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.
No comments:
Post a Comment