loyalty and improved market share.

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