Profits are king. When running your small business you see costs everywhere. They are obvious in your space and equipment. In your supplies and utilities. Many of these costs are fixed over the short term. There is nothing you can do to reduce them and maintain your business presence. And other costs including materials, packaging, and shipping are purely variable. You only incur these costs when you are sending out an order.
The Ultimate Question: What Is Most Important?
When working with clients of every kind at every level, there is one question that elevates their work more than any other. That profound question is: What Is Most Important? This single concept, well understood, can change your effectiveness, impact, quality of results, and your entire professional destiny. Understanding what is most important will provide immense clarity, focus, and impact in every situation at every level, whether you are working on effective communication, leadership, client relationship issues, or any other area critical for business success.
Posted on: May 6, 2013 by Stephen
Two Innovative and Immediate Strategies for Better Productivity
Experiment with walking around once every 30 minutes throughout the day. Set a timer to remind you! It will stimulate your blood flow and lead to a burst of hyper oxygenation in the brain, increasing energy and attentiveness. A walk will give your overworked brain “muscle” a minute to rejuvenate. Walk around the block. Go out to lunch. Take advantage of better weather, and spend your lunchtime in a near by park, having lunch out of a paper bag. Walk into a nearby place of worship and meditate. Consider walking during your meetings!
Posted on: April 29, 2013 by Stephen
Small Business Owner Complaint #6: If Only I Had More Time to Make More Profit
When it comes to profits, the small business owner usually thinks that more time would mean more profits. Have you ever thought to yourself, “There simply aren’t enough hours in the day?” I have a new approach to finally achieving more time in your day. Here are the facts: To a small business owner, TIME is both the #1 commodity as well as the #1 asset. You cannot buy time, and despite many proclamations to the opposite, you can’t even save it. It passes, unrelentingly. So your most important use of your most important commodity / asset is simply how to SPEND your time.
Posted on: April 22, 2013 by Stephen
Just Living in the E-Mailing Zone…for the 100th Time, Today
You wonder how the e-mail subject can steer you with conviction to e-mails that you will actually want to read. I think we are living in confusion, speeding terribly down this cyber linking highway. We read personal e-mails at work and work related e-mails at home. We shop while working (don’t let the boss know) and solve work related situations at home (need to let the boss know)! We need some customized therapy.
Posted on: April 16, 2013 by Stephen
Emergency Service to Your Abandoned Goals
I honestly believe that there isn’t anyone who did not start pursuing his or her goals without a great deal of passion. Why did we lose the momentum, and what do we need to change to sustain the momentum? Sustainability is rare but achievable.
Posted on: April 2, 2013 by Stephen
The Biggest Time Management, Productivity and Profit Killer – the Phone
We need to find solutions, ways to avoid each productivity trap – or at least minimize the
negative impacts. When it comes to productivity, many new skills wrap around improved Time
Management. Productivity suffers tremendously when time traps are not neutralized. So, without
further time loss, consider learning a few techniques to solve one of the worst productivity traps:
the telephone.
Posted on: March 25, 2013 by Stephen
3 Action Antidotes to a Stressful 9-to-5 and a Beautiful Bottom Line
In these tough economic times stress is magnified for most of workforce members. Given the chance, outside stressors can follow our team members to work every day. They can even plague us and crop up all day, every day, as small business owners. If you can, it’s best to check them at the door. Contrary…
Posted on: March 20, 2013 by Stephen
Time Management: The Eisenhower Matrix to Boost Profits
Experimenting with different tactics to find the best way to maximize the use of time brings to mind Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower, the 34th president of the United States. Ike based his oval office decisions on the following: “What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.” He could not have been more right.
Let’s take a closer look at this concept, the Eisenhower Matrix. This method was made popular by Stephen Covey in his book “First Things First.” With the limitations on available time, the path to perfection is prioritization. When confronted with the scores of tasks to be done each day, two questions separate the items on the to-do list: First, is the task important? Second, is it urgent?
Posted on: February 25, 2013 by Stephen
The #1 Silent Time Killer? …. E-Mail (Is ANYONE Surprised by THAT?)
According to OfficeTime’s most recent survey, 47% named e-mail as the biggest time killer. As a matter of fact, of those polled by OfficeTime, 40% admitted they spend an average of 1-3 hours a day dealing with email.
Posted on: February 18, 2013 by Stephen