As an entrepreneur, it will seem like there are always countless things vying for your attention. If you want to be successful, you need to determine where and how to spend your time and energy. While opportunities and distractions will be abundant, if you want to be effective, productive and successful, you need to learn how to direct your focus. Here are a few important that you need to learn to become the motivated, focused and efficient small business owner that you are destined to be.

Avoid Getting Distracted by New, Exciting Opportunities

As a small business owner, you will have a wide array of opportunities presented to you. You may even be bombarded by prospective partnerships and exciting opportunities. While these often come in large numbers, many will go nowhere. If you allow yourself to get swept up in the hype of every exciting and new opportunity, you will have little left for opportunities that could lead you down the road of success. If you spend all your time chasing the vast attention-grabbing opportunities that come your way, you won’t have any energy left to bring the right ones to fruition.

Be Mindful of Your Energy Even With Potential Partnerships 

Your prospective partnerships can be another area where you will want to be mindful of your energy. The reality is that not all of your prospects will become profitable. Due to this risk and the likelihood that not some prospects will fail, you need to handle these opportunities wisely. Be careful of how much energy, time and effort you are putting into this step as you explore your options, as too many prospects can drain some of your most valuable resources, time and energy from you and your company.

Focus Your Attention on Closing the Deal

One of the biggest mistakes that entrepreneurs make as they balance their competing priorities is to leave little or no energy for the final stages. The reality is that closing deals can be a lot harder than most entrepreneurs realize; however, this is where it counts and where you make your money. If you want to be successful, you need to find a way to draw in exciting opportunities and then whittle them down to the right choice for your business.

As an entrepreneur, you will already be bombarded with the number of competing priorities that you need to juggle during a day that is often too short. While you will likely have no short of prospects and opportunities, if you want to achieve long-term success and achieve the most productive version of yourself, you need to learn how to funnel your energy to determine your most profitable path forward.