Articles by Nephew Gerry submitted to Article Banks
Articles by Nephew Gerry submitted to Article Banks
Article Index
- 21 Questions to Assess Your Readiness for Time Management
- Seven Preparations for Writing a Business Plan
- Top 7 ways to conquer a blank screen.
- Seven Ways to Say, "No!"
- Chunking the Routine Essentials
- Cures for Small Business Inferiority Feelings
- Do You Devote Time to Each Employee?
- Do You Measure Time Usage or Output?
- Employees Need Some Perspective
- Manage Your Gray Moments
- Many options yield better decision making
- More Uses for Your Business Plan
- Reap Lifestyle Rewards from Improved Time Management
- Seven Reasons for Not Starting Your Own Business
- Three Methods for Writing a Business Plan
- When Is Time Management Not Enough?
- When and Why YOU are the Best Writer for Your Business Plan
ARTICLES IN NO PARTICULAR SEQUENCE
21 Questions to Assess Your Readiness for Time Management
- How many of us are guilty of "Putting the cart before the horse?"
Much is written on HOW to manage your time (the load in the cart) while little mentions the first step (the horse that pulls the load) of time management, asking WHY before we do the HOW.
Millions of people have read Napoleon Hill's, "Think and Grow Rich." Why have most of these readers failed to grow rich?
Could the answer be the same for those who study how to manage time yet, remain poor managers of time?
These WHY-questions help you check your readiness to pull the cart. Who better to ask? You know the answers better than anyone!
Attitude and determination are the horses that pull the load of time management tips toward success.
Look in the mirror as you ask yourself these questions.
Desire 1. Why do I feel I am not using my time properly? 2. Do I really need to improve my time management? 3. Why do the many tips about time management never seem to improve my time managing skills?
Support system 4. Do I fear being disliked if I restrict my time with others? 5. Who are my best supporters? 6. Have I asked the opinion of others about any change in my time management style? 7. Am I blaming others (boss, employees, spouse, children) for my lack of change?
Readiness 8. Am I afraid of changing my character and personality? 9. Am I afraid of missing wasteful activities I enjoy doing? 10. Am I ready for changing my slothful habits? 11. Am I content in not caring too much about time? 12. What do I know about behavior modification methods? 13. Have all my attempts at behavior modification failed?
To Thine Own Self Be True - Shakespeare 14. Am I afraid of the truth about my existing time usage? 15. Am I willing to accept the truth of time log analysis? 16. Am I looking for an easy quick fix? 17. Can I face the disappointment of setbacks or will I quit when I can't be perfect after only a few attempts?
Commitment 18. Have I had any change successes to build upon? 19. Can I visualize the benefits of being a better manager of time? 20. Can I taste the need for change so strongly that I will dedicate myself for changing? 21. Today is the first day of the rest of my life - what time today will I start?
If your answers to WHY indicate you are not ready to change your time managing style, you can save time by not reading the HOW stuff.
Seven Preparations for Writing a Business Plan
- Writing a business plan is a daunting task. If you do not know that by now, you will discover that soon after you have read your first set of instructions for writing a plan. While each of these preparations will require much of your time and efforts, they will help to make the writing of your business plan easier.
Writing your own plan is best because you probably have superior knowledge of your product, your target market and your own capabilities. Eventually, when you are required to defend your plan, you will be better informed of its contents and its rationale. If you engage someone else to write your business plan, you will still have to supply much of the following information anyway.
- Enter an outline in your wordprocessor. You can copy excerpts from books, online searches or pamphlets from government agencies. Finding appropriate content for your venture could take quite a bit of time. It's a good start for overcoming inertia, it provides places to record information as it is gathered and your outline can become your planning and control file.
- Begin collecting contact details for all your references: data sources, business plan writing instructions, resource persons, online sites, libraries, bookstores, etc. The more -- the better. Exercise caution if you think your idea is hot for a local and limited market. Reveal your concept and your research only to a trusted few. Someone with similar attributes and skills with access to more money could beat you to an exclusive market share. In my business classes there was always, at least, one student accepting my offer to submit the weekly submissions in a plain kraft envelope.
- Establish formats and content for appendices such as floor plans, schedules and product details that could be time consuming to gather into an appropriate presentation.
- Gather industry data. Lenders and investors have access to financial ratios. Ratios are difficult or costly to obtain for some types of businesses. Sample financial statements are more easily found. So, find several that have revenues and expenditures similar to your venture and calculate averages for your own ratios. Gathering extensive marketing information on your potential competitors and for your target market requires a lot of preparatory work. Your readers will expect your data to be cross-referenced and full explanations for any abnormal ranges. If your research requires you to have Standard Industrial Codes (SIC) get them at http://www.osha.gov/pls/imis/sicsearch.html or http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html.
- Perform "what-if" experiments on spreadsheets to find the best presentations of tables and charts for cashflow projections, break-even estimates, product life cycle, market segmentation, implementation schedules, training programs and all the other ingredients ensuring the success of your venture. Accuracy and readability improve with each reiteration or rewrite.
- Begin your networking by joining and attending appropriate associations and trade fairs. Ask about or just listen to the many problems being shared. Arrange meetings with as many people you know who are familiar with businesses similar to your venture.
- Meet with a lender or investor for advice. Try to determine their expectations for your venture and for the content of your plan. Ask for any booklets and their networking suggestions. Do the same with experienced borrowers.
Top 7 ways to conquer a blank screen.
- You must compose a simple memo, a sensitive letter, or an article for publication. You stare at a blank screen not knowing how to start. This is OK. Most creative writers often face the same challenge. Except, you are a business manager with no training as a writer. Here are seven of the top ways writers match mood and energy level to differing writing assignments. Select some or all of the following initiatives for each composition you face.
- Copy relevant parts of a previous or similar document. Start with inserting key words or phrases, you can form sentences and paragraphs later. Hopefully, the juices, fingers and ideas will start flowing. Persevere with whatever energy you have.
- Make an outline. Leave spaces for inserting ideas as they pop into your head. Begin at any point of the outline. Jump around to fill in spaces until all are filled. Later, edit for continuity. It is quite common to find the introduction is the last to be written.
- Write any paragraph. It could belong anywhere in your document. The most common error is thinking you have
to start writing at the beginning. Start with phrases or a series of keywords from your research. You may have one or more thoughts which you know must be in your composition – start with that. Blend these into proper sentences later. Jump from one thought or paragraph to another once the ideas begin to flow. At least, immediately write another paragraph which may or may not follow from the first.
- Write anything, relative to your topic or not, for a specified period of time. Teachers will have students write anything on paper for ten minutes. The only stipulation is all tips of pens must continue to vibrate for the entire exercise. Students could vent their feelings about the exercise, write any gibberish that comes to mind, copy or rewrite material from the previous class or any developing thought. Surprising outcomes often result from these sessions. Why not emulate this in the privacy of your cubicle.
- Exploit the advantages of the electronic Copy/Paste era. Release yourself from those ancient practices of dictating organized thoughts to a machine or a typist. Gone are the sheets of paper with confusing hieroglyphics, crossouts and insertions.
- Tell someone what you plan to write. It seems expressing an idea in a conversation stimulates the writing action. As you speak the ideas begin to be formulated and flow together. As with most of our casual conversations, they may be disjointed at first, so if you are not near your writing station be sure to jot some notes to use as starting points for when you return to a more appropriate composing place.
- Maintain a set of templates for recurring assignments. Think of journalists who follow the same formula for all news stories. You will probably rely on templates more if you are required to compose frequently or you tend to pull a blank just before a deadline. Create templates with creative expressions from your better compositions. Include templates of opening and closing paragraphs. And do not forget the standard who-what-where-when-why-how questionnaire.
- Copy relevant parts of a previous or similar document. Start with inserting key words or phrases, you can form sentences and paragraphs later. Hopefully, the juices, fingers and ideas will start flowing. Persevere with whatever energy you have.
Seven Ways to Say, "No!"
- A common remedy for improving your time management is to develop the ability of saying, "NO." Since it is easier to recommend than to do, here are some tips on how to do it.
- Start with your own attitude. What is your self perception when you say, "NO?" Do you see yourself as a slacker? What about the perception of others, are you concerned about what others think of you? Are their opinions influenced by your refusal and does it really matter? Be truthful in your answers and your decision. We are forced to say, "NO" when we become overwhelmed by work, stress, or when a loved one delivers an ultimatum. Why not do the same when you're managing for more success?
- Once you have made your decision to say, "NO" more often, your commitment is now a matter of discipline. Self-discipline is not a dirty word when we recall savoring the joy resulting from just a little improvement. Just practice all the techniques you've used successfully in the past. It's only natural for others to point to those who are the most vocal which is not same as selecting the most competent. Resist and recognize ego stroking for what it is.
- Replace the task refused with something better. You can contribute a lot without being put on a committee or doing every task requested of you. Counter with, "Do you want me to forsake doing (one of your more meaningful contributions)?" Or, defer to other, more competent, persons.
- Calculate the risks of saying, "NO." Test the requester's reaction by delaying your final decision on your refusal. Test the system by conducting an informal survey with a control 'Yes' group compared with an experimental 'No' group and assess the consequences.
- Say, "NO" and duck which is a paraphrase of the, "Do It and Duck" strategy followed by some bureaucrats. This, of course depends on the situation: (a) the stakes are not high, (b) you've noted few results when doing previous tasks, or (c) you're feeling frustrated with repeated and insincere requests.
- Ask yourself, "What's the worst thing that can happen to you or to others?" This could include the follow-up to the ducking method suggested above. You can always pretend not to hear (a common technique with seniors.)
- There's always the escape hatch, "I'll consider (or I may be in a different position) AFTER I complete Project X." Be honest by ensuring your inner thoughts are honest. Appear to be honest (recall the survey method in item 4 above) by checking your usage frequency.
Chunking the Routine Essentials
- Chunking a large project into small parts is a great way to tackle an overwhelming project you keep putting off until a large block of time is available. The problem is - that opportunity seldom presents itself in your busy schedule. Chunking is an effective method for getting these large tasks done.
Small business operators can apply this chunking idea to small routine tasks that tend to accumulate until some crisis forces them to use a block of time better applied to other activities. Small tasks become overwhelming large projects.
For instance, a stack of accounts payable has accumulated to the point where suppliers are sending you embarrassing messages or, worse, saying unkind things about you in the marketplace. Or, you avoid completing lengthy (government) forms until the deadline or later. Opportunities foregone or just lost?
You can chunk the accounts payable by arranging them in priority order. Then, establish a daily discipline to pay one or two each day. The discipline is enforced when you experience that healthy sense of accomplishment that has replaced the sinking feeling in your stomach you had each time you saw the unprocessed pile of bills.
The form you dread filling out, because it involves gathering data from various sources, can be chunked even though it is only one single task. I find the best way to start is to fill in the easy parts such as your name, dates and other memorized information. If that doesn't inspire me to continue completing other sections, I attach a note to the form or in my daily diary indicating the next step, or the bit of information required for that next step. All the while I keep promising myself I can postpone the processing session at any time.
The other day my call display showed me a client was calling from his office during mid-afternoon. His question was not an urgent one. Knowing he has orders booked five months ahead, my question was, "What are you doing in your office during your busiest season?" His response was not unusual, "I'm just taking a break from all this paperwork that's been piling up." That is so common it inspired me to write this article for all the other small business operators coping with the same situation. Next, I must visit my "chunking" table.
Break the cycle and join the winners who get all the important things done!
Cures for Small Business Inferiority Feelings
- Is someone stealing your entrepreneurial energy and enthusiasm by trying to make you feel inferior? Operating a small business is challenging enough without losing any of our drive.
As individuals, we need social approval. We tend to feel inferior when people threaten to remove or diminish that approval.
Some bureaucrats put us down or act superior. Most business bullies are unaware when they are attacking the self-esteem of a small business operator. Mere representatives of a power authority will try to belittle successful entrepreneurs. There are people who do not appreciate the superior skills required to manage a successful small operation.
These derisive forces can be managed.
The first step is to recognize some symptoms coming from persons who are:
- designated some authority with very little discretionary power entrusted to them
- obsessed with their own personal insecurities
- lacking competency or permission to negotiate a reasonable arrangement
- bound by strict regulations
- supervised by an overbearing boss
- predisposed to acting superior during most interactions with others
- reflecting the accepted behavior of their organization's culture
- small business owner/manager is wise to acquire some antidotes and defense mechanisms to avoid being made to feel inferior. Prevent and Defend with some of these tactics.
- Replace the word "small" with "independent" when describing your business.
- Frequently repeat to yourself all your accomplishments, battles won and the lessons learned from the ones you lost, handicaps overcome, major crises survived, etc. This is not unlike that old trick of imagining an overbearing person standing naked in front of you.
- Remind yourself and others of your multi-functional acrobatics performed in accounting, budgeting, marketing, negotiating, problem solving, conflict resolving and other functions requiring intelligence and expertise.
- Be well prepared by frequently rehearsing your list of rebuttals and "defusers." Questions are most effective.
- Occasionally interject truthful statements that imply slightly exaggerated facts or status. For instance, if your wife and children help out in your business, refer to them as staff members and imply sub-contractors are regular staff. Take care to avoid embarrassment from challenges.
- Have you ever visited an office where a short person has his or her chair cranked high while your chair is lower with a backward slanting back that makes you feel you're slouched in a bean-bag? Whenever I encounter this situation, I remain standing and win far more often than I lose. Instead of leveling the playing field you lift yourself to higher ground. When challenged to sit down, ask if the positioning is fair.
- Seek out the true source of power because the people who do hold the strings of power usually have huge responsibilities for preserving public trust and delegate the details to representatives. They are your best persons to resolve an impasse. Even their power could be undermined. Since they are highly experienced in wiggling off the hook, teach yourself to become a skillful angler because it's fun reeling in the big ones.
- When you sense a situation is appropriate or you want to have fun experimenting with some ploys for determining maximum effectiveness, go for it. Try saying things like, "I'm just a mischievous little guy with a big mouth" (hidden threat of public exposure or whistle blowing) or, "I'm not intending to go public," of "I'm not planing to complain to your boss." While you are saying you are not going to do something, you have implied it is a possible action for which you control the deferment. I have used a little humor for easing adversarial tension by saying, "Do you know who I am?" When they questioningly reply, "No?" I declare with a sigh of relief, "Thank God for that!"
- Recall the film, The American President (1995), with Michael Douglas acting as President Andrew Shepherd. His opponent ended each attack by saying he was running for President. Finally, Michael's character lashed out with, "... and I am the President!" If your small business is incorporated, you can rehearse delivering that line with the same authority.
- While you're learning to act, practice being very indignant which is partly true if you are feeling slighted.
- Fifty-five years ago, Stephen Potter wrote some humorous little books on Gamesmanship and One-upmanship. The underlying principles and tactics remain pertinent to this day. Many contemporary books on negotiating offer tips for avoiding an inferior position.
- Put the day's "teapot tempest" into perspective. At least, in your own mind. This helps you to not feel inferior.
Convince yourself you are a Captain of Industry. Regardless of the size of your operation, your role is to manage, influence and control the forces around you and your domain. Feeling inferior doesn't help.
Do You Devote Time to Each Employee?
- It's easy for a small business operator to delude herself or himself into thinking she or he devotes attention to each employee.
Here is the critical question, "When you give your attention to an employee, does he or she have to share it with the other employees?"
Years ago, a youth leader was teaching us to be a camp counselor. He told us one thing which was indelibly etched in my mind forever. He said, "When you spend time with your campers, make sure you give each one some time that is their own private time with you alone." He went on to explain how such simple actions like taking one child on an errand or sitting with a camper apart from the others or giving an opportunity to chat in private. Casual and non-threatening moments of silence were just as effective.
Later, as our family grew to include six children I remembered that advice. The resulting rewards and appreciation created many fond memories for me to cherish throughout my life.
Also later, I translated this wisdom into my management style. Employees are people with feelings just as children are people with feelings. The needs to feel wanted, appreciated and reassured are the same regardless of age. We crave to receive some indication to our eternal question, "How am I doing?"
Having a personal chat during a formal one-on-one evaluation or in other such meetings can be construed as contrived even when they are genuinely sincere. These should not be included in your private time.
You may not feel comfortable or it may be risky to have personal private time with certain employees. Another supervisor can be your surrogate for passing on your fond regards and appreciation.
Meaningful acts can be as simple as:
- performing a brief task together yet within view of others.
- a personal, "Can I buy you a cup of coffee."
- a brief private compliment following an accomplishment.
- a whispered, "Well done" comment.
- a lingering hand on the (same gender) shoulder while walking side by side.
- a finger touch to the forearm just below the elbow is quite safe.
There are subtle ways we can treat all people as sensitive children without being a nurturing parent figure. All situations are different. You have the concept expressed by the youth leader. Adopt it wisely and with caring.
Be caring to one another - even amid the trials and tribulations of business affairs.
Do You Measure Time Usage or Output?
- Managers are advised to manage their time by using importance and urgency dimensions in deciding what to do and, then, to perform those selected tasks efficiently.
Is this enough for managing the minute-to-minute actions in our daily operations?
There's little doubt our days are a little more fast paced than in 530 BC when Pythagoras wrote, "Let not sleep fall upon thy eyes till thou has thrice reviewed the transactions of the past day. Where have I turned aside from rectitude? What have I been doing? What have I left undone, which I ought to have done?"
Today's increasingly rapid succession of events demands a finer evaluation of what was done with each minute or, more precisely, what was accomplished with each minute.
A manager is more effective when a time log is combined with a production output control. You will never know if this is true in your case until you track and evaluate both your time usage and your actual units of production.
Do you recall how reluctant you were to conduct a time log when you first became serious about time management? Remember how enlightened you became with the outcomes? It's the same for logging units of production. You gain a new and keener perspective of time and activity.
Most tasks and projects can be broken into separate units. These could be the essential units that contribute to a successful completion of a large task or they could be key actions that cause you to declare, "I've had a very productive day!"
Targets and criteria are essential elements of a time-production control system.
Combining units of time with units of production is a good cure for procrastination. For instance, you realize you've been avoiding the start of an important project because you weren't sure where to start. Identify some simple actions for the startup phase and slate those for completion on your production control document. Upon completion of these actions you become encouraged by the movement and the next actions are placed in the control. You now know what next "little step" is required.
The same target-action-completion procedure can be applied to other "excuses" such as finding source materials, arranging a place to store or perform work, acquiring instruments, setting a working schedule and other activities which can be divided into units of production.
Your control spreadsheet becomes a convenient place to sketch out a critical path or for pasting notes describing the next action to perform when you return to the project.
Time or Outcome Management - Which is Best?
We pass on the concept of combining production output with your time usage controls. We trust your active and fertile mind will determine if this is viable in your situation and, if so, you will devise a control system to convert the concept and your time into more successful accomplishments.
Employees Need Some Perspective
- Would you like to have your employees walk a few miles in your shoes? Looking for a simple way to explain the flow of the revenue and expenses for your business? Want to change the perspective on the gap between wages and amounts charged to customers? Adapt this exercise to your small business situation.
George's Auto Service
Every person entering the management ranks of a large communications company were required to attend a management orientation workshop.
During one workshop the facilitator handed out a little case study and displayed the statement of income and expenses for "George's Auto Service" on the wall. He gave a brief explanation of the expense items for those who had not taken a course in accounting. The case outlined information on the shop's operations and the local conditions.
The attendees were split into small groups to consider such questions as, "Does George have a viable business operation?" and, "How could George better manage his business?"
After the situation was reviewed from several different perspectives and a dozen options were explored, the group members were almost unanimous in concluding that George's Auto Service was not generating enough profit to justify his investment of money, time and energy. Their recommendation to close the business was considered more prudent than any of their other recommended changes.
Typical comments were, "George should stop beating his head against the wall because he's not making enough money for all his troubles." and "He should try a more profitable business."
The facilitator pressed the groups to examine the various expense items for specific reductions that would allow George's Auto Service to make more profit.
Many cost cutting schemes were suggested. The most common solution was that George should ask his mechanic to accept less pay. The facilitator obtained a consensus that a reduction of wages was a prime solution. Then, with a little smile he said, "Let's see how this would work."
The members of the group appeared puzzled as he began adding three zeros to each item on the display of the Income and Expense Statement. With the flair of a magician he finished by replacing "George's Auto Service" with the name of their own company.
"There," exclaimed the smiling facilitator, "is the Income and Expense Statement for our very own company. The same company you suggested isn't worth operating because it isn't making enough profit. The same company each of you are planning to help manage" Then, with a larger grin he asked, "Do you still want to ask the employees to take a cut in pay?"
The initial shock was followed by much laughter. Some members praised the facilitator for the clever way he had tricked them. Others laughed about how three little zeros can make such a big change in one's perspective. Laughter continued as one group member seemed to express everyone's newfound insight with, "I didn't realize wages and salaries are only one of many essential operating expenses." The group's joker got a burst of laughter and a few groans by quipping, "Yeah! Three little nothings suddenly became three big somethings!"
One member asked the facilitator how many company employees have been exposed to this little case study. The facilitator said, "Only management groups. It's up to you managers to monitor and to influence perspectives about the expenses, other than wages, that are required to keep our company operating. By the way, I'd appreciate it if you would not disclose this exercise to others assigned to take this workshop."
Try this little exercise for your small business operation.
Persons unfamiliar with ownership and management are unaware of all the factors required to operate a business. Even workers familiar with an income and expense statements often perceive the payment for their services to be inadequate and unfair. Properly presented, such a case could foster a healthy discussion of common objectives and contributions. If not a lively discussion, perhaps the exercise could result in a greater appreciation of your management decisions and your distribution of your operation's revenues.
If there is an indication your employees do, indeed, perceive you are getting rich from their hard work, proceed cautiously with your timing and presentation. You could be worsening a very sensitive situation.
The facilitator in our story used humor to alleviate any embarrassment caused by the trickery for the surprising disclosure. If you are not skillful with humor, get someone who is or use another defusing tactic.
Allow the lessons learned from the exercise speak for themselves and avoid excessively dwelling on them too much. Let the participant draw their own conclusions.
Manage Your Gray Moments
- Short-term memory lapses are a fact of life as we grow older. Would you believe memory loss begins increasing at age 25? For every fact of life there's a management solution!
Do you find yourself forgetting such little things as unplugging the iron, leaving groceries or animals in the car, missing important meetings, turning off lights and appliances and all the other mundane activities? Too mundane to worry about?. They are annoying enough to erode confidence in yourself. Worse, they cause others to lose confidence in you. Some lapses could cause your house to burn down.
Manage to place reminders in doorways or with unusual placement in passageways. Identify the trouble spots for these reminders. Whenever you say to yourself, "I must remember to do ..." is a good identifier. This is just a variation of that old trick of putting an elastic around your finger. Gradually, strive to wean yourself from these props.
Do you experience lapses in concentration such as throwing the good part in the garbage while walking away with the trash still in your hand?
Manage a program for reinforcing your habit of snapping your thoughts away from preoccupying moments at each change in movement or action. This assumes your short-term memory can span a few microseconds until you return to your musings.
It's similar to your action, when driving your car, where a street intersection triggers a snap-to-attention interval. At our coffee counter, I grew weary of pouring honey into the spoon cup instead of into my coffee cup. Once I became aware this was a snap-to-attention spot, the honey went into the coffee more often.
Are you increasingly forgetting people's names? There are many younger people with that problem. So, it's easy to be superior in that skill. If, instead of being a "has-been rememberer" you are a "never-were," it's not too late to learn.
Manage to practice various methods for aiding your recall function such as an alphabetic association method. For a refresher of instantaneous recall you can manage a schedule for reviewing membership or client lists, all the people you know in various area and people attending a gathering. Include the ideas or mnemonics you associate with each person. Practice recalling names of people you see wherever you go. It's not too late to learn and practice the many techniques for remembering names.
Some general management solutions for combating memory loss.
- Learn more about memory processes by taking courses and including memory as a topic in your reading regimen.
- Exercise the brain by practicing recall techniques and increasing your demand upon your brain functions.
- If there's still a good rapport between your conscious and your subconscious, convince your subconscious to smarten up and to stop forgetting things!
- Admit to yourself you are aging and develop the habit of making lists to store in places where you will easily find them.
- Recognize your long-term memory certainly works very well. Younger people are probably thinking or saying behind your back, "too well!"
- Firmly believe that you are not losing your short-term memory. Today's faster pace is adding too much information. Convince others this is so by impressing them with all the stuff you do remember from the recent past.
Early in life, I read a little pamphlet which mentioned about living in the world of "I am." Since I found this brown-stained booklet amid the papers of a famous and successful person, I took the advice quite seriously. Later, I learned this was a simplification of the four stages of memory - record, store, retrieve and recognize. I managed to develop a superior memory from that earlier advice. Of course, this causes greater frustration and loss of pride during today's gray moments.
Some believe the situation worsens commensurately with the time you spend worrying about it. It's not so much as the amount of memory lost, it's your awareness of more frequent losses. Adjust your focus.
Laugh and joke about having gray moments because it's all in your mind.
Many options yield better decision making
- Are you option starved when it comes to making decisions? There are a lot of factors that contribute to good decisions. Problem definition, background data, situation analysis are essential elements in decision making. However, the critical element is having a wealth of alternative options from which to make a final decision. If you would like to improve the quality of your decisions, develop your skill in listing exhaustive alternatives.
Do you make decisions after considering only two or three alternative options? How often are you forced to say, "If we had only thought of such-n-such would we have made a better decision?" Increase that 'two or three' to 'at least, ten.' and note how quickly that improves your decision making ability. Also, notice how much easier and pleasurable your decision making becomes.
The alumni of my management classes continue to thank me for improving their ability to make good quality decisions. Seldom do these grateful persons recall the agonizing struggle they suffered when they were first introduced to our decision making discipline. Nor do they recall the moment they first discovered decision making was simple and easy once they had ample alternative options or solutions.
When management students submitted papers on case studies, projects, proposals, business plans, or any exercise requiring a final decision they were required to evaluate 14 alternative solutions. We arbitrarily set the number to 14 for consistency and fairness.
How many are best for you? Base your own quota. on whatever is comfortable yet challenging or is commensurate with of your task. Your personal development is the important issue. Habits resulting from the discoveries and discipline are rewards that remain with you for the remainder of your managerial life.
Some ways to create alternatives:
- Start your list with the mandatory but, oft overlooked, option to do nothing.
- Include whatever pops into you mind. The seemingly unrealistic, even ridiculous, ideas can always be deleted later or they may be refined to being viable. Experts in brainstorming tell us to avoid discounting ideas as they are first presented because that interrupts the flow of ideas. They might stimulate your sub conscious to create those great innovative solutions.
- During the follow up exercise of listing the advantages, disadvantages, possible outcomes and consequences for each alternative new options will come to mind.
- Consider the opposite action for some alternatives.
- Include all forms of action. Example: for buy, the options are rent, sell, lease, borrow, share or contract.
- Form combinations of one or more single alternatives.
Enjoy the excitement and self esteem resulting from your creativity.
Avoid the stress of indecision.
You'll have an increased desire to make more and bigger decisions.
Gain greater confidence.
Discover that the key to working smarter is making better decisions.
Ask yourself, "what other business activity earns more money than decision making?"
Invest in good decision making with numerous deposits of alternative options - today!
More Uses for Your Business Plan
- You have invested a lot of time and energy on writing a business plan just to get a loan or to attract an investor. What do you do when you get the money or, worse, should you be turned down?
Do you just file it away? That's like investing in a boat that remains parked in your driveway after its inaugural voyage.
Instead of filing it away or leaving it on a shelf to gather dust, why not capture more return on your investment? To gain a clearer perspective, convert your investment of time and energy into a dollar amount. Then, you'll think twice before filing your business plan away. Ways to capitalize on your investment
- Expand the marketing section for an ongoing planning document, or for periodic reviews, or for revising marketing strategies. The historical data, projections, competition surveys and analyses are valuable bases for updating the data into a working framework. The material is a convenient reference for when you are asked to make an oral presentation, to write an article, to provide background data for ad copy or for other promotional activities.
- Save the various sections as templates for any number of purposes. Some of these can be used for decision-making, for analyzing proposals and new ventures, or for dispensing with those time-consuming 'dream/someday' projects.
- Use some excerpts for such Human Resource Management activities as: orienting and training a new associate, or as a preparation for a staff promotion.
- All your grueling work on the financial data can form the foundation for financial controls and reviews, budget-actual sheets and as background for trend projections. Your original documents serve as benchmarks and as reminders of your progress for your bankers.
- You will not have to start out from scratch should you have a similar need to re-apply for funds, tender an invitation to a partner, or supply data for the experts should you consider 'going public.' The evidence of before-and-after progress is helpful as a contribution to a 'for sale' proposal, or for a sudden and urgent offer to buy. Plans for expansion, mergers, spin-offs, or cooperative alliances can start with your collected data.
- Your business plan, with its appendices, is a convenient repository for company data and records, equipment details, floor plans, measurements, maps, contact details for legal and accounting consultants, general historical information, industry descriptions including your historical SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis of the past, current and future at the time of its writing.
- Create in-house displays of your mission statement, the organizational chart or the photographs and biographical sketches of your benefactors and supporters.
Now, you have a greater incentive to do a more thorough business plan today, knowing it is going to serve several useful purposes in the future.
Reap Lifestyle Rewards from Improved Time Management
- Increase your motivation to improve your time management. Provide yourself with more time for family, fun and recreation. Transposing your success of managing your business activities over to your non-business life can reap surprising rewards.
Someone once said, "kindness will go a long way when it should stay at home." The same can be said of time management methods.
Time with your family requires effective time management. When there are more than one loved one in your family circle, it's more rewarding when you allocate more one-on-one times with each. Your spouse appreciates and values the private time you devote to his/her needs and concerns. Children, especially, cherish the moments which they do not have to share with siblings and others.
The more you value your time devoted to your business or professional activities, the more it is appreciated by your loved one. Quality time with your loved ones rewards you with a greater stature, a greater sense of well-being and extreme pride.
Adjust your time managing from time-with-the-family to time-with-a-family-member. You and each member will be glad you did.
Fun-loving people enjoy more success. People respect those who optimally manage their fun time. Since people like to have fun, they admire and follow those who are skillful at optimizing their time for fun. Include FUN in your time management improvement program. A fun-filled life is a healthy life.
Strive to make your fun time more efficient, rewarding and inspiring.
Recreation is different from just having fun. While it's obvious that recreation time is a time to recreate, we often neglect this objective when managing our recreation activities. Well-rounded individuals are admired for the balance they achieve in their mental, physical and spiritual development. Again, it's obvious, such achievements take time to develop and time management to make them happen.
Apply your improved time managing techniques to true re-creating activities.
Manage to do the things that make you and others feel good.
Strong friendships develop over time. This can evolve through happenstance or it can be managed to fulfill your dreams and desires. Selecting, recruiting and nourishing a friendship needs orchestrated, caring and purposeful actions.
Manage your time for treating other people the way they like to be treated and they will become fast friends.
Self-actualization is at the pinnacle of Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. He suggested that few people reach that peak. That form of serenity is not desired by everyone. Besides, a person usually strives to satisfy other needs such as food, shelter, security, love before aspiring to self-actualize.
Doesn't such a quest benefit from the application of time management techniques to a more enhanced lifestyle?
Seven Reasons for Not Starting Your Own Business
- To start your own business you must have a lot going for you. To start with your hands tied behind your back is foolhardy.
Check your situation against the following reasons for not becoming an entrepreneur. Can you do without such support and security as your employer's economies of scale, complementary support system of fellow workers and such benefits as health care, vacations and status? Are these enough reasons to abandon your quest to strike out on your own?
- Desiring to be your own boss. This is the common appeal used by the purveyors of get-rich-quick schemes. It's an appeal that works for them because it's in the minds of many people trapped in a job under bosses they don't like. It has been a strong motivation for many people who have successfully become their own bosses. You will still have "bosses" who can be very demanding and unreasonable in the form of customers, competitors, suppliers, lenders, bureaucrats from regulating agencies, employees and partners. As is often the case, the most demanding boss will be yourself. Especially, if you have an overwhelming desire to be successful.
- Looking for shorter hours. Unless you are prepared to accept less personal income, it's unrealistic to expect replacement of your salary from the proceeds generated by a fledgling enterprise. Will you be able to forego or replace the perks and benefits provided by an employer? Do you have an independent source of income or are you able to reduce your needs? Do you have skills which can earn greater compensation on a freelance basis from people prepared or contracted to provide those payments? Be very realistic with your calculations and your answers to these questions.
- A personal track record that does not include a history of saving. Has your saving habit resulted in accumulated financial resources and in demonstrating your success at handling money with budgets to meet goals? The amounts are not as important as the portion of revenue saved and the length of time your habit prevailed. You will be the person responsible for the tough financial decisions.
- Having no personal revenue producing assets or to replace capital expenditures on such requirements as furniture, fixtures, equipment, supplies, operating space and transportation.
- Possessing insufficient management skills. Each skill you lack must be contracted to someone else. Will you be able to generate sufficient revenue to pay these costs? In addition, do you possess sufficient knowledge for supervising the skills you delegate? What do you know about bookkeeping, accounting, selling, advertising, training, product knowledge and the many other essentials of small business management? Most importantly, what's your expertise in self administered time management? How are you going to gain these skills while handling the day-to-day operations? Successful implementation of a great concept demands effective management skills.
- Harboring the slightest doubt in your commitment to succeed over all adversities. Your business will generate enough doubts which don't need to be complicated by self doubts. Setbacks and imperfect plans afflicting most enterprises require your personal ability to cope with these challenges. This demands you have a firm belief in yourself together with the support of perfect health, the energy and the resourcefulness to survive and overcome.
- Being risk averse. Despite your being able to state you have none of the above shortcomings, are you uncomfortable taking even calculated risks let alone unexpected ones? Every day an entrepreneur is required to make decisions and each is accompanied with some element of risk. You will be required to incur liabilities each time you sign a contract. There will be risks resulting from neglect or deferral caused by your preoccupation with the hustle and bustle of day-to-day operations.
Three Methods for Writing a Business Plan
- Writers of novels, poetry and press releases have a system for writing. Of the countless variations, there are three which can be applied by the inexperienced writer of a business plan. Discipline, mood and formula are common terms used to describe the three techniques described here.
The disciplined writer designates specific time periods for writing. The writer selects the time of day that is most convenient or when the best results are obtained. The experienced writer is well aware that nothing of value may result from some of these sessions. But, they faithfully follow the regimen knowing it is critical to maintaining good production over time.
These disciplined writers follow different routines in their writing sessions. Some pose problems to solve while others compose within an agenda.
A writer of a business plan may start with writing answers to the questions in the minds of most plan readers.
- What are you going to do?
- How are you going to do it?
- Are you going to make enough money to pay your obligations?
- What happens if your enterprise doesn't make enough money?
- Why should I depend on you to get it done?
The mood writer waits for a feeling or an idea to happen or come into being. Some writers will engage in activities that nurture the flowing of ideas or that stimulate the mood to write.
Creative writers may go through long periods with little or no writing. Then, suddenly, they stop all other activities to devote hours or days writing a full first draft. This is sometimes referred to as "binge" writing.
It's an acceptable technique for the business plan writer who is either gestating an idea or is not in a rush to produce a plan. As ideas develop, they can be inserted into a file. Some time or event will start the structuring of the gathered notes into a business plan.
The formula writer follows an established formula which is evident in mystery and romance novels or in journalistic news copy. They adhere to a standard format for that genre or writing style. Readers feel comfortable and writers save time with this method.
For a business plan, the writer inserts information into a template or guideline and follows a set of writing instructions. Many of these guides are available at little or no cost in most communities.
A plan writer can select a sample plan for a business with very similar characteristics and alter the text to describe his or her own venture. Great care is required to match the actual facts of the enterprise with the content for rendering an authentic presentation.
Business plan writers are not setting out to write the greatest novel of the decade. Nevertheless, they can adopt and adapt some of the writing techniques the great authors use.
When Is Time Management Not Enough?
- A working manager needs more than time management.
That old saying, "Dance with the one that brought you to the ball," came to mind as I received a reality jolt recently.
Let me share with you that jolting insight. I was in transition away from managing several groups of technicians and professionals to more personal hands-on production management. My self-image and reputation lead me to assume that simply putting in the same hours in my usual efficient manner would do the trick. So, I continued tracking my time.
Wrong assumption!
It was necessary to get back to basics or, to use the wisdom of that old saying, to dance with the one who got me from there to here. Namely, tracking specific actions that produce results instead of tracking time spent on specific and general activity.
What I was suspecting was painfully true. Effective results were falling short of my own standards and objectives.
I replaced my time managing controls with production controls. My daily discipline, attitudes and focus changed immediately and so did the output. I was no longer deceiving myself by playing that look-how-hard-I'm-trying game.
It's a humbling experience when the manager needs the same supervision as salespeople, technicians and other such producers. It's embarrassing when a manager applies to oneself the same stringent supervisory methods he or she once used on salespersons and other responsible persons working in critical profit centers.
While this piece is directed to the owner/manager who plays a hands-on role in a small business, it serves as a reminder to all managers who could be due for a comparative review of daily actions, time use and actual output.
Now, let me share with you the simple control device that did the turn-around for me.
It was set up as a spreadsheet. In the first column I listed the items to be produced, in the second column were the objectives (e.g: 10 / week, 0.2/day, 12 in can, etc.) and to the right columns headed with dates of the workdays for the month into which you tally your production. In the far right columns are totals and evaluation against your objectives.
The vertical tally gives you a quick view of your daily output.
You can construct this on your personal workstation, laptop or palm device. I opted for a printout for recording my single stroke [|||] tally because I was working at my desktop computer. Results can be entered on my spreadsheet or into my database later if I want more extensive analyses or records.
This is especially valuable for the manager assuming the responsibility of selling to key accounts and may have excused himself or herself from the scrutiny of a sales manager.
It's a good idea to occasionally review all of your functions for any possible lapses into some gold-bricking activities. It pays to ask yourself, "Who's managing the manager?" Should you find a weakness, you have my empathy as it can be a humbling and/or embarrassing experience. Take heart - it's rewarded with valuable improvements in your own productivity along with improved self-esteem.
When and Why YOU are the Best Writer for Your Business Plan
- WHEN you are operating or planning a small business that is seeking funding for less than five million dollars, it's wise to consider writing your own plan.
WHY you are the best qualified. You probably have superior knowledge of your target market, prospective customers and your product or service. If not "superior," at least, you have adequate knowledge. You are probably resourceful enough to find the necessary data and general information.
Are you planning to write a novel or describing a set of business conditions and functions? Your descriptions need only to be accurate, factual and realistic. You are equal to the task if you know how to construct simple sentences. There's ample free or inexpensive advice available to edit your writing output. Good writing results from re-writing.
Many of the business plan guides available in your local community are free. There are plan writing coaches with reasonable rates and arrangements.
Compare the benefits from writing your own business plan with the costs and shortcomings of a plan written by a third party.
- Personal development is a spinoff from your investment of time and energy. Being able to write a plan is a valuable management skill that remains with you.
- During the writing process, you create additional ideas and variations. Your pride in your accomplishment will be apparent to your readers and others.
- Your composition is easier and less costly to revise. Business plans are noted for quickly becoming out-of-date because data, circumstances and events are ever changing. Different lenders or investors have varying requirements and almost all request some alteration or additional information. Suggestions from associates and reviewers are easily inserted. Your visions remain adjustable and flexible.
- Confidential data remains in YOUR files where you can easily access it for applying to other purposes.
- You are more aware of discrepancies or inconsistencies which you can defend or correct. Your investor or lender may be able to supply privileged information such as economic analyses, highly protected marketing intelligence or pending legislation.
- Ease in converting into internal project plans increases your return from your major writing investment and reduces "re-inventing the wheel" for subsequent projects or plans.
