Tag: Management

Time Management Techniques For Small Business Owners – 7 Steps to Getting More Done in Less Time

Otherwise known as… how to knock the competition bandy whilst having more free time to have fun and spend with your family and friends. The primary aim for any small business owner is to make more profits. In order to be successful in business, time management techniques are critical.

Follow these seven essential steps:

1. Goals

What do you want? Why do you want it? If what you’re working on isn’t taking you where you want to go… you’re ultimately wasting your time. I consistently see people talking about time management habits without ever mentioning this first important step.

2. Break big projects into smaller tasks

This makes getting things done more manageable. It will reduce the risk of you becoming overwhelmed by your workload. Use project management software such as Mindmanager. This gives you an excellent visual overview of the tasks that need to be successfully completed. You can also see: In what order they logically need to be done. Who has been given responsibility for each of them. When they need to be completed. And how you will measure successful completion.

3. Prioritisation.

Prioritize the importance of the tasks. This depends on not only what will create the most profit for your company. But also what tasks need to be completed before others can even begin.

4. Outsourcing/delegation

Outsource or delegate all non-critical, time-consuming tasks. The only tasks you should be doing are the ones that create the most profit and value for your company. Do the tasks that you are best at and most enjoy… and offload the rest.

5. Systematization.

This applies to any task or activity which needs to be repeated within your business. Document step-by-step, the most efficient way to carry out the task. Make this documentation available to all your employees. As more efficient and effective ways are discovered to complete this task…update your documentation. The ultimate goal is that every task is carried out in the same efficient way every single time.

6. Time planners.

Have one for every working day, week, month, and the forthcoming year. Put the tasks that need to be completed into your planers based on your previous prioritisation. Stick rigidly to these planners. Make sure you that you successfully complete each day’s tasks. There will always be times when this is not possible. Update your planners appropriately. Cross off each task is its completed. Move on to the next task straightaway.

7. Set a time limit for each task

Your accuracy of judging the required times will get better with practice. Unfortunately, the human mind as a habit of filling the allocated time you set for any activity. Tell yourself you need an hour to complete it. An hour it will take. Tell yourself you need all morning, and surprise surprise, all morning it takes. Use an egg timer. Find out what the most efficient working period of time for you is. For most people it is between 40-90 minutes. When you complete each time period, get up and walk around for five minutes. Get the blood flowing. Move on to the next allotted time period.

These may sound like relatively simple time management techniques. The fact is they are incredibly powerful. You don’t need to over complicate things.

Sit down next Sunday and plan your working week using these seven steps. The following Saturday review how much you have achieved. I think you’ll be shocked and pleased at how much you’ve achieved in your business.

Obama’s GE Advisor – Business Management Dialogue

Most would agree that Jeff Immelt is one of the great CEOs of our time, and he’d better be because GE is one of the greatest corporations in human history. And it is good to see that Mr. Immelt has volunteered to assist President Obama in bringing jobs to America and helping us into the Clean Energy Future, but still, this is very risky for GE’s reputation and Jeff’s as well. After all, with approval ratings dipping drastically it’s could become a dangerous demise for Immelts longevity as a top executive in American Business.

Before Immelt’s appointment to Obama’s insider team to revive our economic prospects, I was having a conversation with a business management and small business consulting guru about General Electric, and we both agreed it is a great company. When talking about why, he believed that GE had great leadership, mentors, and coaches and he stated;

“Think Jack Welch and GE, especially in their prime. No one was better at generating top notch business leaders who knew how to execute. Why, because of the culture and the psychology of GE. Because of the leadership and mentoring (coaching) that continuously happened there. This didn’t happen accidentally.”

Okay I told him, that’s one way to look at it, and it is true, but I suggested he read the book; “The Secret to GE’s Success” by Rothschild. (Amazon sells the book online still I believe). So, whereas, GE did do a good job with their executive training center, thanks to smart leadership. I’d say a good part of their success has more to do with their close ties to the US government.

Even today we see that, namely a law to make all citizens change light-bulbs, funding for night-vision goggles for the troops, and don’t forget banking laws helping GE Capital, healthcare insurance laws for that division, jet aircraft engines for military aircraft, Medicare funding for their high-tech medical division – plastics, nuclear powered submarines, hydro-plants, energy-efficient appliance rebate stimulus, etc, etc, and seriously I could go on for 10-minutes on this stuff.

So, whereas, Jack Welch did well, and yes, I’d say he was a General Patton type motivator, but, make no mistake GE did recover from a number of rather huge mistakes over the last 6-decades. And I’d submit to you that GE had to set up that executive training center for their employees because the business schools were not producing or teaching their MBAs correctly, or good enough.

So, one can swear up and down that Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Wharton are the best thing going, but I read all of their stuff, and quite frankly most of it is like either “dah” or so laden in politically correct horse manure, that’s not worth my time to read. Plus, their students and faculties explanation of industry, case study, or future predictions is more often than not FLAT WRONG. And it blows me away no one can see it, when it’s all right there in front of them, but they don’t see it.

And I am happy that GE is being used for case-study after case-study in these schools, but in hindsight, it’s obvious that due to their closeness and coziness to government, they’ve been able to do what few companies ever had. And I’d say that close relationship has done wonders for their success as much or more than their ability to coach, educate, and motivate their team to greatness. In fact, I’d say they had no choice, because they had so much business, they had to rise to the occasion.

Further, this latest relationship with GE and the Obama Administration, well, it will be great for GE profits, and it does uplift Obama’s credibility to work with such corporate superstars of business. But GE’s reputation could take a hit for the privilege of that same relationship. Time will prove me right, have a nice day.

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