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A "Cyber" Staffing Solution for Small Businesses
Consultants, entrepreneurs, and other independent professionals often find themselves performing a juggling act: providing their products and services while also carrying out tasks related to marketing, customer service, and day-to-day operations....
Focus On Results - Not Money
Are you in sales management for the money? Of course you are - and that’s fine but you must not lose sight of what will get you the money you are after. Developing the plan, implementing the plan and monitoring results - while being merely aware...
How NOT to Let PowerPoint Kill Your Presentation
PowerPoint is very popular in certain circles. In fact in some organizations a presentation can’t be given without it. But I invite you here to take a second look at the use of PowerPoint because: ·It’s overused ·It can be confusing ·It can be a...
Strategic Organizational Learning
The cost of training in North American companies exceeds $60 billion per year. Try to visualize that. Picture a stack of 1,000,000 $1 bills. Now try to picture 60,000 of those stacks. Amazed? Then consider this fact: estimates of training costs...
Three Planning Myths
Are you -- like 70% of business owners -- working without a plan? Here are three myths that need to be dispelled about strategic planning for small business. 1. It has to be formal -- Not so. The value of a strategic plan for your small business...
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10 Tips For Managing Your Time
10 Tips For Managing Your Time
By Mark Wardell
1. Plan the following day at the end of each day. This is the
time your mind is most clear. If you try to plan your day in the
morning, you become distracted by your e-mail, your voicemail,
the telephone, your employees, your customers, and so forth.
It's nearly impossible to think rationally about your priorities
when you're being pulled in 10 different directions.
It's also a good idea to plan the following week at the end of
each week, plan the following month at the end of each month,
and plan the following year at the end of each year. Make this
part of your regular routine. If you follow no other piece of
advice on this list, follow this one. I guarantee you this
simple change will increase your productivity more than you can
imagine.
2. Prioritize your work. Choose the one most important task you
need to accomplish each day, put a star beside it on your to-do
list and don't leave work without completing it.
3. Use a gatekeeper. If at all possible, have someone else
screen your visitors and your phone calls. They can then set up
appointments for you that fit into your schedule rather than
allowing you to be disturbed at random throughout your day. If
this is not possible for financial reasons, voice-mail and
posted office hours are a good start.
4. Do one thing at a time and complete it before moving on to
something else. Most entrepreneurs move and think at an
accelerated pace. Consequently, they often do not have the
patience to finish what they have started. They want to get on
to the next thing right away, so they tend to leave a wake of
unfinished projects behind them. Unfortunately, this approach
can be highly unproductive. Successful entrepreneurs realize
this, and though it may initially feel against their nature,
they make a conscious effort to complete what they have started.
They know that the value in an activity cannot be fully realized
until it has been completed.
5. Organize your meetings. Whenever possible, schedule meetings
in advance, rather than holding them spontaneously and always
use an agenda. Also, make sure your meetings have both a
starting time and an ending time.
6. Learn to say "no". This is one many entrepreneurs have
trouble with. They know they can solve nearly any problem an
employee brings to them, so they are inclined to do so. It just
seems easier to say "yes"
and take over, than it does to say
"no" and leave the problem with their employee. "No" doesn't
mean you are not interested or that you are not willing to help,
it just means that you are not willing to take your employees
problems off of their shoulders and pile them onto yours.
7. Delegate everything you can. This needs to become part of
your ongoing behaviour. New work will show up on your desk on a
regular basis. If you don't need to deal with it, don't. If it
is important that it gets done, but someone else can do it, then
9 times out of 10 you should pass it along. Keep the true value
of your time firmly in mind and you will easily be able to
decide if you should take it on or not.
8. Outsource everything you can. Occasionally it may be prudent
to delegate work to an outside expert. If you are having
computer troubles, for example, it may make more sense to hire a
consultant to solve them for you than to waste time trying to
solve them yourself. If a problem can be solved with money,
don't think of it as a problem, think of it as an expense.
9. Clarify your communication. Miscommunication is responsible
for vast amounts of wasted time and money. Not only does it
cause mistakes, but those mistakes also need to be repaired at
the company's expense. So make sure that when you say something,
you only need to say it once. Also, be clear and include all
details when leaving vocal or written messages. A lot of wasted
time can be avoided if people don't need to engage in telephone
tag just to find out information that should have been made
clear in the first place.
10. Do some "strategic planning" every week. If you don't start
doing this now you will never get around to it, so schedule some
quiet time on your calendar and let your employees know you will
be unavailable. This makes many entrepreneurs nervous at first.
They imagine that if they are unreachable by their employees for
an hour then everything will fall apart. If this describes you,
then try it for two weeks as an experiment. You may be surprised
to find your business still standing when you open up your
office door at the end of that hour.
About the author:
About the author:
Mark Wardell is President and Founder of Wardell Professional
Development, a business consulting firm, focused on the unique
needs of private growth companies. mailto:info@wardell.biz
http://www.wardell.biz
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