Business Solutions for the ADHD Entrepreneur

Are you an entrepreneur with ADHD? Here are solutions to common business problems ADHD entrepeneurs face.

I'm a AD/HD Entrepreneurial Coach and here are some quick tips to help your business.

1. Eat your dessert first
   How do you structure your day? Do you start with every morning off by doing the things you have to do but don't necessarily enjoy and put the more enjoyable parts of your day off until later? Most of us spend very little time doing the things that we do best. Since we tend to enjoy the things we do best, then it follows that most of us spend most of our time doing things that we don't really enjoy. Instead, we spend the majority of our days struggling to do things that we don't like to do. Then we wonder why we don't want to get out of bed in the morning to go to work. Working this way drains your energy and decreases your ability to succeed at what you are trying to accomplish.

   The things you do best should be the things you do first. Rearrange your schedule so the things you enjoy the most - which are usually the things we do best - are the first things you do when you start your day. Rather than feeling drained before 10:00, you'll be more productive and you'll have more energy to face the rest of your day.

2. Focus your energy on your strengths, not your weaknesses
   Research on workers shows that people spend less than 20% of their time in activities that make the best use of their talents and abilities. Four-fifths of their day - 80% of their time - is spent doing things that do not lie within their area of strength. Instead of investing their time on developing their business, these people are spending more and more of their time trying to do things that they aren't equipped to do.

   Is this happening to you? To find out, start keeping a work log. Writing down how you spend your time, whether it was spent doing something you do well that contributes to your business or whether it was spent doing things that may be necessary but aren't necessarily things you do well. Chances are good that you'll be surprised to learn how little of your day using your strengths. A coach can help you find ways to change or even reverse that ratio, changing your day so you're spending the majority of your time doing the things you do best.

3. Remember: What you pay attention to grows
   This relates to number 2 above. The office philodendron died because no one paid attention to it. The same is true of your business and even your personal life. What you pay attention to grows. The things we neglect tend to die. If you're paying attention to your weaknesses, then your weaknesses are going to grow. That's why it's so important to pay attention to what you do well. You "grow" your strengths and talents by focusing on the things you do well.

   Try this: Take a flashlight, hold it about three feet above the floor and point it to straight down in front of your feet. That small pool of light represents the things you do well. This is the area where you should spend most of your time, in part because that is what you do well and in part because that's where the light is. If you work in the light, you're less likely to bump into things. Now raise the flashlight to about four feet. Notice how the area covered by the light just grew? The same thing happens as you focus on your strengths instead of your weaknesses. As you raise the level of your performance by paying attention to what you do well, the circle of things you do well will increase.

   The principle of "what you pay attention to grows" applies to all areas of your life. If you pay attention to your marriage, it will grow. If you neglect you relationships, those relationships will die. If you pay attention to a particular skill, that skill will grow. Left unused, that same skill will eventually disappear.

4. Sip, don't gulp your decisions
   Entrepreneurs tend to move quickly. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of a new project and move ahead before you or your business is ready. These impulsive decisions can create more problems than they solve. Learn to sip your decisions slowly and not gulp down choices that you might later regret. Savor the decision making process, "sipping" each choice you face like a fine wine, rather than gulping it down too quickly. Once you make a decision, see how it tastes before making another. Others may try to pressure you to speed up your decision-making process, but the reality is that there are very few decisions that can't wait for another twenty-four hours.

David Giwerc MCC,(Master Certified Coach, ICF) is the Founder/President of the ADD Coach Academy (ADDCA), http://www.addca.com,/ a comprehensive training program designed to teach the essential skills necessary to powerfully coach individuals with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. He has been featured in the New York Times, London Times, Fortune and other well-known publications. He has a busy coaching practice dedicated to ADHD entrepreneurs and the mentoring of ADD coaches. He helped develop ADDA's Guiding Principals For Coaching Individuals with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. He has been a featured speaker at ADDA, CHADD, International Coach Federation and other conferences. David is the current President of ADDA.

next: How Your AD/HD Affects Your Business
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