Reducing Business Overhead: How to Fight the Battle of the Bulge
You may not realize this, but one of the best opportunities for your business to increase the bottom line can be found by reviewing its overhead. These expenses, consisting of mundane but necessary essentials such as office supplies, utilities, interior decorations, credit card processing, and insurance, each have their own unique savings opportunities. Business owners and managers often get complacent and let these recurring items grow over time; eventually bloating their company’s overhead costs. So, how do you harness these potential savings opportunities to fight this overhead battle of the bulge?
Consider these practices as a way to cut your costs.
- Get new bids from vendors in such competitive industries as credit card processing and shipping. They’ll be eager for your business, thus allowing you to negotiate better rates on these items.
- Review insurance policies that may need updating. As the circumstances of your business change over time, it is important to determine if you are over-insured or if certain types of coverage are not needed anymore.
- Learn to buy strategically. Many common items used in your business can be purchased at deep discounts through wholesale clubs or trade associations which usually have pre-negotiated discounts on many goods and services.
- Develop a cost reduction mindset and discard the flawed notion that profitability only comes through a sales-oriented strategy. Sales are important but know how your overhead costs affect margins. While it may seem as though reducing overhead would be an admiral goal, you must examine the effect of that reduction. If reducing overhead reduces sales, then it is counterproductive. But if you can demonstrate that an overhead reduction will produce the same or higher level of sales, the reduction is justified.
- Involve all employees. Those employees performing day-to-day tasks are often better equipped to spot money-saving opportunities. Offer cash or time off rewards to motivate employees.
Learn to be prudent and resourceful in managing your overhead, and you’ll see immediate results in your bottom line.
Who Has the Upper Hand in a Lease Renewal?
Your small business lease is probably the second largest expense after paying your employees. For many small business owners, it is the largest expense. When looking to lease space to start your business, there can be many concessions and negotiations. Things like leasehold improvements, assigned parking, signage, etc. come into the give and take process. But frequently, when the fifth year, end of the lease approaches, the tenant suddenly thinks that the opportunity to improve the economics of the lease terms is impossible.
No one likes the prospect of relocating a business. It can cause frustration, unexpected expenses, downtime, or even worse, loss of employees. In the end, it might be more expensive in the short term or less expensive over another 5 years to relocate. Moving for marginal savings of 2% might not be worth the frustration but if you can save over 5% then relocating might prove more cost efficient over a five year period.
Lease renewal negotiations are time consuming and distract business owners from the core of their business. Many times the leasee will just sign the renewal without looking at it or negotiating with the owner. Who has the time to learn about true market conditions? Who has the time to learn the factors the landlord is considering? Who has time to negotiate?
Does the landlord necessarily have the upper hand? Here are some things that your rental company is looking at and that will probably give them leverage against you:
Statistics: At least 70% of all tenants extend or renew their leases. The landlord knows that you are thinking about the hardships of relocating.
Lack of planning: Planning is crucial. If you wait too long to start negotiating you might have no choice but to renew. Waiting too long to look at relocation alternatives puts the landlord on the five yard line with 4 downs to score. A typical 10,000 sq. ft. tenant needs at least 15 months before lease renewal or termination notification to visit other properties, negotiate a new lease, obtain city permits, build out the new location, and move the business. Less than this will severely impact any renewal leverage a tenant might have.
Benevolent dictatorship: Many tenants want to preserve a “good relationship” with their landlord. They would not think of telling them that they are considering relocation. The unfortunate effect of such a strategy is that it reinforces ownership’s belief that you have no options and don’t take the prospect of lease negotiations seriously. It’s a clear sign that you are prepared to settle for whatever is offered.
Knowledge: Landlords and building owners know the real estate market and what other sites cost to rent. They know commercial real estate development plans in the community. The landlord keeps up with the commercial real estate market weekly if not daily. Conversely, most tenants start to do their research every five years. It’s not their business.
Bluffing: The tenant does not know the demand for his space. The landlord always has someone else right behind the current tenant who will rent his space.
Relocation: Relocation can be very costly and time consuming. The landlord knows this. Fear will be a big motivator for the landlord to gauge the willingness of a tenant to renew.
You can bet that as a renewing tenant your landlord will offer you less than a new tenant. The landlord assumes that you are not shopping around. Handling a lease renewal should be treated like any other business operation — the management team makes a reasoned assessment of all relevant options and selects the best fit. It’s important to let ownership know that this is your approach to whatever terms they might offer — or expect you to accept in a lease renewal.
There are costs for relocating your business. Yet the landlord, too, will incur substantial costs if you leave for more favorable terms elsewhere. Here are some expenses that your landlord could incur: potentially lost revenue, promotional costs, brokerage commissions, infrastructure refurbishment, demolition costs and build-out costs. In every situation, these costs can be quantified with a high degree of accuracy, and should be part of discussions with the landlord to maximize the value you get as a renewing tenant. The differential in these costs — what a landlord will spend to attract a new tenant, and what they will spend to retain you — can be substantial, and easily exceed a year’s rent.
When landlords understand that lease renewals are not a “sure thing”; when tenants regularly subject lease renewals to an objective, market-driven process, the result is likely to be reduce occupancy costs across the board.
One way you can help your company reduce occupancy costs when renewing a lease or thinking about relocation is to hire a Commercial Tenant Representative. By engaging a Tenant Representative, your landlord is put on notice that you are aware of current market conditions, may consider relocation, and will insist on fair-market renewal terms. As with incurring any expense, analyze the cost-benefit before you sign an agreement.
The Time Is Here! Prepare Your Business For the End…of the Year!
It’s almost here. Prepare for the end! No, it’s not the end of the world; rather we are approaching June, the end of the first half of 2011. Now is the time to review what results your business has achieved and what opportunities are ahead.
In January everyone was yelling Happy New Year! Here we are, May, 2011. Can you say it’s been a happy new year for your business? We are almost at the half way point of the business year. How is your business doing versus the annual business plan forecasts? What? You didn’t do an annual business plan! Here is a link The Business Plan As a Thought Process that highlights the importance of doing a business plan.
For those of you that have a plan, I recommend you take some time to see how your company is doing versus your goals and financial forecasts. If you need to make revisions then get your team together and do it. In these uncertain economic times, no company should go into the second half without having an updated marketing and financial plan. This would be like an archer trying to hit the center of his target blindfolded. One benefit of a half way analysis is that developing your plan later this year for 2012, will be easier.
Now let’s address those of you without a plan. What were you thinking? Yes, it takes time. But how can you move forward and grow without some direction and a roadmap on how to get to the next level? It’s not too late to sit with your employees, or if you are a one person shop, sit by yourself and plot some defined objectives and actions to expand and grow. Have you tracked your expenses for the first six months? Then you should be able to do a forecast for the last half of the year. If you are a retailer, do you need to budget marketing funds in October to start a holiday campaign in November? If you are a service company, like a lawn maintenance service, that has its main business in the warm months, how are you going to get through from November until next March?
I know this seems like a daunting task. Perhaps you need to hire someone to guide you through the process and develop your business strategy with you.
Now is a good time to get your staff and your employees together to review your strategic and tactical plans for the next six months. Working on the front lines day in and day out, they probably have ideas to improve the financial end of the business that you, as the owner, would never think of.
Change is inevitable, so it’s important to be flexible with the business plan. Through this midyear business assessment, you are setting your firm up for success by taking the time to re-align financial forecasts, sales strategies, and marketing efforts with the company’s current and future strategic goals. In December, as you look back over the year, will you be able to say “The changes we made in the summer really made a difference!”? However, if you continue to do what you are doing, you will get what you got.
No matter whether you have a plan or not, here are some items to consider when doing a mid-year review:
1. Look at What Worked
When you review your progress toward achieving the annual goals, look at the success stories in your company. How can they be refined and implemented so the success continues? Maybe a salesperson came up with a new selling proposition he/she can share. What if your sales are 20% over forecast? You can decide to reinvest a little more in marketing or another area of the business, with the full confidence that the extra expenditures are both affordable and warranted.
2. Holiday and High Traffic Times
Most businesses have cyclical or seasonal peaks and valleys. Assess when yours occur and plan accordingly. Maybe you need more cash available for an increase in inventory to support holiday sales. Based on your sales forecast and receivable collections do you need a line of credit to make the purchase? Maybe you are planning a promotion or event for Halloween. When do you send out invitations? When do you purchase decorations and how much will they cost?
3. Capital Expenditures
Look over your equipment and see if some of it needs to be replaced or updated. What maintenance needs to be performed?
4. Are You Going to Hit Your Salary Goal?
This is something overlooked by many business owners. What do you want to take home during the last six months of 2010? How will your margins support you achieving the goal? If you are ahead of pace there is no guarantee that the last six months will produce the same results. What are potential roadblocks and how will your business overcome them?
5. Incentives
If you are falling behind sales goals or want to get to the next level, now is the time to incentivize your people for a six month push. This gives them time to devise their own plans and it lets them know the carrot is dangling in front of them. Everyone likes a few extra dollars for Christmas and now is the time to get them motivated, not in November!
6. Budget Review
A detailed comparison of actual versus budgeted results for revenue and for each spending area will lead to greater insights on spending items that may have been overlooked in the budgeting process. For example, a business owner who built his year’s marketing budget to cover advertising and direct mail would surely realize that he has neglected to cover trade show costs in his budget once he reviewed expenses for the first six months versus budget. But if the budget was done only for very broad categories such as Cost of Goods Sold and General & Administrative Expense, it might be possible to overlook the fact that these bills were never included in the year’s budget. Generally, more detail is better in a budget.
7. Marketing
No matter how great your organization is, or the service or products you provide, unless your target market is aware of you and the benefits you offer, your chances of succeeding are not good. Have you tracked the results from each of your attempts? Do you know what is working and what is not? What will you change in your marketing plan?
Just like halftime in basketball, your business needs to assess the first half, see what worked, and make changes if necessary to improve in the second half. Don’t wait until the announcer says “Two minutes! Two minutes left in the game!”
Mistakes to Avoid When Opening Your Own Business
Every day there are hundreds if not thousands of sane, rational, normal people like you that take the plunge and start their own businesses. As they move forward, they do not realize there are traps that have been set to make the journey very perilous.
Avoiding the mistakes in this list can smooth out your path to success.
• Starting a new job rather a new business. Yes, you will have to work in your business but it will also be necessary to work on your business. What this means is that you should want to always find ways to grow the business through efficient operations and increasing sales.
• Being a chef but having no idea how to run a restaurant business. In other words, learn from all your previous jobs. Know everything about your business, not just a specific trade or skill. Pay attention to all the aspects of your past jobs and ask your bosses why they do what they do. A basic “how to run a business” is necessary before you jump in with your competitors.
• Taking on a partner. There are examples of partnerships that do work but in most cases, stay away and try to start the business yourself. Many partnerships dissolve with each partner thinking “I’m doing all the work and you are getting all the pay.” If you need help, hire someone.
• Starting a business from the ground up is the cheapest way to go. This is going to cost you your most valuable asset, time. Try to buy an undervalued company and build it up rather than doing all the preliminary planning and using your time to build a customer base. If you can’t get financing for a start up, buying an existing business with seller financing is a good alternative.
• Thinking “If I build it, they will come”. A successful company depends on the people in the company, the customer development strategy and a robust customer loyalty process. Strive to build a great company as much as you do a great product or service.
• Conservative financial planning. Many startups do not forecast their cash flow needs. When they do forecast cash flow, they plan for either no salary or a livable salary and minimum profits. Aim to build something large and great. Be realistic but plan big and make sure you have the cash to get there.
• Competing on price alone. Want to be a small business start up failure? Then plan to only compete on price. Smaller margins to generate higher sales do not guarantee success. After one year, many startups say “I’m successful because my sales increased 5% monthly”. But success in business is about profits! Having smaller sales with higher margins is consistently better than increasing sales but generating almost no profit. Learn about marketing and customer loyalty to earn higher margins.
• Trying to expense your way into a profit. Unless you can produce profitable sales, then no cost cutting policies will help you. You have to spend money to make money. The business should focus on bringing in business and that takes money. Having a plan on utilization of funds and expected results is critical. Whether you hire a salesperson or increase marketing, sales is what drives the small business engine.
• Hiring cheap employees. If you pay peanuts you get monkeys. Get the right people, tell them what you expect from them, and pay them a fair wage. Just don’t hire a body. Make sure they are productive and follow your hard working lead.
• Learning only one aspect of your business. Business consists of finance and accounting, sales and marketing, HR, and operations. Learn as much about all of these as you can. You can have managers but you need to inspect what you expect. Make your managers accountable. All of these areas have to work together so do not concentrate on the one or two that you know.
• Not doing trend analyses or measuring anything. Keeping a trend analysis is vital to knowing your business. This can help you with planning for sales seasonality, cash requirements, and marketing campaigns. Measure everything, from sales, to how many people come in your store each day. At a miminum, know the statistics from month to month. Track expenses, sales, and each time a customer makes contact with your business.
• Selling one customer, one time. The key to success is selling the customer once or doing one service and establishing an on-going relationship so you can sell or service that customer again. Long term relationships will generate income at decreasing variable expense levels. Customers will be a profit center because of loyalty and good service, not necessarily from marketing or deep discounts.
Keep your eyes on the road, plan your trip, and then drive your business to success.
Relationship Selling on the Web- The New Dealership Paradigm
Probably one of the last bastions of traditional, personal contact selling to fall is the car industry. Traditionally, you went into the car dealership and they sold you personally. They would move the sale along because of all the senses they could hit when you were in the dealership. You could smell the new car interior, touch the leather seating, see the high glow polish, and hear the rumble of the engine. About the only sense that did not get into the act was taste, but then they added coffee counters.
If there were internet “sales”, the customer only used the web to get information and see what was in stock. Today, the customer is much savvier and can walk through a whole deal
According to an article in this Dallas Morning News link, internet sales are climbing, and quickly. The savvy dealer has special vehicle promotions on Facebook and service specials on Twitter. Customers are asked to become friends of the dealership on social network pages.
Many consumers can go to a site like Edmunds.com to price out the vehicle and compare the lowest price at several dealerships. Buying your new or used car or truck through the Internet is the easiest and most hassle-free way to make the purchase.
All you have to do is choose the vehicle brand and model you wish to purchase as well as provide some basic contact information such as your name and e-mail address. In return, you’ll receive – via e-mail – low bottom-line selling prices from dealerships in your area for the exact vehicle you want to buy. Compare the various selling prices and find the lowest one. Then, simply go direct to that dealership’s Internet Department, sign the papers and drive your new car home – no negotiating, no hassles….you hope.
This is where the challenge of overcoming the negative impression of dealing with a dealership can be most challenging, yet also easy. Working with an internet customer means the dealership has to be intently focused on building a relationship now and for the future. It can be done without personal contact. A good business model is Amazon. They do no personal selling yet have many positive relationships and can constantly keep in touch with customers.
If the internet consumer doesn’t get a “drive out” price from the dealership then an alternative is just a click away. Any dealership intent on building internet sales should practice relationship selling through web based techniques. It is critical that the transition from casual conversations to focused selling processes is transparent and comprehensive to move the consumer seamlessly through their online shopping experience. Technology can communicate the information needed by both the consumer and the dealer to move forward into a transaction. However, the processes must build on the personality and relationship built on the social networking site that surfaced the opportunity. The unique differentiator between the dealers down the street selling the same product is not the price, but the people that started the dialogue and who can build on an earned relationship with trust.
The successful web selling dealer must prioritize the interests of their new online friends before, during and after their buying cycle to earn their trust and consideration when they have a need for a new vehicle or to service their present one. After all, what are friends for!
Can a Restaurant Benefit From Leasing Its Equipment?
In the restaurant industry trying to find a lender to provide capital funding is difficult at best; for a start up it is nearly impossible. To keep capital requirements at a minimum, a restaurant owner should consider equipment leasing as a viable alternative to buying.
For food establishments, restaurant equipment leasing is often the single determining factor between success and failure. While other industries may be able to work things in different ways to get away from increasing their capital investment, companies in the food industry often need good restaurant equipment financing options to keep them afloat so they can overcome their competition.
Here are just six of the ways these businesses use this option:
Seasonal Business
Establishments, such as ice cream shops, summer camps, and those in resorts and tourist areas, are only operating during certain times of the year. Restaurant equipment financing is ideal option for these types of companies, mainly because of their flexibility. They can keep the costs associated with the business low when they are not making an income and increase the payments when they are making the most to ease the financial burden.
Start Up Costs
Leasing options are ideal for those who are starting a new business. They can lease all the equipment they need without spending their much-needed cash and can get significantly smaller payments. As an added benefit, a return on the payments through the taxation system is generally available, giving new places the boost they need to succeed.
Product Changes
Changing the meals offered is a great way to keep customers coming back and attracting a wide range of new customers. Unfortunately, this can sometimes be a costly mistake. The items needed to make the switch can be acquired through restaurant equipment financing. If the changes flop, there is very little cost to the establishment.
Special Food Items
It is common for a business to serve food produced by another company. In some instances, this may include special equipment that an establishment wouldn’t normally have on hand. These items often have a high price tag that comes along with them as well. Restaurant equipment leasing puts these items directly into the hands of the establishment, giving them every chance at success.
Expansion
When a company decides to expand their operations, it will either improve or kill an establishment. One of the biggest reasons for this is the high amount of capital investment this requires. Financial options spread out the expense over time and provide flexible solutions to help ease a difficult transition.
The Worse Possible Scenario
One thing businesses in the food industry are often in danger of is going under. The number of businesses that simply can’t make it beyond the first year is staggering. When this occurs, owners are often forced to liquidate their equipment to help recoup some of their losses and pay their creditors. This doesn’t happen with restaurant equipment leasing.
The benefits of restaurant equipment financing give the food industry the advantages they need to be successful and minimize losses. Restaurant equipment leasing can become as important as the perfect menu.
Halftime Business Assessment: 7 Areas to Review and Refine
In January everyone was yelling Happy New Year! Here we are, July, 2010. Can you say it’s been a happy new year for your business? We are now past the half way point of the business year. How is your business doing versus the annual business plan forecasts? What? You didn’t do an annual business plan! Here is a link The Business Plan As a Thought Process that highlights the importance of doing a business plan.
Well, for those of you that have a plan, I recommend you take some time to see how your company is doing versus your goals and financial forecasts. If you need to make revisions then get your team together and do it. In these uncertain economic times, no company should go into the second half without having an updated marketing and financial plan. This would be like an archer trying to hit the center of his target blindfolded. One benefit of a half way analysis is that developing your plan later this year for 2011, will be easier.
Now let’s address those of you without a plan. What were you thinking? Yes, it takes time. But how can you move forward and grow without some direction and a roadmap on how to get to the next level? It’s not too late to sit with your employees, or if you are a one person shop, sit by yourself and plot some defined objectives and actions to expand and grow. Have you tracked your expenses for the first six months? Then you should be able to do a forecast for the last half of the year. If you are a retailer, do you need to budget marketing funds in October to start a holiday campaign in November? If you are a service company, like a lawn maintenance service, that has its main business in the warm months, how are you going to get through from November until March?
I know this seems like a daunting task. Perhaps you need to hire someone to guide you through the process and develop your business strategy with you.
Now is a good time to get your staff and your employees together to review your strategic and tactical plans for the next six months. Working on the front lines day in and day out, they probably have ideas to improve the financial end of the business that you, as the owner, would never think of.
Change is inevitable, so it’s important to be flexible with the business plan. Through this midyear business assessment, you are setting your firm up for success by taking the time to re-align financial forecasts, sales strategies, and marketing efforts with the company’s current and future strategic goals. In December, as you look back over the year, will you be able to say “The changes we made in the summer really made a difference!”? However, if you continue to do what you are doing, you will get what you got.
No matter whether you have a plan or not, here are some items to consider when doing a mid-year review:
1. Look at What Worked
When you review your progress toward achieving the annual goals, look at the success stories in your company. How can they be refined and implemented so the success continues? Maybe a salesperson came up with a new selling proposition he/she can share. What if your sales are 20% over forecast? You can decide to reinvest a little more in marketing or another area of the business, with the full confidence that the extra expenditures are both affordable and warranted.
2. Holiday and High Traffic Times
Most businesses have cyclical or seasonal peaks and valleys. Assess when yours occur and plan accordingly. Maybe you need more cash available for an increase in inventory to support holiday sales. Based on your sales forecast and receivable collections do you need a line of credit to make the purchase? Maybe you are planning a promotion or event for Halloween. When do you send out invitations? When do you purchase decorations and how much will they cost?
3. Capital Expenditures
Look over your equipment and see if some of it needs to be replaced or updated. What maintenance needs to be performed?
4. Are You Going to Hit Your Salary Goal?
This is something overlooked by many business owners. What do you want to take home during the last six months of 2010? How will your margins support you achieving the goal? If you are ahead of pace there is no guarantee that the last six months will produce the same results. What are potential roadblocks and how will your business overcome them?
5. Incentives
If you are falling behind sales goals or want to get to the next level, now is the time to incentivize your people for a six month push. This gives them time to devise their own plans and it lets them know the carrot is dangling in front of them. Everyone likes a few extra dollars for Christmas and now is the time to get them motivated, not in November!
6. Budget Review
A detailed comparison of actual versus budgeted results for revenue and for each spending area will lead to greater insights on spending items that may have been overlooked in the budgeting process. For example, a business owner who built his year’s marketing budget to cover advertising and direct mail would surely realize that he has neglected to cover trade show costs in his budget once he reviewed expenses for the first six months versus budget. But if the budget was done only for very broad categories such as Cost of Goods Sold and General & Administrative Expense, it might be possible to overlook the fact that these bills were never included in the year’s budget. Generally, more detail is better in a budget.
7. Marketing
No matter how great your organization is, or the service or products you provide, unless your target market is aware of you and the benefits you offer, your chances of succeeding are not good. Have you tracked the results from each of your attempts? Do you know what is working and what is not? What will you change in your marketing plan?
Just like halftime in basketball, your business needs to assess the first half, see what worked, and make changes if necessary to improve in the second half. Don’t wait until the announcer says “Two minutes! Two minutes left in the game!”
Are Your Eggs All In One Basket?
Many small business owners share one problem, especially in their early days. It’s being overly reliant on a single customer or supplier for much of their business. If you are in that position, your business is operating with higher risk. Just as with investments, you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket. Your goal should be a well-diversified portfolio of customers and suppliers.
That’s in an ideal world. In the real world, you may have to live with the situation, at least short term. But there are steps you can take to understand your risk and, over time, to change it.
Measure the problem
Work with your managers and accountant to quantify how your sales break out by customer. You only need to do this for the top five or ten customers to see whether you have an over dependency problem. If you are a manufacturer or retailer, take a similar look at your principal suppliers. Quantify how dependent you are on the top few.
Understand the risks
List the factors that could jeopardize your business with your chief customer or supplier. These will vary with your specific circumstances. They might include a natural disaster that interrupts your customer’s business or that prevents you from shipping or receiving goods. It could be a change in the marketplace or a new technology that cuts demand for your product. It could be actions by your competitors. It might even be problems in your own operation, such as a drop in quality, delays in shipping, or poor inventory control. The list may be daunting, but until you understand the risks, you can’t develop solutions.
Look for ways to minimize risk
Brainstorm with your managers on long term steps to reduce such risk. It might be to enter new markets or to tweak your product design. Think through contingency plans to address possible disasters or find alternative suppliers. Discuss how you would respond to changes in the marketplace. Try to set measurable goals for change and clearly assign responsibility.
For assistance with this issue or any of your business concerns, please contact us.
Versatility: The Door to Opportunity
In the book “Art of War” Sun Tzu tells us that wise generals are versatile. The general who can easily adapt will know how to employ his forces. The general, who does not, will not be able to take care of opportunities.
This is exactly the same for any business, from the owner/operator small business to a multi-national company. Knowing what your customer wants and the actions of competitors are very important but not adapting to a business world in flux can spell doom for a company.
Several problems come up when organizations need to change. There is not enough time to analyze the business landscape. The organization is resistant to change. Or possibly there is a lack of experience as to what needs to change to capture opportunity.
One way to start the process is to complete a business checklist or self assessment analysis. The purpose of this checklist is to help you think about the needs of your business, so that you may begin to work on those needs. Determining where your business is today and where you want to take it, are the beginnings of consistently improving and building a versatile and nimble organization.
Whether large or small; in business, nonprofit, education, or health care; in one locality or with sites worldwide, if you have the mindset that “If it ain’t broke, there is no need to fix it.” you will never look beyond today to the opportunities of tomorrow.
Time Management: The Formula for Stress Relief
Have you ever noticed how many authors and life coaches are making full-time careers out of advising us on how to shift schedules and sort priorities? How do you balance your personal life when there are so many people competing for your time? Your kids need to go to the soccer game or music lessons. Your mother, father, sister, or brother just went into the hospital or is having a birthday, graduation, or anniversary you need to be at. With a goal of reorganizing our lives along more disciplined, chronologically elegant lines, these gurus prescribe everything from broad, common sense solutions to the insistent micro-management of every detail of our days and nights.
These conflicting time management issues are particularly present for a business owner. And like your personal life, no matter how well you plan your day or prioritize the “to-do” list, in business, unforeseen circumstances will throw the ubiquitous monkey wrench into the picture.
The authors and life coaches are noble in their efforts and techniques. But the goal for all of them seems to be liberation from the monstrous anxieties caused by overwhelming responsibilities and deadlines.
At its heart, the time management industry is selling you tools to redraw some of the boundaries that modern life seems to be intent on dissolving, especially the boundaries between what you feel you need to do and what you actually have to do.
Worry and inefficiency feed on this overwhelming confusion. The key to straightening out your priorities, most will tell you, is to keep a close log of what you are doing, for how long, and, most importantly, how you are feeling about the task. This should be done for a typical week. That is, if there is a typical week!
With these facts you can see the wasted time, the conflicts of overlapping activities, and the productive time. Deciding what actions can be grouped together, what ones you must do, and the ones that someone else can do or that should be ignored in the future, can be very liberating.
A good portion of any book that provides undoubted wisdom on how to shape and run your life is irrelevant in many cases. There is no standard, geometric shape that can be substituted for different situations. There is no critical path analysis. You will get small advantages using somebody else’s vision of how to manage time and the anxious moments of approaching deadlines.
In the end, you can expect diminishing returns if you try to systemize every moment of the day. The roots of creative time management as it applies to your business and personal life, on which only you can draw, lies in the sudden connection of unexpected circumstances and ideas, often in an environment you do not control. So build a framework with your own and others’ ideas to make your time work more efficiently and effectively for you. Don’t let time manage you. You will become more productive, efficient, and hopefully, you will feel better with a little less stress.
I am no time management expert. But here are five common tools that seem to be in the many lists of time management techniques offered to you in bookstores and on the web:
