Why you need a Business Bestie

Today we’re going to talk about how to increase the productivity in your business and it might not be something you’re actually thinking about. If you don’t know why you need a business bestie (or how to get one), tune in, this will help!

Raise your hand if you are someone that loves to be productive in your business like I am, I absolutely just love to get things done.  I love being productive and this doesn’t even necessarily mean like I love making to do lists and checking them off because that can be one way to be productive, but being productive can happen in your business in different ways, like getting an accountability partner for your business.

Do you have one? Tell me if you have a business friend or colleague or someone that you’ve loved to talk with on a regular basis about your ideas, your goals, your vision and mission for your business and how you can get those things done.

This post is about how to have an accountability partner, what exactly that is, how to get started with one, and how they can help you in your business.

What is an Accountability Partner?

So what is an accountability partner? It’s actually someone that you want to talk with on a regular basis about your business in general. This can be someone that you already know or may be someone that you are looking to meet, someone you found in a Facebook group or someone local to you that is in a similar place in business than yours.

It’s really helpful to be at that same place in your business because when you’re both evolving in a similar fashion, you most likely are going to have some great ideas and great conversation about what’s happening, versus if someone’s been in business for like five years and you’re just starting out at two months in, there might be a little bit of a disconnect there.

Look for someone that’s in a similar place when you are, and that is looking to run their business in a similar way too.

Why have an accountability partner

First, it’s a super great thing to be in business for yourself, but it can be a really lonely experience. Especially when you’re doing business a little differently.

Like I have when I started my business, I did things all the traditional way that I thought I was supposed to and was told to do. However, it really wasn’t the way I wanted to full on carry out my business.

And so when you’re transitioning a business and you’re looking to do things a little differently than maybe other people are doing, it is so amazing to have a lifeline of people that you can talk to, to just vent, to be honest, to complain and to just share ideas and realize you’re not crazy.

I mean there are so many people that I have regular conversations with that have saved me and I’ve really kept my sanity. I don’t know if I would be in the right good place that I am without those conversations with people!

So even though it’s lonely, having your own business sometimes, obviously especially online, it’s so great to have those people to talk with.

You want to have a business partner and have an accountability person because it’s super great to share ideas.  To talk about things that you have been thinking of doing for your business, what those things might look like getting carried out and to bounce some ideas off of.

Ask people if this is something you feel like would be valuable in the industry or what it might look like for you to do.

But it also is super great to do partnerships on things with people. You know, that’s sometimes most of how you make connections on how people find out about you and how you get more eyeballs on your business is for other people to tell people about what you do.

How to find a business bestie

So you’re probably wondering, well, who could this person be? How would I actually find someone? Well, actually, like I said, it’s probably someone that’s in a similar business situation as you.

• It could be a local friend. It could be someone that is on your local team if you’ve built a team in person.
• A crossline person is a great person to deal with. I think perhaps the dynamics might get a little off if it’s someone in your upline or downline, but it really depends on the people.  But look for someone where you may not necessarily benefit financially from each other’s work, where you can actually have an even playing field of sharing ideas and doing a business together.
• It could be someone from a Facebook group.
• If you’re in a mastermind or you’re in a group about growing your business some way, put a post up there, be bold, ask, what do you look for in a business partner or bestie or an accountability friends?

And you will be surprised. People are going to come out of the woodwork and say, I’ve been looking for someone to, I’d love to have some conversations about ideas.

Or do you just put the call out there if there’s someone you’re thinking of who you think would benefit from doing this, to ask them outright.

My business partner is someone in the same company as I am, but she’s in a different organization and we just connected at an event. In fact, we went to an event together, we started talking a lot more after and realized we just had so many similar things in common. So many things that we wanted to do the same in the business and that’s what connected us.

We were just thinking of doing things a new kind of a different way than I’ve been heard of. And that just instantly formed a connection between us.

We’ve been doing countability for about two months now and it’s just amazing the way I look forward to the conversation. I can’t wait to tell her ideas and see the progress that she’s making and doing all these things to grow herself as a personal brand and bring her business along, and grow that as well.

What do you do with an accountability partner?

First of all, you want to set up regular communication with that person. It can be as often or frequent or infrequent as you feel like that works for your schedules. A great way to do it is at least at the beginning, is to have a conversation once a week.

My partner and I, we meet once a week on a weekday night after the kids are all in bed. We do a zoom meeting. And so we get to see each other, we get to those share screens, and things like that about what’s happening in our business.

And so you can do zoom, video  apps, FaceTime, Messenger apps and all that stuff now too. And there’s even more live streaming things happening as well too. Or even if you just want to do something where you’re leaving a message and having someone respond to you. Like in a Marco polo situation. But it is best to have a back and forth in person/video.

What do you talk about?

There are have four simple agenda items.

1. Talk about three wins that you have had for the week. This is three things you’re really, really proud of. Three things that you want to make sure that other person knows that you’ve done.

i.e. You finished your info product, you’ve got your website up, you bought your URL URL, you’ve finished, you know, your opt in. You started your email list, you know, reached out to this many people that week, whatever the case might be, that you’re a proud of it and you’re actually gonna find you’re going to want to write more than three. That’s great. But try to keep it simple.

2. The second thing you want to have is three losses for the week.

So maybe there are things that didn’t go that great that you want to improve upon. You can have those on the agenda as well. So three losses.

3. The next one is we have three aha moments.  This is actually my favorite section in the agenda that we talk about because these ah-ha moments are most likely are going to be things that come about because you have had a mindset shift or you’ve had some kind of transformational experience that really does set the groundwork in creating all the positive transformations that you need in your business.

So aha moments are things like great realizations you’ve had or super surprising things that have happened, or ideas that you’ve come up with or things along that line that you think are really gonna work great for your business.

One of my big aha moments was I realized that I was thinking if my ideal customer avatar in a different way. I always kind of pictured the wrong person when I realized who I really wanted to serve and what I was talking about that fit just all of my skill sets was someone totally different.

And I don’t know why it took me so long to figure that out, but it’s a moment where you just want to smack yourself on the forehead and be like, why? I’ve been seeing this out there. Everyone’s been telling me this and I don’t know why I didn’t put two and two together.

4. The last agenda item is to prioritize your top three things that you were going to get done for the following week.

This is to hold you accountable to make sure that you write those things down. And I often write down what my partner is going to be doing as well. So I know and I can ask her questions throughout the week or when we connect again and say, how is this going or what happened here?

So the three top your top priorities for the week as well.

Tips for a Business Bestie Accountability Partner

Try to keep your meeting short so we’re be respectful of everyone’s time.

And don’t forget those four done on agenda items that you can do super quick to just go over your accountability for the week and be in touch with each other about what’s going on in your businesses.

I guarantee it is going to be something amazing for your business. So tell me if you have an accountability partner or if you want to do this or you’re thinking of doing it and be bold. Ask someone to be your partner. I promise you great things are going to happen for it, for your business.