Small Business Essentials

As we near the end of 2007, it’s time to start making those goals for yourself and your business for 2008. After studying all the entrepreneurs I have come into contact with over the past year, both at StartupNation and in my marketing/webdev business, I have come to realize that success as a solopreneur is not just a matter of a good idea; it has a lot to do with how much self-discipline an entrepreneur has, and what kind of time management processes they have in place. I know everyone wants to think they will be a success because of their offerings or their superior inventions, but how efficient an entrepreneur can be juggling so many hats in the limited number of hours in every day will determine their fate the most. If you need some help tipping the scales in your favor in 2008, try some of these ideas I’m compiled for time management and efficiency.

Make your own Lent

I’m not about to make you give up chocolate for forty days, but I will have you consider what else you can give up. Are there certain activities, both personal and professional, that are sucking up your free time? Are there certain clients or projects that have not been as profitable as you hope, and yet they are still monopolizing your time? Now is the time to make a list of these things and figure out how you can either eliminate or modify them so that you can be more efficient. To demonstrate, here are some of the things I have done:

• I stopped driving to the gym.
  Time saved: 45-90 minutes
  Years ago, I used to drive to a gym to work out. Now, I just run from my house and do strengthening exercises at home. This saves me about 45-90 minutes every time I work out if you consider how long it takes someone in California to drive to the gym, park, walk from the car to the gym, get inside the gym, wait for certain machines to become available, leave them gym after working out, and drive home again. That 45-90 minutes is definitely better spent elsewhere. Better yet, I now jog with an empty stroller to pick up my daughter and walk her home, so I get to exercise, run an errand, and save fuel costs all in one shot.
• I stopped watching TV.
  Time saved: 15 minutes per show for DVD,
  15 hours for cutting back
  I was actually down to one show a week from the 5-6 nights per week of TV I used to watch two years ago, but with the writer’s strike that has ended as well. If I still want to watch something with my husband, we pick up a TV series on DVD from Netflix. Watching TV on DVD, whether old shows that are on commercial DVDs or new shows that you record, allows you to save roughly 15-20 minutes per hour by eliminating the commercials. Watching your TV shows at a different time than they are aired also allows you greater flexibility in your weekly schedule.
• I gave up refined sugars.
  Time saved: 1-2 hours of productivity
  Not only do I feel better after eliminating refined sugars and reducing all other sugars, but my energy is greater with my steady blood sugar levels so I don’t feel like I need an afternoon nap every day. This makes my mid-morning and after-lunch periods a lot more productive. This same technique worked for Rob May over at Business Pundit and Yaro Starak at Entrepreneur’s Journey as well.
• I dropped a bunch of feeds.
  Time saved: 2 hours per week
  I used to have about 40% more feeds in my reader, but a bunch of them were really just dead weight—they had slipped in quality and were really not a good value of my time. Dropping them means that I can focus on reading only the feeds that will help me and not the ones that are a waste of time.
• I cut out some web sites.
  Time saved: 5 hours per week
  Are you the kind of person who spends a few hours a week checking news- and hobby-related web sites? I found that these activities really did nothing for me, and if I could control the urge for about five minutes, it went away. This act of impulse control now gives me an extra five hours every week, at least. The added benefit is that not reading the kinds of things that make headlines on CNN has improved my mood, which also increases productivity. The exception to this rule is any industry-related news such as business or technology trends, which you should keep up on in order to remain competitive in your business.

Eliminate Inefficient Uses of your Time

To really overhaul how you use your time, you have to look at what you are doing now that is inefficient or leaves room for improvement. I would begin by recording everything that you do for the next week or two, including how much time each activity took you and what the results of that activity were. Once you have the data, look at your schedule to see which activities consume too much time or don’t bring in any returns for you. If problems in your schedule emerge from your data, try some of these solutions:

• Outsource.
  Outsourcing might be as complicated as hiring a bookkeeper if you are spending too much non-billable time on your books, or as easy as hiring a housekeeper to free you up for additional work time. My simple version of outsourcing is that I have been sending my daughter to play at a friend’s house during the day and letting her daddy put her to bed at night.
• Reduce distractions.
  Tim Ferriss, author of the The 4-Hour Workweek, strongly advocates checking your e-mail only twice a day. I haven’t quite made it there, but I am trying to turn off my e-mail and IM more often. I also stopped answering my phone when I’m focused on writing.
• Stay focused.
  The nice thing about working from home is working from home, but it’s also the bad thing. Besides e-mail, I can get distracted doing housework, playing with my dogs, or making overly involved breakfasts for myself. The trick is to stay focused on your task and "go to work" in the morning as if you have a job outside the home. According to Cameron Martel at Career Ramblings, staying on track when working from home includes dressing for work, setting regular work hours for yourself, making yourself a work space, and not finding other things to do around the house.

Stop Procrastinating

Procrastination is the fastest way to derail a project and get yourself into some bad habits. If procrastination becomes regular, across all projects, you will start missing all your deadlines and your customer satisfaction (and client referrals) will suffer. This is why it is important to stop procrastination in it’s tracks! Julie Morgensteign, author of Time Management from the Inside Out, explains that procrastination often happens for two reasons:

1. The task is too complex and overwhelming.
2. The person procrastinating hates what they are doing.

If complexity is your problem, try breaking up the task into component parts and tackling each of them one by one. (I find that making a detailed to-do list and talking to yourself, as outlined in Be Your Own CEO, also help with that kind of procrastination.) If you hate your current task and are trying to avoid it, see the section on outsourcing above.

The Bottom Line

Overall, I’m looking forward to my increased productivity in 2008. Don’t wait until January to start these changes though—many of them can be made starting today. Just ask yourself this question: Is there anything that I am doing today that is not helping me move forward in my business? If the answer is yes, do something about it!