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Dentists and teeth cleaning - how your business can benefit!

When diaries get full and people get really busy lots of little things don't get done. When this happens it is like going to the dentist for your regular check up, but you haven't cleaned your teeth for the last six months!

When the little things in a business don't get done (analogous to cleaning your teeth) then after a while you encounter problems in your business. They seem to appear suddenly, but they haven't - they have just not been in your consciousness until then.

Focussing only on the big things will leave your business riding on a wave of being out of control, followed by periods of correction, and then feeling in control. Just as you start to feel comfortable and get busy again the little things start to get dropped once more and the cycle continues.

You need to schedule the big things and plan your resources accordingly. You also need to come up with a way to keep all of the little things going. The trick is to get both scheduled and acted upon on an ongoing basis.

If your business lurches between periods of being super busy and periods of trying to put things right in your business then you will benefit from stopping and thinking how to keep all of your essential activities going at the same time as delivering the bigger 'priority' tasks you are faced with. In essence - make sure your business cleans its teeth everyday.

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