Fashion Business Owner Musings: What is habitual in your business?

As I’ve been thinking a lot about how the Black Lives Matter movement cannot be a moment in time, I’m reminded of how important habits are to our development, growth, and success in both life and business.

It’s so important that we have to create habits around our efforts, personal and professional, in order to do better.

That concept applies to social justice. And it also applies to business in so many ways.

So I’m curious…

What is habitual in your business?

What are things that you’re doing on a regular basis that you barely even need a reminder to do, they’ve becomes so integral in running your business?

You may be having a hard time answering that. It’s OK, that’s common.

But if you realize that not much of what you do is habitual, I’m sharing some of the stuff that I believe will make the biggest impact on your business, if you focus on it.

These are things I think are at the top of the list of important habits for business owners.

Education is a big one. Learning should be ongoing in your business. Whether you’re just starting out or you’re up and running and doing well, there is always more to learn. Always more to figure out and implement in your business. The thing is, it’s way more likely to happen if you consciously make a decision to educate yourself.

If you block off time and remove distractions and remind yourself that, if you want to grow and evolve, you need to keep on learning, you will build a habit that has a massive impact on your business.

Experimentation is another one. All that learning you’re doing . . . implement it. Play around with it. Try things. Get yourself into the habit of acknowledging that something might not work as expected but doing it anyway. I honestly think this habit alone has the power to change your business in myriad ways. It’s just a bit scary because of the unknown. So what? Do it anyway.

Reviewing and improving on all that experimenting is another key habit. When you try something new, pay attention to what worked and what didn’t. Make it a habit to review metrics on a monthly basis in your business. Emails not performing? Why? Sales are down? Why? Mindset is messy? What’s going on? The only way you can work on something and improve it is to pay attention to it in the first place. A habitual review of your business each month is the way to keep on top of that.

Accountability is another great habit to develop. Who in your life can help to hold you accountable to your goals and dreams? How can you make a check-in a habit in your life and business? Do you have a scheduled monthly or weekly phone call with a friend? Do you have a daily meeting with your partner every morning? What does accountability look like in your life and how can you make sure it’s a habit?

This next habit is my favorite. Taking action. Believe it or not, it’s very common for creative entrepreneurs to have all these great ideas in the world, but rarely take action on them. Crazy, I know! (Also, guilty!). Making a habit of taking action on your ideas will be game-changing for you and your business. You’ll start to experience progress. You’ll learn a lot. You’ll make changes. You’ll feel accomplished. It’s major. So, don’t skip this one. What can you say or do to use as a trigger for taking action every time you’re “sitting with” an idea out of fear for too long?

And lastly, asking questions is a great habit to have as a business owner. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Just be thoughtful about your questions. I once wrote a post about learning to ask good questions rather than wasting them on something you can google. I still stand by that. (And actually, I loved this short commentary on how that same concept applies to doing the work for Black Lives Matter).

So what are going to become habitual about within your business?

Are you realizing now how important it is to create these habits?

Are you ready to commit to habits as one of the pillars of your growth and success?

I hope so!

Lots of love and encouragement,