Way to Grow

Who's In Charge -- Email or You?

An Entrepreneur article, Time Out, struck a nerve with me. Sub-title is: Never enough time? Practice these simple time management techniques and get yourlife back in control. The first section in the article talks about email, and it starts with, "E-mail is just one time management pitfall for businesspeople: Turla [Peter Turla of the National Management Institute] estimates that 65 percent of the participants in his time management seminars compulsively check their e-mail."  Uh-huh!  Guilty as charged! 

The article has some great tips on dealing with email and other time-sinks in our lives, but the one action I took has already made a difference for me. I created an email folder called "Later", and the daily news emails that I used to pore over every morning now go in there unread. If I have time later, I go back and read them. If not -- and there have been plenty of days when I have not -- I just move on.  You see, I've been something of a "news junkie".  I have now learned I can get along just fine without so much news, and I have freed up close to a half hour each day.

You probably receive some category of email that you could drag into a Later folder. If you can't get to it later, life will go on. Buy yourself some time.  The article's other email suggestions are:

• Delegate less important e-mail to employees.
• Set up different e-mail accounts--one for vendors, one for clients and one for employees--so you can organize and prioritize. 
• If it works for you, set up an automatic reply that says you check e-mail at 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., for example, and advise people with urgent requests to call instead.
• Prioritize your e-mails in terms of urgency, so every e-mail doesn't require a quick reply. 
• Set aside 15 to 30 minutes in the evening to reply to detail-oriented e-mails. This will give you time to craft a good response instead of typing on the fly during the day.

Why Networking Matters

When you started your business, you probably did a lot of networking. I hope you haven't stopped. Building a business takes time, and it grows faster with referrals. But that's not the only reason to network. People you meet through networking can turn out to be good resources for your business. When you need specialized professional services, for example, someone in your network can probably refer you to that specialist.

Patrick Carney had a wonderful metaphor for describing what works in business relationships:

Southern California is home to many huge, tall, lush eucalyptus trees that topple over fairly easily in the high winds that occur almost every year.  When they’re uprooted and blown over, you can see that their root system is broad and wide but not very deep at all. Imagine your network in terms of those eucalyptus trees – for it to be strong it must not only be broad, but also deep

So keep networking to deepen those roots, so those relationships will be there for you when you need them.

Your Personality Magnified

People aren't prepared for this. They're surprised when it happens. When you start your business and you're still the only employee, clearly the "personality" of the business will be yours. As you grow and hire employees, you continue to set the tone, and your style defines the "style" of the business. Even as you grow, as long as you are the CEO, you will set the "corporate culture". Your company's reputation will ride on your reputation.

• Are you thoughtful and analytical? Your business culture will be thorough and somewhat cautious.
• Are you creative and decisive? It will be an innovative, aggressive organization.
• Are you a loose cannon? The company will rush off without preparation into ventures.

For better or for worse, your business will be like you.

A Week That's All About You

Get ready for EntrepreneurshipWeek USA!  Between February 24 and March 3, 2007, in each of the United States plus Puerto Rico there will be multiple opportunities to learn more about entrepreneurship. The week will be "a collection of thousands of activities, ranging from high school competitions to academic gatherings and local town halls to a national policy summit." Clearly it is academically oriented, and many of the events are held at colleges and universities, but many are also open to the public. And there will be podcasts, too.

It's fair to describe many of the speakers as illustrious. In my area (Northern California), for instance, Thomas Friedman of the New York Times will speak on Green Is the New Red, White and Blue, and Guy Kawasaki of Garage.com and his How to Change the World blog will be interviewed by Ann Grimes, formerly of the Wall Street Journal on Silicon Valley's Favorite F-Word: Failure.

In digging to find who was behind this broad-ranging program, I found that, "The Kauffman Foundation is launching EntrepreneurshipWeek USA -- along with a group of sponsors including the New York Times and Inc. magazine – to ignite the nation’s consciousness around the importance of being entrepreneurial. The initiative will be designed to stimulate on-going interest from individuals and organizations serving as an educational kick-start for the uninitiated, and an inspiration for young people to begin a journey to fulfill their potential as self-starters and entrepreneurs."

Go to the EntrepreneurshipWeek USA website and choose your State on the left to find what is happening in your area.

How the New Congress May Affect Small Business

CNNMoney writer Jessica Dickler is optimistic about what the 110th Congress will do for small businesses. In Entrepreneurs hope for help from new Congress (tip of the hat to Dane Carlson), she sees promise for more affordable health care for small businesses and life-support for the SBA 7(a) lending program. She doesn't foresee major changes in the current tax strategy but thinks there might be a chance for some tax breaks for small business.

The only piece of legislation that this Congress may produce that will likely have a negative impact on small business is an increase in the miminum wage. Since that is an expense that has not risen in many years, I hope that small businesses with minimum-wage employees have been anticipating the time when it will ultimately go up and have been banking the difference against the inevitable future increase.

What? Entrepreneurs don't do that? No, rarely. But it is a good idea to look at where your costs are relatively low today and run some budget scenarios where they go up, so you can plan how you'll adjust your operation when you need to.

A Look Back and a Look Forward

In my AllBusiness.com blog The First Year yesterday, I recommended that readers look back at 2006 and consider what went well and what didn't during the past year as they were entering the new year. It's one thing to give advice to others, but I also try to follow my own advice! 

When it comes to my Way to Grow blog, I was less active posting in 2006 than I wanted to be. I was fortunate to have a lot of consulting business in 2006, and I was able to take my first real vacation in 6 years!  I also interviewed 9 subjects for my book and tried to dedicate some time each week to writing. In April I started writing a blog for AllBusiness.com, and soon, I just wasn't getting as much done on the book as I wanted and I posted very infrequently to Way to Grow.

I'm starting a book proposal now and, while 2007 looks to be another busy year for consulting, I'm resolving to spend more time writing this coming year, including posting to Way to Grow. After all, with the passage of time, my readers of The First Year are moving on into the second year of their businesses and need new insights besides that "getting started" advice.

Thanks for reading, and best wishes for health and success in the new year!

Start Planning Your Vacation

Yes, I've been gone for a while. I was on a total business -- and Internet -- holiday. After being in business for myself for 5 years, I finally got the courage to take 3+ weeks vacation and go to remote and exotic places.  Do I regret it?  Absolutely not!

There are several things that a pure get-away trip can do for you and your business:

• Whether you reflect on your business while you're gone or not, you're eyes will be magically clear when you return. You'll distinguish between the truly important and the trivial in a way you couldn't when you were taking things in the order they nagged at you.
• You'll flex your perspective on people and places and cultures after you've been the stranger in someone else's locale. If you're like me, you'll return more open to looking at the world from your customers' -- and yes, even your competitors' -- view. Doesn't matter if you've traveled extensively before; each new trip yields its own reward.
• It tests your judgment and willingness to trust others to take care of things for you while you're away. The less you feel the need to check in with them while you're gone, the stronger your business is. It means the business can make money for you without your constant attention.

So even if you haven't been in business long enough to feel comfortable with taking serious time off, start planning anyway. Think about where you'll go and how you'll make it a true get-away. Start grooming your partners and employees for increased self-sufficiency. Begin putting safeguards into your systems so when you're ready to travel, you can feel good about going.

Oh, where did I go?  Cape Horn!  Fin del Mundo -- end of the world -- with stops in Santiago and Buenos Aires coming and going. Now, that's a real get-away, and it explains why I was Internet-free.

Time Boxing

Is there anyone out there who doesn't feel that time management is one of their biggest challenges?

This post isn't about getting out the gloves and beating time into submission, but it is about becoming the master of your schedule!  It's a technique used in software development that you can apply to your own business day. Dave Cheong recommends rather than working on something until it is done, work on it for a predefined block of time. Schedule another block of time later to finish it if it isn't done.

Sounds inefficient?  Not really. You'll get more done in a day, and here's why (quoting Cheong ):

1. By consciously being aware of time, it allows us to focus on doing the things that matter most.
2. It serves as a reality check on how much time we spend working on open ended tasks.
3. Because of the fixed time constraints, it can be an effective tool against procrastination.
4. It allows us to work on things during the free gaps we have between our commitments and appointments.

Tip of the hat to Dane Carlson.

Taking Small Steps to Growth

There's probably more than one path to growth in your business, and there's more than one way to advance along any path. For many young businesses, growth means hiring employees and that often means a larger facility. Making such a leap can be anything from nervous-making to downright frightening. But think about smaller steps instead of a big leap, and it's less intimidating.

A reader wrote Ilana DeBare in San Francisco Chronicle's Mind Your Business saying she is nervous about being encouraged to move her home-based costume design business into a storefront and hire employees. DeBare suggested a gradual, less ricky approach.

"For instance, can you arrange to use display/work space in a related business like a dry cleaner or dress shop? Can you hire employees who will work part time out of their own homes? Sbe quotes Romanus Wolter, author of KickStart Your Dream Business: "A client of mine who wanted to run a bar started by finding a restaurant with a bar area that it wasn't really using, and paying the restaurant a percentage of his proceeds."

DeBare points out that breaking something down into more manageable steps can help you move forward. "Celebrate each small accomplishment."

Retirement? Why Plan Now

In the early years of your business the last thing on your mind is putting away money for your retirement. You figure you'll get to that "later", right?  Too many Americans put off saving for retirement too long.

Miranda Marquit makes a strong case for starting to save for your retirement even if you're in your twenties or thirties. Putting away a small amount each month now will reward you handsomely when it's time to retire.

If you're past your thirties, you have more work to do. Start right now! Talk with a financial advisor and figure out how to make up for lost time.