If you are a perfectionist, it is likely that you are also a planner. You have a daily plan, a weekly plan, monthly goals and quarterly reporting. These are all good things to have in a business. But sometimes, you may find that despite all your planning, you still feel stressed and it seems like you still cannot achieve all the things you set out to do. You may end up feeling like it was a waste of time planning in the first place!

There is a key to good planning: spontaneity. On first glance, this might seem like an oxymoron! How can you be planned AND spontaneous? But good planning takes into account the likelihood of unplanned events, and creates space for changes and unexpected tasks.

Planning should always involve knowing where you are heading. That is, it is important to have a plan with an outcome or end goal in mind, with the relevant steps to get there. But when something unexpected happens, be flexible enough to take a different route, knowing that you can keep aiming for the original goal, you just may take different steps to get there.

Something that may help all those perfectionists reading this, is to view your day’s achievements by asking: ‘did I make good choices today about how I spent my time?’, rather than ‘did I do everything that was on my list today?’. Ideally, plans should be a guide, not a roadmap with a course that cannot be diverted. Spend enough time that you are clear where you are headed, but leave the specifics open enough so that when opportunities arise, you are not so dogmatically focused on tasks that you miss them. This may mean evaluating your plan throughout the day, and re-prioritising your tasks to work out what is the most important task right now.

When it comes down to it, there are no ‘rules’ for how you should run your business. That’s the awesome part of being a business owner! So don’t get caught up in what your think ‘should’ happen but leave some room for flexibility and responsiveness.

Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender

At a time of year where you are probably feeling swamped by busyness, it is good to remember that as a female business owner, you really are operating in an environment of abundance. Too often we can get ourselves in a rut of bemoaning the lack of cash flow or the proliferation of competitors. But in reality, those are just excuses.

As the ‘captain of your ship’ you need to remember that you hold the power to make your dreams a reality. Other people spend time fantasising about it: you are actually out there doing it! And as an added bonus, you know you enjoy being able to make decisions that affect your future, rather than being beholden to someone else’s goals and dreams.

Running your own business should mean you have flexibility and freedom – if not you need to ask whether you’ve just created a ‘job’ for yourself with an inflexible boss (you!). Yes, you work hard and often put in more hours than your friends and family with regular jobs. But ultimately you get to decide when to take time off and how many hours you put in.

In our current technological age, we have an abundance of resources at our fingertips: advice, how-tos, online support, blogs, webinars and more. What would have taken weeks of research, and a great deal of time and effort to solve, can now take a few hours.

This abundance of resources and circumstances should spur you on to continue forging ahead. Positive thinking by itself will get you nowhere. But being grateful for what you do have and viewing your situation in a positive light, will give you better focus and drive.

Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender

Are you familiar with the saying ‘rules were meant to be broken’? When dealing with customers, this is particularly pertinent. While procedures are important for protecting your profits and business interests, you should also factor in flexibility.

Recently, one of my children was being taken to his sport lesson by his grandparents. I realised that fees were due that day and knew that this business is quite strict about fees being paid on time (which is a reasonable expectation). But because I was not going to be there to pay, had no cash and didn’t want his grandparents to pay, I called them to ask if I could pay next week. They said ‘no, fees must be paid on the due date’. I explained the situation and that we had been attending the centre for 8 years, but there was no compromise. In the words of the receptionist, ‘if we make an exception for you, we have to make it for everyone’.

But that is where I disagree with her. There are a few reasons when exceptions can be made and rules can be broken, including:

• To reward loyalty
• Where it is clearly a ‘once off’ or emergency situation
• To foster and encourage future business

Rigidly sticking to ‘the rule book’ gives your customers the impression that you don’t care about their interests. There will always be people who will be dishonest or try to ‘work the system’, but the vast majority of your customers, will be grateful when you grant their request for flexibility and won’t take advantage of your generosity. Instead, they will reward you with loyalty and great word of mouth referrals.

Michelle Grice writes a weekly column for business women in The Western Weekender