There's a process to everything, even to making your business work better/smarter/harder.  It's a process that many people don't actually learn until it's too late.

First things first.  You need to "know what you don't know".  WHAT??  Think about it.  You need to look at your business plan (if you even have one) and figure out what holes exist.  Do you know how to manage your sales?  Your billing?  Your invoices?  Your payments?  Write down everything that you don't know.

Next, prioritize the things you don't know into critical items, concern items and convenience items.  The "critical" ones are ones that need to be address immediately.  The "concern" items should be addressed in the next month and the "convenience" items can be addressed when you can get to them.

As you work through each item, make sure you outline the issue, the proposed solution and measurable goals you can achieve to get to that solution.  Without measurable goals, it's like going from one floor to the next with no stairs.  With the stairs there, you can take it (literally) one step at a time.

Set up a system of evaluating your progress.  Don't just set up goals and then evaluate whether you met the goal or not.  Evaluate whether you're approaching the goal or not.  You don't create a budget, go through the month and evaluate how well you did at the end of the month!  You watch it throughout the month, to ensure success at the end of the month.

After you've evaluated your situation, go back to the first step and go through the process again.  At first, it may seem overwhelming, but you'll notice that each time you go through this process, the number of things you have to admit you "don't know" gets less and less!

AG