Two tips to get unstuck in your business from Elevate advisor Angel Even

At any stage of a business, it’s easy for leaders to get stuck. Elevate Hennepin advisor Angel Even, founder of Led by TRUTH, says her coaching is like a lever to help leaders get out of their ruts and back on a growth track.

In her long career as an executive coach and consultant, she has seen a lot of ways people get stuck in a business. They can get stuck on an idea and can ignore other opportunities, they can get stuck doing something they should really be delegating, or they can get stuck responding to the endless list of tasks without moving toward their goals.

Then there’s getting fixated on something that isn’t working instead of pivoting to something that is. 

“There's a lot of people who get stuck and it's because they're fearful or anxious, or they just don't know what to do,” said Angel.

While there are a lot of ways to get stuck, there are just as many ways to get unstuck and keep moving. Agel highlighted two ways she’s helped entrepreneurs do just that.

Follow the money

At some point, every business needs to bring in revenue. Angel always operates from an earned-revenue model because despite all the grants and opportunities out there, most businesses will need to find customers or businesses to pay them. That means prioritizing making a sale for whatever the product or service is.

Angel noted one Elevate advisee she was working with recently. They wanted to provide support and impact in their community, but revenue was not a priority. And while the company had big goals, a strong strategy, and a lot of big ideas, there were too many things to keep track of.

“I said, ‘You need to generate revenue in the next 90 days,’” said Angel. “What is ready to launch?”

That got the business owner focused on a small range of services with a clear list of potential clients. Before long, the advisee was sending proposals, marketing the service, and ultimately moving forward toward those big goals.

Budget time for the essentials

Just about every business owner gets stuck in the day-to-day business. It’s easy to open up your email or business and just respond until the day is over and nothing much actually got done. Angel advises business owners to take a wholistic look at their day, and their life to block time for what matters, both in the business but also to protect your life from being eaten up by the day-to-day.

“I usually also tell people do an assessment on your current capacity, because if you're feeling like you can't get to something, it's because you're not actually budgeting time,” said Angel.

She asks founders and leaders to look at how often they’re checking emails, when do they focus on essential tasks like accounting, and are they getting a little time to relax here and there?

With an accurate look at that time spent, founders can start blocking time for what’s important and start building better habits.

“Start dedicating maybe a half an hour each week on accounting needs and seeing if you can slowly increase that to a more steady and more routine type of process,” said Angel.

Breaking down big processes to smaller tasks can help make some of those necessary but sometimes tedious tasks more digestible. That also helps identify parts of the process leaders can delegate to their team or identify where they need an employee or other support.

Angel said it’s easy for people to get stuck in their business, but she and other Elevate Hennepin advisors are eager to find ways to get back on track. Connect with Led by TRUTH today or an Elevate Hennepin Business Advisor to identify the right resource to get your business into growth mode.