Posts Tagged ‘Organization’
Time Management Tips
February is National Time Management Month. Let’s review some helpful tips to keep you on time and less stressed!
- Plan & Organize – without a plan, you will experience an 80% failure rate. Time spent organizing is time well spent. It doesn’t matter how you organize, just organize in a way that works for you.
- Set Goals & Prioritize – the first step is to decide what you want to achieve. Keep the goals achievable, with a little bit of stretch. Next, prioritize! Use the 80-20 rule from our old friend Mr. Pareto… 80% of the reward or achievement comes from 20% of the effort. Spend time in the areas that offer the greatest return on effort.
- To Do or Not to Do – that is the question! Combine a list of action items with your calendar. You can see your progress and make adjustments as needed. Knowing where you are is half the battle most days.
- Delegate – No is not a four letter word! Some tasks are just not worth your time, but others on your staff could be a perfect fit for activities that are a drain on your schedule, but still need to be handled.
- Don’t schedule 100% of Your Day – Interruptions are going to happen… so build time into your schedule to accommodate them! Not only will this lessen your stress level when emergencies happen, but it will lessen the number of “fires” you have to deal with on a daily basis.
- Know Your Prime Time – we all have biological a “prime time” when we are running on all cylinders. Knowing if you’re a morning person, afternoon guru or night owl, you can try to schedule your priority tasks for those times.
- Reward Yourself – break your day into small blocks and give yourself a small reward for achieving a goal. Building small successes as you move through the day will give you both emotional and physical boosts. All work and no play makes for a long day!!!!
Disaster Prevention on a Budget
We’ve discussed risk management in previous blogs, and the importance of identifying, quantifying and understanding business risks. But, what are some simple, inexpensive ways a small business can prevent disaster from upending their business? Review some of the tips below and see if they fit your budget and apply to your business!
- Develop multiple revenue sources – Never rely on one customer, industry or client to be your only revenue stream. Diversity will help insulate you if you lose a high value customer. You should plan on losing at least 10% of your customer base annually, not necessarily through your fault, it’s just the natural flow of business.
- Document It! – The first rule of business is ‘get it in writing”. What may have been understood in a verbal conversation can easily lead to major misunderstandings at a later date….that’s why the court house is full of lawyers. A well defined and thorough written document can save hurt feelings, money and clients!
- Rainy Day Money – You never know when your revenue stream will be interrupted or for how long. Fire, flood, natural disasters or even economic uncertainty can bring business to a sudden stop. Having a reserve fund to see you through slow months or more trying situations can save your business until your cash flow returns to normal.
- Back Up, Back Up, Back Up…. In case you are one of those folks who has never experienced their computer hard drive crashing….YOU WILL BE, it’s just a matter of time. There are so many easy, automatic ways to back up your business data, especially from PC’s and laptops available today. I suggest you consider an online backup system that is cloud based. They are numerous and inexpensive, and are accessible 24/7, allowing you to recover vital data to keep your business moving if those geek gremlins attack.
- Have a Plan – sounds easy, and it really is. Take a few minutes and think about some of the vital activities you, your staff and your business perform routinely. Write them down, make copies, distribute and familiarize key employees with those processes. Then, when someone is out for a day or week or month, a co-worker will know how to turn on the copier, write an invoice or turn on the coffee maker!
