Project management is among a top skill to master in any business; especially one wanting to grow.
Why?
Because without project management, business owners will unnecessarily run into common issues:
You often get derailed by "the unexpected.”
It’s inevitable.
You get interrupted an unexpected number of times daily. Those interruptions come at unexpected times. They each take an unexpected amount of time with which to deal.
That’s why it’s "the unexpected."
These interruptions kill your flow, destroy your focus, and force you to work on the urgent instead of the important.
So how do you deter, prevent, and deal with the problems these unexpected interruptions incur?
I was shocked, hurt, and felt like my idea had been stolen. Though I had the idea first, Nintendo would be the star. Nintendo would make $millions. It took years before I was old enough to recognize the important lesson in this experience...
Are you second-guessing your next great idea? Are you downplaying the value you could provide to others? Are you upset that you found a competitor in the market who seems to be offering everything you want to (and seems to be finding great success doing it)?
It might be time to step back and realize a few important things.
You often get derailed by "the unexpected.”
It’s inevitable.
You get interrupted an unexpected number of times daily. Those interruptions come at unexpected times. They each take an unexpected amount of time with which to deal.
That’s why it’s "the unexpected."
These interruptions kill your flow, destroy your focus, and force you to work on the urgent instead of the important.
So how do you deter, prevent, and deal with the problems these unexpected interruptions incur?
I chuckled in the smallish veterinary clinic in Leesburg, Virginia, just loud enough to draw a glance from the doctor standing nearby.
"My wife just responded to my text," I said. "I told her Dottie gained 10 pounds. She told me 'that's because you feed her salami every night.'"
Dottie is our Bulloxer rescue; a bulldog head stuck on a boxer's body. She's four years old, has white fur, and (now) weighs 85.2 pounds. Where she was once ripped with genetically-gifted shoulder muscle striation, she now looks a little soft and full.
Maybe full of salami...
Are you second-guessing your next great idea? Are you downplaying the value you could provide to others? Are you upset that you found a competitor in the market who seems to be offering everything you want to (and seems to be finding great success doing it)?
It might be time to step back and realize a few important things.
“Keep work and life separate,” they say.
But how the fuck are you supposed to do that? You know from experience that there isn’t enough time in a day to live two separate lives.
I reject the notion that you need to.
After all, didn’t you start your business to pursue your passion? To live your dreams? To have the kind of freedom corporate America craves while simultaneously changing the world?
Yes, it’s work. But it’s your life too.
And, as a creative entrepreneur, your life, business, and passion are excitedly and frighteningly intertwined. Any method or tool that eases the burden of time and increases your productivity while maintaining a work/life balance must be adopted.
Not should. Must.
That's why today is the day you need to get organized. It may not be fun. It may not be easy. But it must be done.
Organization is the tool that gives you power. It gives you freedom. It lets you command others' attention. Organization allows you to forget, reduce decision fatigue, focus, and work a wildly productive day.
Without organization, you'll struggle more than you should. You'll be seen as "unorganized" or worse, "lazy." You'll have to remember everything lest you drop an important ball or let your friends, family, or coworkers down. At some point, you may even hit a breaking point.
I know I did...
On November 5th, 2009, having spent the past three years working in a startup full time while growing my own app company, I hit my breaking point.
Keeping a separate calendar, notebook, phone, computer, even office was too overwhelming. I was spending too much time managing everything, too much energy hauling multiple notebooks, books, and papers around. I needed to consolidate, get organized, and replace this excessive overhead with meaningful work.
Standing before a whiteboard in San Francisco, 3000 miles from home, I dreaded the thought of printing and carrying dozens of whiteboard images from our meeting on my return flight. But if I didn’t those images would be lost forever; a forgotten digital artifact in my photo-library crammed between pictures of my wife, my first-born, and my dog.
Consolidating things would be a pain, sure, but I no longer had a choice. Developing a system for storing and retrieving anything at a moments notice would take time, but I was tired of wasting time and energy thinking every instance I had something new to save.
So I downloaded Evernote, a relatively new app (at the time) that gave those whiteboard photos a home. A categorized, taggable, searchable, organized home.
10 thousand notes, pictures, thoughts, ideas, bills, receipts, any any other digital or physical files organized in Evernote; my go-to platform for order and productivity.
In the years to come, I’d make it a point to find a home for every photo, document, bill, receipt, thought, idea, journal entry, etc. in my physical and digital life. In my business too. Nearly ten years and over 10,000 notes later, I’ve become an organization fanatic. My laptop, my desktop, my phone are all orderly. At home, on travel, in a coffee shop, at a store, I can search for and find anything I need almost instantaneously... all using an organization system that drastically improved my life.
I now consider personal and professional organization an ongoing investment; an investment with a huge return.
If there’s one thing I Hate (capital H intended) more than anything, it’s not being able to find something.
Wallet? If it’s not where I always put it and I have to spend a single second looking for it I’m ticked. Keys? Same thing. Documents? Yep.
My coffee? I get really pissed when I misplace that :).
Do you feel the same way? Your business and your ideas move too quickly to get distracted by searching. When you need info, you need it NOW!
Instead of powerlessly sifting through folders to find a document, putting a simple organizational system in place can bring it to your fingertips in seconds. You don’t waste a moment thinking about where your information might be. You don’t get distracted by the hunt. You find the thing and keep on truckin’.
Organization gives you power.
It gives you the power to find what you need when you need it. The power to recall information you’ve forgotten quickly and without frustration. Plain and simple, organization gives you control over the things and information in your life instead of those things and information having power over you.
When you’re organized, others give you their attention. They want to stay connected with you because they’ve come to rely on you for storing, finding, and retrieving that which they value.
Scientific studies have found an explanation for this in a phenomenon known as the transactive memory system (TMS). You might better recognize this as a “shared memory” between a friend or a family member.
For example, my wife keeps my two sons’ (incredibly complex and exhaustive) baseball schedule organized. She knows where each kid needs to be and by when. She knows what team they are playing, or if it’s just a practice. Yes, I get emailed by each baseball coach with this information too. But because my wife learns it, organizes it, and can recall it the moment I ask, I can archive those emails and forget this information instantly.
The thing is, I have become dependent on her for this information.
According to the study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, TMS deepens as relationships grow, and grows as relationships deepen. In other words, as you build trust with your friend, coworker, or family, your importance to them can increase based on this TMS. Keeping relevant information organized at your fingertips can help build these relationships as acquaintances begin to realize they can come to you for quick answers, quick document retrieval, or other info.
What does this all mean?
Staying organized puts you in a position, like my wife is for me, to have others rely on you in a positive and productive way.
As a side note, when you have a reliable system for storing and retrieving valuables, you no longer have to remember everything. You can just remember that you put what you need in your organizational system and go there to retrieve it. That's TMS in action!
You’re busy with dozens of emails, multiple projects, and daily meetings. Trying to remember it all just isn’t possible. More so, if you don’t keep these pieces of information organized, you’ll eventually forget something important causing setbacks in your essential projects.
Staying organized allows you to forget.
You can confidently forget those things that you can retrieve later. Why bother remembering if you can store it away in a familiar, categorized, and searchable organization system?
It’s the reason I can never remember how many fluid ounces are in a cup. I can just ask Alexa or Siri or Google, and it will tell me. It’s the reason we can't remember phone numbers anymore. You can find it in your smartphone contacts, tap the name, and it dutifully dials them for you.
Yes, you still have to remember where you’ve stored the information. The difference is twofold:
In short, organization helps you remember by letting you forget.
We’ve all heard of the term, “decision fatigue.” It’s the reason Steve Jobs wore jeans and a black turtleneck every day. Why spend your limited cycles making unimportant decisions? Save that decision making power for important goals later.
While you don’t have to stockpile and wear black turtlenecks daily, you can reduce your decision fatigue with some basic organization.
Instead of deciding what to do with some new document, bill, form, webpage, or other thing you’ll need for later, just put it into an organized system. Pay the one-time-cost of creating a structured way of storing and retrieving info, then use it every time. Without thinking. Without considering. Just do it.
Sketch an idea on a napkin at a restaurant? Snap a picture of it and store it in your system. Have a good whiteboarding brainstorm? Snap a picture of it and store it in your system. Write a good thought, idea, email that you want to save for later? Put it in your system.
Doing this will change your workflow completely, saving valuable energy for bigger decisions later.
Organization reduces decision fatigue.
Now, instead of deciding whether to file away your next great back-of-the-napkin idea in a file cabinet, in the stack of crap on your desk, or in some random file folder on your computer, you don’t have to. It just goes in same place. Every time.
When you’re searching for your keys, you’re not focused on your goals. When you are looking for a specific document through an unsorted email inbox, you’re losing valuable time that could otherwise be spent focusing on what’s important.
Organization helps you focus on what’s important.
I know, I know... you can always find what you’re looking for. So can I. But that time adds up.
To find out how much, set a timer the next time to start hunting for something—be it a file or a bill or some object like your sunglasses or keys. Start the timer when you begin your search and stop it when you find what you’re looking for. Multiply that by the number of times you go searching for similar things in a given week.
That’s how much time you’re wasting.
That’s how much your goals have suffered. That’s how much more time you could have spent focusing on what’s important.
Regardless of how your passion or business helps others, you live a creative life. It takes creativity to outsmart your competition, to find new customers, to market your product or service. All that creativity, it needs freedom.
Organization gives you freedom.
Whem you’re organized, it doesn’t matter how you create. You can think and make and do and store your ideas on any medium. You are free to develop that next million dollar idea in a format with which you’re comfortable.
Like drawing on paper? Go for it. Like typing first drafts on a typewriter? Do it.
Just be sure to organize it. You’ll know where and how to find it later.
So this entire article is dedicated to why you should put an organizational system in place. But why haven’t I recommended such a system?
Because. Everyone’s system needs to be different.
Your system will be different than mine, different from your neighbors, and different than your co-workers. It needs to conform to your goals, your way of living and working, and the tools at your disposal.
My system for organizing papers, photos, notes, ideas, thoughts, references, and any other digital documents is Evernote. Everything I think that needs remembering and everything I store that needs retrieving goes in my system. Without consideration. Without a second thought.
Evernote may not be for you, but now you know why organization is important, and you understand why you need to find a system of your own. Once you do, you’ll find just how powerful your system is, how others will come to rely on you, and how much more energy and freedom you’ll have because of it.
Mike Mehlberg helps Creators and Entrepreneurs develop an organization and productivity system aligned with their personal and professional goals to grow their passion into a thriving business with purpose and speed.
In the early ‘90s, when personal computers could only beep and boop, you had to buy a sound card to hear realistic sound effects or music. By all measures, Creative Labs, Inc. was the undisputed king of PC sound cards, selling their Soundblaster hardware to video game enthusiasts across the country.
Soundblaster touted 16-bit audio (later 32-bit) and multiple channels of sound as their “drool-factor.” But when I first picked up a sound card from the shelves of Circuit City (remember that store?), I was interested in it’s hidden secret: Dr. Sbaitso.
Dr. Sbaitso may not have been the first chatbot ever created, but he was the first chatbot with whom I ever spoke. Hearing his canned digital voice tickled my geek feathers. But it wasn’t all kittens and unicorns. Dr. Sbaitso had an unrecoverable problem...
He was quite possibly the worlds worst chatbot posing as an even worse clinical psychologist.
Dr. Sbaitso... you were cool, but not very helpful.
More recently, chatbot have entered into consumers lives and minds with force. And for good reason. In an age where instantaneous communication is valued over human interaction, getting the answers you need from a chatbot makes good business sense.
Given my historical interactions with Dr. Sbaitso (and equally dissapointing interactions with Amazon Alexa’s chat service), I doubted chatbots would have a positive influence on business owners. Then I came across this comprehensive infographic...
Check it out and let me know in the comments below if and how you think chatbots can help your business succeed in 2018 and beyond!
(Posted with permission from Josh Wardini, 16Best.com)
The theme on Charles Street was hard to ignore, though most did. Hundreds of locals passed dozens of storefronts by the hour, largely oblivious to the marketing efforts of each business, silently trapped in their own heads. Their feet carried them mindlessly to their destination. Few stopped to shop.
I, on the other hand, couldn't help myself. Every window display captured my attention. Every smell from every bakery turned my head. The very bricks of the sidewalk, now cracked and gnarled and settled from over 200 years of foot traffic, guided me from one store to the next. While others were lost in their thoughts, I was captivated by the intersection of history and modern-day small business... and I wondered of the story for every small business on the street.
Knowing from experience how difficult it is to start, run, and build and grow a business, I wanted to hear how they did it. How did they get started? What gave them the most success? How did they deal with the daily challenges of keeping their (literal) doors open?
If only they could tell me, and I could share their experiences, the challenges they've faced and the problems they've solved could help thousands of business owners like themselves.
The following article is that help. Not from the handful of brick-and-mortar stores in Beacon Hill, Boston, but from business owners running every kind of business throughout the world.
Be honest.
How many times have you posted a selfie on social media? What about pictures of your business, your employees, or even your products?
If you said none, you can leave now. We all know you’re lying :-).
That's what you're supposed to do, right?
Constantly post pics and text revealing new features for your latest product release. Letting the world know you have new office space. Sharing a press release your company just wrote.
Wrong.
I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but it’s time for a little tough love. Tough love is because I want your business to succeed.
I want you to stop wasting time on social media. I want every post you write, every image you post, and every advertisement you pay for to generate massive returns. Whether it’s likes, shares or honest-to-goodness top-line revenue, I want your social media marketing strategy to succeed. Wildly.
And the fact of the matter is, if you are posting pics of yourself, your business, your employees, your news, and otherwise just talking about yourself on social media, your posts are falling on deaf ears.
In order to be successful, a business has to find its workflow.
A business must work successfully and smoothly to maintain structure during tumultuous times. Whether your team is working on a really important project or has an upcoming deadline, if you have a strong workflow, there is nothing to worry about.
On the other hand, if you don’t have the right procedures in place, that can be something that might negatively impact your company.
An effective workflow is only possible by shifting focus onto efficiency and work towards avoiding inefficiency. Inefficiency can cost your company time, money and even employees, so it’s important to know where a company’s problem areas are. Below are some tips for improving your company’s workflow.
For the majority of small businesses, managing finances is one of the most difficult tasks to perform. However, no matter how tedious this task may be, it is critical for your business’ growth. It not only helps you predict where your business is headed but also allows you to make more informed and data-backed business decisions. Not to mention that maintaining your financial records will make your tax reporting and payments much simpler.
Here are a few tips that will help you boost your finances in 2018.
It's debilitating, isn't it?
Not knowing if you are on the right path. The uncertainty of whether what you are working on will bring you success.
You work and work. You push from every angle to make an inch of progress Only to look up one day and find yourself lost; unsure if what you are doing is getting you anywhere, worried that you are missing something.
It's a hard feeling to shake.
When this uncertainty hits, it saps your motivation. Your focus and clarity transform into a gloomy cloud of doubt hanging overhead, raining worry and dissatisfaction upon you.
Every business owner knows this feeling.
There's a lesson in this judgment I'm about pass.
It's a lesson I learned early in my management career. It's also a lesson I learned the hard way… by not thinking... by screwing up.
Yesterday, news broke that United CEO Scott Kirby backtracked on an unpopular plan to incentivize employees with big bonuses chosen by lottery. In the boardroom, the plan may have sounded excellent. Instead of giving everyone a paltry $300 per quarter, why not pool the money and give one lucky individual $100k in travel, cars, or other luxury items? But in the words of Frank Shirley:
Last weekend, the US Olympic men’s curling team took gold in a knock out battle with Sweden. People were yelling. Stones were flying. And grown men were crying.
It was an incredible game won by flawless execution and a superior strategy.
That’s why I harp on having a strategy for your business.
Not some complex strategy worthy of a multi-billion dollar publicly traded company. No, just a plan to get from point A to point B with consideration for each of those steps along the way.
How do you do that? How do you build a legitimate roadmap for the purpose-filled growth you desire? Try these steps:
How many times do other companies reach out to you via social media or a messaging service?
It’s probably several times a day, right?
How many times a day do you pursue social media interactions with friends, family, and loved ones?
Dozens? Hundreds? More?
The combined time you spend sending and receiving social messages from everyone and ever company is growing at a crazy rate. No matter how you slice it, that's a lot of time... and that makes it very difficult for other messages to reach through to you and get your attention.
Now, imagine you are leading a marketing effort for your company. How on earth do you reach through to your customers? Customers who are inundated with messages from friends, family, loved ones, and other companies. Customers who are swimming in "noise."
If you've been trying to market your message to your customers recently, you know how difficult it is to cut through that noise. It's becoming a monumental task to attract anyone's attention!
It's time to change what you know about your customers and how to communicate with them.
Here are some best practices explaining how to effectively use social media in a modern way that cuts through the noise, get's your customers attention, and makes an impact:
I remember the pain of losing my first sale.
I’d spent nearly $1500 on flights and hotels, taken two days out for travel, and spent another two days preparing for what I thought was going to be a slamdunk meeting.
As it turns out, if you want to slam dunk, you have to clear a path to the basket before you jump.
The funny thing was, my meeting went exceptionally well. I had my talking points, I answered all their questions, I was friendly, funny, and otherwise firing on all cylinders.
But in sales, that’s not always enough...
Technology isn’t just improving the lives of consumers, it’s changing the ways in which businesses perform and operate. Technology is emerging that caters to consumers, making everything from technical support to the payment process more seamless and efficient.
The question is, as a small business owner, how can you effectively use this technology to better serve your customers?
Take a look at the following technological breakthroughs. They are a great way to engage audiences, while also increasing your collaborative abilities and security infrastructure.
In short, here are the technologies that small businesses can’t live without in 2018:
Can you spot the difference between and engaged vs. disengaged employee?
When employees are engaged with their work, they put in the extra effort and genuinely believe in the values of your organization. Disengaged workers, on the other hand, tend to dislike their jobs, don’t put in any effort beyond what’s necessary, and don’t care about the company’s vision.
Many experts believe it’s difficult to identify employees who aren’t engaged. That’s because, while some are “actively disengaged” making them fairly easy to spot, roughly half the United States workforce remains disengaged in subtle, less obvious ways.
