Time management for starting a business

Many people who are successes at business just dived in feet first. The rest of us hang on to their normal 9-to-5 while they try to get things up and running. For most of us that probably won't work. To quote Yoda from The Empire Strikes Back, "That is why you fail".

And yet it's not necessarily bad to try and get as far as you can before taking the leap the rest of the way. It's just most of us lack focus. We have good intentions of building up our business on the side, but we never seem to get it done. Why is that?

I suggest it's because we lack the discipline. Other things come first (and often they should), or when we do have the time we forget that we're supposed to be doing something with our business plan. We don't readily remember what the next key step is, so we push it aside and go do something clearer and more pressing.

The solution, I believe, is to treat your business like a project. Project managers know that you eat an elephant a bite at a time. But they also know you need to know where to bite next. So how do project managers tackle a project? The move from the big to the small as follows:

Start at the top: Jot down a quick list of things that must be done before your business can start operations. Keep it broad and general, like "secure inventory", or "set up accounts". Don't attempt to define any of these yet, just get them down on paper. Go until you run out of ideas, but be prepare to add more as they occur to you.

Pick a top-level item and break it down: Take one of the items you just recorded, preferably the one you feel is the most immediate need. Think about the various things that need to be done to accomplish that step and write them down. For example, if you wrote an item for "set up bookkeeping" then ask yourself what would you need to do to complete that task. Your answers may look something like:

• Compare bookkeeping software packages


• Select bookkeeping software


• Compare prices for selected software from different vendors


• Purchase software


• Define account list


• Install and configure software


• Complete setup of accounts in software

Once you've completed this step you should prioritize them based on what steps absolutely need to happen before the others. Obviously you can't configure software you do not yet have, but defining you account list could maybe be done at any point prior to configuring the software. You should complete this step with a list in chronological order of what you need to do and when.

Break items down further as needed: Depending on how organized and disciplined you are, or on how large blocks of time you expect to have, this may be as detailed as you need to go. But for others of us, we need to break each step down further. For example, we could break down "compare bookkeeping software packages" further as follows:

• Google or Amazon.com search to find out the main packages


• Read reviews of each package to determine what key considerations might be


• Create your own list of key criteria for evaluating software

It's not a long list, but it's much more detailed. When you know exactly what your next step is, it's much easier to remember next time you have ten free minutes that this would be a good time to Google "accounting software small business" and see what packages come up. You can do that easily in ten minutes, and once you're done you are that much closer to your goal. You may even feel a surge of satisfaction knowing that you actually made progress toward your dream.

Continue and repeat as needed: Break each item and step down until you've done so for all your work items. Look for dependencies between the separate work items and subordinate steps. Start making a list of the "first steps" in each area; items that other steps are dependent on, quick wins, or other small tasks that would help move things along. Take the top ten and keep the list handy.

Whenever you have free time pull out your list and see if any of the top ten can be done just then. If so, do them. If not, relax knowing that you're not doing anything because you can't at the moment. As you complete several items on your list return to your master list and "refill".

Make sure you cross off completed items on your master list. Take a few moments to note just how many tasks you've completed. You are making progress! Doesn't it feel good?! Celebrate your progress!

It may take a considerable amount of time to get organized initially, but once you've got the master list you're most of the way there. Ten minutes a day or half an hour a week is all you need to stay up to date. Add new items to your master list as they occur to you. Look over your list to see if your priorities or dependencies have changed. Refill your Top Ten list if you haven't already done so. Boom! You're on your way again.

Organization and time management can be the key to getting your business from dream to the reality. Don't just sit around wishing you could get things done. Take charge, get organized, and get things done!

Update: Havi, at The Fluent Self, has a related post. Do just one thing.

New Writing Gig: Examiner.com

Examiner.com is a Clarity Media Group venture that leverages local writers in 60 major markets across the US to provide local, expert content. I've applied and been accepted as the Boise Business Strategies Examiner.

My debut article can be found here. Most Boiseans are familiar with Metro Express Car Wash by now, but I look a little deeper into how they use their electronic sign as an entry point to get people into their online marketing.

So take a look if you like. I should be posting something every few days.

Building a Personal Brand

Dan Schawbel has a new book out, Me 2.0: Build A Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success. Branding as a business concept is nothing new. But in the Internet age when it's becoming increasingly possible for individuals to stand out, people really need to pay attention to their "personal brand". Companies aren't interested in retaining employees for life anymore. If anything the trend is toward companies being one day run by an army of independent contractors. There are already virtual companies out there made up of a group contractors working together on a project.

Add to that mix the current economic situation. People are losing their jobs and trying to find new ones among incredibly stiff competition. It's not enough any more to just qualify for a job. You have to market yourself for it.

I've not had a chance to read Schawble's book, but if this article is a sample, it should be good reading indeed. Plus there's likely the added bonus of dual application. If it works for the individual, many of the strategies should work for businesses too.

Here's an excerpt from the article in which he discusses conducting situational analysis:

You can’t leverage social media for career success unless you know where you stand today. This includes taking a good look at your life, what your current responsibilities are, the amount of resources you currently have and your career position. For instance, if you have two children and a full-time job (two children is probably another full-time job), you won’t be able to spend ten hours a day building a community using social media tools. If you’re twenty years old and your parents are wealthy, then you will have more time to invest in your online brand and you may have extra cash to help market yourself. Also, you may have a strong or a weak professional network, which can either support your brand or hinder it moving forward.

When it comes to your career, you need to decide if you’re looking to go to graduate school, start a company, or get a full-time job at a company and climb that corporate ladder. These decisions will impact how you use tools to communicate what you do, who you serve, and how you want to be positioned relative to everyone else, along with your goals and mission.

I may have to add this book to my list of reading.

When Free Stuff Doesn't Help

Havi at The Fluent Self has an interesting post about the hazards of giving things away for free: People tend to save "free" things up for when they really need it.

In her example it's a free massage. The massage was offered to employees so that they'd know how that masseuse works and can recommend them to customers. The opposite happened--the employees save up their free massages for a time when they really need them.

The writer then goes on to ask the employees who aren't using their free massages what their response would be if the massages were offered for $12. The common response was along the lines of "that's a good price, I'd get one today". So offering things for free in this case produces results contrary to the intent, whereas the perception of a spectacular-but-limited-time deal would have worked.

Sometimes less is more, but too much "less" becomes...less.

More Progress in Self-Publishing

(Via @gretchenrubin on Twitter)

Hewlett-Packard has developed printing service that can print magazines on demand at 20 cents per page. A bit pricey for a magazine, perhaps, but making progress.