In a world of continuous connectivity, creating focus is a challenge for even the most disciplined small business owners.  Some studies even suggest that only 20-30% of focused time is spent on priority areas.  The news of the day, email, and texts can have you getting sidetracked never accomplishing those three most important things on your task list. 

Over the years, I’ve found that one of the fundamentals to getting focused is clarity.  If clarity is lost or never reached, it is impossible to generate any kind of focused action.  Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs don’t do enough of getting their mind clear before they execute their task list.

I’m reminded about the story of Connie.  Connie was a small business owner who packaged her 25 years of experience and started her consulting practice.  She selected a niche and started to market her consulting services.  She would gain some ground, but then several business iterations and life events later, she was frustrated over her lack of results.  It was like she had all of these ideas and couldn’t quite develop it into a business that would bring her the most satisfaction, happiness and financial reward.

Connie did a lot of research and all of the things many experts told her to do:  research her market, target her market, and match her message to her market.  However, all of her work was externally based.   So I asked her one day, “Connie, what kind of client do you want to attract?”  She started naming the titles of the people she wanted to work with.  I asked her to tell me about her favorite clients.  I asked her to share the attributes or those likeability factors of all of those clients she loved to work with.   

A big smile came across her face as she started to name the attributes.  Then, I asked her to list her natural gifts and attributes that her clients have told her they appreciated.  She started to list all of those natural abilities, gifts, and attributes.  It was as if she was looking at her business for the very first time.  She had enough of the external research, now she was taking stock in her natural abilities and developing her practice from the inside out.

Through some additional work, Connie clarified not only her preferred client, but she also figured out the words to use in her marketing to attract the exact client she wanted to work with.  This simple exercise helped her to get clear in her mind what and who she wanted to invite into her life that was in alignment with who she was.  She began writing down all of those things important to her and a plan developed from there.

When you have that clarity of mind, you’ll find yourself with more focus.  With laser focus, you’ll attract exactly those clients who will appreciate working with you.   When you know where they gather, you can take focused action to get your message in front of them.  When you take focused action, you’ll generate your desired outcomes.