Make That Leftover Job Mentality Work For You

By Author: Cindy Lighter
Total Articles: 10
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If you're starting to see yourself as someone with the job mentality in running your business, it's not entirely a bad thing. If the way in which you're using it is currently to your detriment, you can overcome it by leveraging your old mentality to get yourself into a new one.

One thing you can do is give yourself a title more befitting to what you do, and live up to it.

You may be the owner of Blue Stockings Inc., but also think of yourself as the Customer Service Manager on Tuesdays, if that's the area you need work in. The reality is, you could lose both positions if you don't do the second better than the next guy.

If you had a customer service manager to train, what would you tell them to study? How would you want them to behave? What would you want your customers to say about you?

Write out that job description, make a list of training materials, and get to work on yourself.

There's a flip side to the job mentality, and there's a way that recognizing this state of mind can make you money.

First of all, back when you had a day job (or if you still do) there was a time every week ...
... when you hopefully didn't think about your occupation for at least 24, maybe even 48 hours. I used to have only a very dim recollection of this time period. Most people call it a weekend.

Until recently, I barely noticed when it came.

Especially when you work online, as a small business owner, you tend to step into the pattern of being available 24/7, because your office is open all the time.

But sometimes we fail to realize, the reason it's open around the clock is so that we don't have to be on-duty for those same hours.

A few months ago, it became necessary for me to slow down a bit to address an on-going health problem. The first realization that I came to was that I really didn't have office hours or days off. I worked all the time. I even moved my computer to be available as soon as I woke up.

This was okay when I was in the start-up phase. But now, all it gets me is worn out. That meant that instead of giving my best to everyone, I was constantly out of energy and running in circles.

Now I have days of the week that I work, and days that I don't. It varies from week to week, but unless it is an emergency, I absolutely do not work on Sundays.

I found a time of the day that I work the best, and found out that I can get much more done in fewer hours. It's not necessary for me to work 14 hour days when, with a little organization and a schedule shift, I can get more work done in six.

Now I just have to figure out what I used to do when I wasn't working. But again, that's another discussion.

Have you ever noticed that you are more productive at a particular time of day? Do you hate mornings but thrive at midnight? Or maybe you like to get up at four and work until nine am, and answer emails the rest of the day?

Now that you're working for yourself, there's no law that says you have to work eight hours straight through if you work better in two shifts of four. You've got the flexibility, use it.

I mentioned earlier that there's a way this job mentaility can make you money, and there is.

The mindset of the 9 to 5 worker is prevelant even among people who work for themselves. Think of ways that you can use this to your advantage by helping people who are in this pattern. Services that do certain types of work for them come to mind, and can also be marketed to people who are too busy. Books that shorten learning curves for activities that would-be online business owners have to do - things like web browsing, learning to use office software for accounting, or taxes.

Don't forget to remind them that purchases to enhance their business are usually tax-deductible.

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This article by Tinu Abayomi-Paul.
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