Resources for Personal and Small Business Success.
Resources for Personal and Small Business Success:
- As small business owners we must be aware of our strengths and weaknesses, and implement systems, tools and leverage other people to complement our weaknesses.
- To be a successful small business owner you must have a methodology for keeping yourself organized.
- Find a system that works for you, and then stick with it at least long enough to turn it into a habit or find another system (or adjust your current system) that works better for you.
- Henry uses a notebook (Blueline A9) as a journal and for “to do” lists.
- David mentioned the book “Getting Things Done” by David Allen (see link below). You want your mind to be like water…when you write things down you are not ruminating about what you have to get done.
- Having a personal productivity tool for organization results in a higher level of trust with your peers, staff, and partners.
- The four keys to success by Dan Sullivan, Strategic Coach: 1. Show up on time, 2. Do what you say you are going to do, 3. Finish what you start, 4. Say please and thank you.
- The “Do what you say you are going to do” part from above is directly tied effective and productive environments, and requires organization tools.
- Your productivity and organizational systems are critical to setting and developing the right tone, expectations and culture of your business environment.
- Both David and Henry also use Outlook for email and scheduling.
- David, because he spends more time on the road, also depends on his phone including using alerts to remind him of his commitments.
- David also uses a Microsoft Surface Tablet.
- For our businesses, we mentioned QuickBooks, Email (Outlook), and Dropbox as key software tools we use to operate and manage our small businesses.
- We use personal assistants, either hired employees, contractors, or virtual, to help us focus on our strengths and delegate other tasks and projects.
- It’s important to leverage tools, systems, and people (assistants, project managers, process managers, etc.) to make yourself and your business more efficient and productive.
- Some of our sources of information include: podcasts, books (including audio books), FlipBoard, local newspapers, and other periodicals.
- Call to action:
1. How well are you (and your team) doing with staying organized and on schedule?
2. What technologies can you apply to your business to improve efficiency and productivity?
3. Get started with crowd sourcing with a small low-risk project.