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Marketing
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4 P's That Destroy Productivity & How to Overcome Them
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Learn How to Build a Successful Business One Niche at a Time with Amy Flores-Young
Spring 2022
Boost Your Productivity with Our Fantastic Time Tracking Tool
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5 Things You Can Do Today That Will Create Opportunities Tomorrow
Stop Wasting Time! A Quick 411 About Time Management
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Productivity
Issue #13
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Wondering why the heck we named The Business Guild magazine flackery?
It's amazing how we're already wrapping up the first quarter of the year, isn't it? How are you doing in regard to hitting your Q1 goals? You have your written goals in front of you each day, right? Do you have 1-3 things that must get done today to move your company forward? Do you know where you need to be by March 31 to hit your year-end targets? This issue is for you! Distractions can hamper the best of us. I'm getting more diligent at planning my weeks, time blocking my days, and keeping monthly, quarterly, and yearly goals in view. And I've noticed a positive difference in how much I can accomplish. But there's the saying about the best laid plans... there's honestly no way to plan for 'unexpected' work interruptions, however, as micro-business owners, we need to try! And to that end, this issue has some magnificent, yes, I think they are that good, tools, tips, and resources to help us all stay on track. One absolute I include multiple times a day is time to breathe -- breaks between projects, to exercise, to simply stand and stretch and shift perspective -- before moving to the next task. Flackery is always busting its seams with resources for small business owners. The Business Guild, whose purpose-driven mission is to continue building a community of small business owners to connect to the resources and build the relationships they need to succeed, produces this quarterly magazine for you. Take advantage of the tips and resources in this issue to grab the steering wheel of your business -- to focus on the most-important daily items that move your business forward -- and drive revenue to your bottom line. I invite you to take a slow deep breath, hold it a moment, release, and then dive on in! Lisa J. Jackson Editor of Flackery Co-Founder of The Business Guild LLC Please feel free to share this issue of Flackery with other small business owners!
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Editor's Note
Here's a quick video with all the answers...
"The true price of anything you do is the amount of time you exchange for it." --Henry David Thoreau
p. 38
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Business Resources
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Back Page
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Recession-Proof Your Business
Check out our website: thebizguild.com
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Member Spotlight: Martha Walters from Martha Walters Fitness
Real world tools & strategies to build a strong foundation to help your business stay profitable when the economy is slow.
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5 Things You Can Do Today that Will Create Opportunities Tomorrow
p. 22
p. 28
p. 14
p. 10
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New Feature:
Niche Marketing
Why We Called the Magazine Flackery
p. 34
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Which Is Better, Owning a Job or a Business?
CONTENTS
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Advertise in Flackery
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Book Review - The Lead Machine: The Small Business Guide to Digital Marketing
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Past Issues
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Boost Your Productivity with Our Fantastic Time Tracking Tool!
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4 P's that Destroy Productivity & How to Overcome Them
In every issue
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Success Funnel Podcast
Take control of your schedule!
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Book Review
The Lead Machine: The Small Business Guide to Digital Marketing
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With so many books available, I seldom re-read any, but this is one that I have written in, have multiple bookmarks in, and have even highlighted. I met the author, Rich Brooks, at his Agents of Change conference a few times and appreciated his fun yet professional way of sharing his knowledge about digital marketing. I grabbed this book as soon as it was available, and have had it handy ever since. It's a great resource for all the areas involved in creating a business website that attracts prospects and turns them into clients. It covers website creation, SEO, content development (social media, blogging, etc.), email marketing, and the process to evaluate and re-evaluate your digital efforts to keep yourself top-of-mind with your clients and prospects. The Lead Machine is straightforward, easy to digest with its focused chapters and short sections, and even fun to read. It reads conversationally and isn't a specific "how to" since technology is always changing, but it's a great road map for business owners wanting a strong digital presence for their business. It helps me fill in the gaps for my planning -- no one can know everything, so having a book that lays out the areas to cover and what to include in each of those spaces, it becomes evergreen in its longevity. I appreciate the white space, the bolded headings, and the right-to-the point information I can use or implement right away, and that I can return to when I feel I need a refresher. The Lead Machine is quite handy for the small business owner who wants a hands-on guide for keeping their online presence relevant.
Author:
Rich Brooks
ISBN:
978-0998367408
Price:
$9.99
Where to buy:
Amazon
Book website:
http://www.theleadmachinebook.com/
taxhelp@edcartercpa.com
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here used to be a clear difference between working a job and owning a business. A job meant you worked for someone else. They controlled the hours, dictated the work, and supervised your activities in exchange for money. Owning a business required an outlay of capital and hiring workers to produce a product or service that was sold to a variety of people. The owner may have had industry expertise, but it wasn’t essential because someone else did the work. It was neat and tidy in its clear delineation between working for someone else and running your own company. That was the way things were right until the Great Recession. Downsizing and outsourcing led to massive layoffs. Companies still needed people to do the work, but they didn’t want the expense of managing their own employees. This disruption of the status quo created what we now call the Gig Economy. The shift in how we work provided the opportunity people dreamed about. Instead of tying oneself to a specific company, people had the freedom to hire on as contract workers for multiple companies. They could pick assignments, take off between contracts, and have more control over their professional life. It was a win-win for everyone. Businesses had access to a larger pool of top-level talent without the expense of payroll and benefits. And independent contractors reaped the benefits of self-employment. Or did they? The answer to that comes down to the reason you started your business. Before you read any further, think about why you quit your day job. Did you want more control over your income? Did you want the freedom to make your own hours? Did you want to choose your assignments? Maybe you wanted to build something you could leave to your kids, or sell for retirement. These are all valid reasons for hanging out your shingle, but they lead to very different paths – owning a job or owning a business. Job Owners Of the 32.5 million small businesses in the US, about 75% are one-person teams that contract with a person or business to provide a service. They could be a sole proprietor, limited liability company, or even a corporation. The distinction is that the business owner directly provides the service and the business would cease to function if they didn’t. The benefits of this business model are the control and flexibility it provides the business owner. You can take on any contract you want You have more control over your schedule You can work with multiple clients or industries Accountant, electrician, or home health worker, almost any profession can thrive with this model. All it takes is an ability to find a steady supply of people willing to pay you. Although many people enjoy the freedom offered by owning their job, it comes with a downside. This is especially true for contract workers who only take one client at a time. Your income is limited by how many hours you can work in a day If you don’t work, you don’t get paid It’s a constant hustle to find new clients The biggest drawback, the one most people don’t think about, is that your business is not sellable. You may be able to sell your client list, but your business has little value if you’re not there to do the work. Over 26 million people fall into this category, so it isn’t a major detractor, but it is something to think about as you grow your business. Business Owners The primary distinction between owning a job and owning a business is that a business owner manages the business rather than being the sole service provider. When you grow a business, you are building something that stands on its own and has intrinsic value. Think of it as the difference between earning money and generating revenue. The company’s profits are tied to overall sales rather than how many hours you work. As a micro-business owner, you are probably more hands-on with day-to-day tasks than the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, but your business would not come to a screeching halt if you weren’t there. You may take part in production, but you can also delegate work to other employees and your primary product doesn’t rely on you to produce it. The major benefit of owning a business instead of a job is the potential to generate revenue. Whereas a job owner handles everything from sales and marketing to production and billing, a business owner is only responsible for managing the business and generating revenue. This is important because the ability to hire workers means your production is no longer limited to how many hours you can work in a day. Once you can increase production, you can move away from a 1-to-1 sales model to a 1-to-many model. This extends your reach and opens the door to selling more products where benefits can include: Increased profit potential More flexibility, as you don’t have to do every job Not being solely responsible for production Owning a business also allows you to build something of tangible value you can leverage or sell. While owning a business may sound like the obvious winner, there are some disadvantages, such as: It requires an investment of time and money. It can be challenging for micro-businesses to find workers. You may not enjoy doing management tasks full time. This is especially true for people who have a true calling and enjoy their profession. While it is possible to start your business as the only employee and add team members as your profits grow, it’s hard for some people to step away from an occupation they love to take on spreadsheets, sales, and other back-office tasks.. Final Answer In some ways, owning a business versus owning a job is like owning a house instead of renting. In both cases, you have a place to sleep, but when it comes time to move, selling a house lets you walk away with a lot more than a security deposit. Most small business owners follow the job ownership model, but there are pros and cons for both options. The trick is to remember your reason for starting a business and to create the goals to fulfill it.✔
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Remembering why you started a business will help you plan the right path for your business
Do you ever have days when you look up and wonder why the heck you’re doing whatever task you’re doing?
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1. Perfectionism
Or worse, you power through your to-do list only to realize none of your accomplishments moved your project forward? We’ve all been there. One minute you’re feeling good about your efforts, the next you’re overwhelmed by everything that didn’t get done. It’s one of those things that everybody deals with. We don’t have time, it’s boring, or will take too much effort. No matter what reason we give, the result is the same. We find a way to do something else instead. It’s okay. You could even say it’s not entirely your fault. You’re a small business owner. Your days are hectic and stressful. Checking off items on a list gives you a sense of accomplishment that tells your brain to release a quick, feel-good boost of the neurotransmitter dopamine. The problem is, while you’re hanging out feeling good about doing busywork, nothing else is getting done. It doesn’t matter if you embrace David Allen’s Getting Things Done, Kanban, or any other popular productivity system. At some point or another, we all have one of those moments when we recognize the right things are not getting done. People have a lot of reasons for not starting, or failing to finish, important tasks, but at its core, it comes down to four possibilities: Perfectionism Purpose Planning Procrastination Perfectionism is insidious. We tell ourselves we’re just making sure we’ve dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s, but it’s a lie. The heart of perfectionism is fear. Fear of failure Fear of looking like an imposter Fear of not measuring up to some improbable standard The good news is that it only takes two simple steps to overcome fear. The first step is to write a clear description of what done looks like. The reason we do this is that it gives us a point of reference that minimizes our opportunity to stray from our stated ideal. The second step is to embrace the idea that done is better than perfect. We’re not going to lie. It’s not easy for a perfectionist to step away when they think there is room for improvement, but starting with a predetermined definition for what you deem acceptable and a commitment to moving on to the next task once that definition is met, will make it a lot less painful. Time is a finite resource and your to-do list represents how to distribute it. An effective to-do list focuses on the top 3 - 5 tasks you need to touch or complete today. The simplest way to do this is to ask yourself why a task belongs on the list. Is it something that needs to happen today? Is it something you can automate or delegate? Is it something you can put off until a more important task is complete? The answer to these questions will help you eliminate busywork so you can focus on activities that move your project forward. We can get caught up in the idea that the key to productivity is finding the right time management system. The thing is, the system is only half the story. Finding a program that fits your work style will help you maximize your output, but it only works if you’re doing the right tasks at the right time. Does the task have dependencies or a deadline? Do you need to collaborate with other people? How much time will the task take versus how much time you have today, tomorrow, or this week? You can’t throw tasks at your to-do list and hope things will work themselves out. This is why it is essential to start with a project plan that breaks down steps and identifies required resources. Once you have the big picture, it’s much easier to organize tasks and make sure you have everything you need to finish your project on time. Procrastination is a fancy way of saying you don’t feel like doing something. Sometimes it’s because the task is overwhelming, other times the task is boring or something you don’t enjoy doing. The only way to get past this one is to identify what is holding you back – and deal with it. If a task is too much work for the time you have today, break it down and chip away at it over time. You can also try delegating some components to team members or outsourcing if you’re a solo worker. Think about giving yourself incentives for tasks you dislike too much to power through. For example, if you hate running reports but need a specific report to write a proposal, tell yourself you can take an extra half hour for lunch so you can go to your favorite food truck on the other side of town if you finish by noon. Productivity is a delicate balance of resources and motivation. It’s not enough to say “just knuckle down and do it.” It requires awareness, organizational skills, and an ability to prioritize and react effectively when something, or someone, throws a monkey wrench into the works. Now that you understand why you have days that feel unproductive, despite how many tasks you cross off your list, you can maximize your productivity and master your to-do list with confidence. ✔
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4. Procrastination
3. Planning
2. Purpose
Done is better than perfect...
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"A wise man makes more opportunities than he finds." -- Francis Bacon
3. Develop a Go-To Presentation
If there’s one thing successful people know, it’s that we create our own opportunities.
1. Make a Plan
It sounds nice, but how does that work in the real world for a solopreneur with limited resources? You start by defining what an opportunity is. An opportunity is when you create a situation that increases the potential for favorable outcomes. There are an endless variety of things a business owner can do to improve their prospects. To keep it simple, we’ve narrowed it to five things a solopreneur can do today to create opportunities tomorrow. Have a clear vision of success Get help from experts Make yourself visible Present a unified message Build a solid financial foundation This is not an exhaustive list, but these tips can provide a lot of value, especially when you don’t have a lot of time or money. Can you recognize an opportunity? Are you sure? It’s easy to get sidetracked by something that sounds like a good idea but isn’t a good fit for your objectives. The act of planning forces you to evaluate your goals and resources. It helps you establish priorities and milestones so you can set incremental steps to success. Although some people may think starting with a plan limits new opportunities, planning enables clarity. This insight puts you in a position to evaluate new situations to see if they are in line with your vision or mission. Solopreneurs are masters of self-reliance. While this is an essential skill for getting things done, it can create tunnel vision and put you at a disadvantage in handling business challenges outside your area of expertise. This is where an advisory board comes in. Unlike a corporate board of directors that directs a company’s policies and oversights management, an advisory board acts more like a collection of business coaches who lend their business experience and expertise to your projects. Before you say you can’t afford it, people often do this for free because they believe in you and your business. As you would imagine, having a reliable, trusted source who is invested in your success can be a game-changer for a solopreneur or startup with limited resources. It’s no secret that people want to do business with people they know, like, and trust (KLT). One of the best ways to help people get to know you is by giving a presentation. The problem is that speaking opportunities pop up when you least expect them, leaving you little time to write a speech and make a slide deck. Try taking a page out of a professional speaker’s playbook and develop one stellar go-to presentation you can polish and hone. Not only will this save you a ton of time, but reusing a familiar topic will boost your confidence, and you’ll always be ready when you get the call. This one may not be as obvious at first, but it’s a twofer because it will save you a lot of money and help you create branded messaging. We all love budget-friendly DIY platforms that help you build a landing page or website on the fly. The issue is, no matter how awesome the templates look, they never look quite right when you drop in your content. You don’t need to know design theory or how to build a website from scratch, but a basic understanding of HTML and CSS can help you make a boring landing page or website template your own. At the very least, it’s beneficial to know how to: Change fonts or background colors Set alignment of content and blocks Edit margins and padding All it takes is a few mouse clicks and a little knowledge to create a custom message that feels like your brand without breaking the bank. There’s not much point in creating opportunities if you can’t afford to leverage them. The problem is that most single-member businesses run pretty lean. Between paying yourself, covering expenses, and investing in the business, it can be a challenge to save money the first few years you’re in business. The good news is that even a small amount of savings can make a difference. All it takes is a dedicated effort. Whether you choose to put aside a small percentage of revenues or a set dollar amount every month, a small, regular contribution to savings will provide a cushion for downtimes and give you a way to take advantage when opportunities arise. The life of an entrepreneur, especially a solopreneur, isn’t easy. We take risks, wear all the hats, and pour our hearts and souls into our businesses. It’s very easy to get so focused on one task that we lose sight of the big picture. That’s what these five actions represent, a strategy to set yourself up for future excellence. These activities will help you expand your reach and elevate your game, no matter how small your budget is. There are no guarantees, but when you take action, you are giving your future self an edge. And that makes it worth the effort. ✔
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2. Put Together an Advisory Board
4. Learn Basic HTML and CSS
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Wondering why you need a go-to presentation?
Check out Be Fearless and Own the Room with a Go-To Presentation in the Fall 2021 issue of Flackery for the whys, hows, and essential tips for creating and honing a presentation.
5. Save Money
When was the last time you finished your to-do list? We’re talking about the list with the tasks that get you paid or move projects forward, not cheesy busywork like checking email. You start the day with good intentions, but before you know it, it’s quitting time. Where did the time go? Why is there still a pile of work waiting for you? You know you did stuff, but you haven’t made it more than halfway through your to-do list. That is what we call a productivity problem. Micro-business owners have a lot of responsibilities and few options to delegate. When you add in administrative tasks, client tasks, sales & marketing, bookkeeping, and the dozens of interruptions that happen in a day, it’s a challenge to stay productive. The Business Guild has several productivity tools to help you set better work goals and make actionable to-do lists, but today, we are looking at a new tool called the Weekly Time Tracker. The Weekly Time Tracker is a sophisticated yet simple spreadsheet designed to help you discover where your time is going so you can manage it better. See which (unplanned) activities take over your day Weed out unimportant tasks that stop productivity Find lost time by improving workflows The Weekly Time Tracker can help you get a clear vision of how you spend your time by displaying the regular patterns that disrupt your schedule. The tracker is broken into seven worksheets that represent a standard Monday - Friday week plus the weekend, and a dashboard. We chose this format for three reasons. Separate pages make it easy to track daily habits. Most people are consistent with their work habits. What they did on Monday this week is probably what they did last Monday and will do again next Monday. The ability to compare your week by day is a great way to see where those habits are falling short. The second reason we opted for a multi-page layout is the ease of use. Remember, the goal is to see where you’re spending time. It’s much easier to review an entire day’s activities if you don’t have to sort dates or try to remember which day of the week August 4th was. Finally, using a separate page for each day gives you the ability to stay on top of your activities in real time. This will help you adjust your schedule as you go through the day. Each of the Daily Tracker pages has two sections: a daily summary at the top, and a timesheet below. The fully automated (meaning no manual entry on your part) summary section at the top pulls the data from your timesheet and displays how many hours you worked that day. Those hours are further broken down by how much time you spent on tasks within predesignated categories. The timesheet section is straightforward. It uses a standard layout with six columns for the date, start time, end time, total time worked, category, and a description of the activity. All you need to do is fill in the date and the start and end times, and the spreadsheet will figure out the total time you spent on the activity. IMPORTANT: Time needs to be entered in military time format, i.e. 4:05 PM would be entered as 16:05, for correct time calculation. The category column is where the magic happens. We kept it simple by setting it up as a drop-down validation list, but you must select a category for each entry or the time tracker will not count that time. There are ten categories, including three placeholders for custom values. Sales/Marketing AP/AR Projects Calls/Email Social Media Interruptions Meetings Custom Value (1-3) We chose these categories because they represent typical distractions and activities, but you can change any or all of the categories in the drop-down list to meet your specific needs. Customizing categories is simple. All it takes is a few mouse clicks. Select all the cells in the column with a drop-down Click on Data in the worksheet menu and choose Data Validation This will open a pop-up box with the list of items in the category column drop-down where you can change the categories Once you’re satisfied with your new categories, click Save Repeat these steps for each day of the week. IMPORTANT: We set the time calculation formulas for a maximum of ten (10) categories. You are welcome to add as many categories as you need, but exceeding ten will require multiple changes to the layout and formulas on the daily time tracker pages and the weekly overview page. (See Weekly Time Tracker spreadsheet for advanced editing.) The Weekly Time Tracker also has an automated dashboard worksheet called Weekly Overview. This sheet compiles data from all the daily timesheets to give you a complete summary of how many hours you worked during the week broken down by day, week, and category. This snapshot is invaluable for analyzing week-to-week activities, such as: How much time you spend in meetings How often you get interrupted What time of day people call or email After two or three weeks, patterns should emerge. These patterns will give you a sense of how you’re spending your time and where you can make adjustments. For example, if you see you spend a lot of time fielding phone calls or answering emails between 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM (entered in the worksheet as 13:00 - 14:30), move important tasks to the morning so you can work uninterrupted and reallocate that after-lunchtime slot for things that are easy to set aside when the phone rings. The patterns can also help you identify dysfunctional workflows. Much of what we do is a habit. It doesn’t mean it’s the best way to do it, just that we did it that way before and got the job done. Having a bird's-eye view of how you work projects and recursive activities will shed a light on bad workflows: Too many steps Poor use of resources Lack of communication These things result in wasted time. Tools like the Weekly Time Tracker are an easy way to manage your time and boost your productivity because they force you to take ownership of your day. The daily and weekly overviews combine to give you real-time and at-a-glance data that helps you recognize time traps so you can maximize your efforts. As a bonus, you can add a custom category for specific clients or projects and use the Weekly Time Tracker to track billable hours. If productivity is a challenge for you, give it a try. We think you’ll love it as much as we do. ✔
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Take Ownership of YOUR Day!
The Setup
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The Weekly Overview provides a dashboard for the entire week's activities.
Categories are set up as a simple drop-down validation list.
How it Works
Customizing Categories
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Weekly Overview
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Martha Walters is a fitness coach focused on women in their 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond. Her goal is to help women reconnect with their core and develop a wellness mindset to help them take time for themselves, regain strength, and feel good in their own skin.
"Working with people and helping them reach the goals they've established themselves, in a way that is effective for them."
By Pat Hammond, The Business Guild
I had a recent conversation with Walters about the role of core strength and wellness for women over fifty, where she shared her insights and experiences as a fitness instructor who works with women in their second half of life. TBG: Your LinkedIn profile features your work in marketing and leadership development, but you’ve had a secret second career in fitness for a while. How did this happen? MW: I started teaching in college as part of our residential life wellness program after I was introduced to the wheel of wellness and its different spokes as a student at the University of New Hampshire. Spiritual Emotional Intellectual Physical Social Environmental Financial I liked the idea that it focused on living a balanced life and I offered fitness classes in the dorms as part of my contribution as a resident assistant. TBG: And you continued after college? MW: My first job right out of college, immediately after getting married and moving clear across the country to begin my “new” journey as an Air Force wife, was as a fitness instructor. My primary career was being a mom, then I worked in marketing for 9 years, then leadership development for another 6 1/2, but fitness has always been there. I returned to the industry about ten years ago and am a certified personal trainer with a long list of certifications including spin, barre, TRX, strength training, and kettlebell. In addition to teaching at the YMCA, I work with individuals and small groups in person and on Zoom. TBG: Why did you decide to focus on women over fifty? MW: I’ve noticed a lot of women have spent their adult life working and taking care of others. They want to get back their strength and feel good in their own skin. Being healthy, feeling fit, and being able to do the things they want to do, like playing with their kids and grandkids, hiking, even just carrying groceries. Watching my mother’s posture deteriorate as she got older inspired me to work with women over fifty. It was very hard to see her reach her nineties and notice her posture start to crumble. She went from sitting up nice and tall and being 5’4”, to about 5’1/2" and hunched over -- that “little old lady” look. (It happens to men, too!.) I work with women in their 50s, 60s, and 70s who either don’t have a fitness regime or used to have one and have been too busy to take time for themselves. TBG: What is the biggest fitness challenge for this age group? MW: We need to wake up our posture and core strength is the place to start! The core helps with everything from posture to balance and building strength and power, which is essential as we age. Women need to rebuild their core powerhouse and maintain flexibility, mobility, and posture. So many people suffer from a lifetime of poor mechanics in everyday activities like driving, picking up children, or carrying laundry. Once you add in hours spent in front of computers, tablets, cell phones, even reading, it’s easy to see why so many of us wake up each morning with aches and pains. TBG: How does someone start if they haven’t worked out for a while? MW: You don’t have to jump into working out an hour four times a week, but you need to have consistent, small steps to get results. I’m not asking anyone to train for an ironwoman competition; I want you to feel good when you get out of bed in the morning. TBG: Why should women work with you? MW: I have a compassionate and caring coaching approach. I know the body isn’t invincible. I’ve had to do rehab for both shoulders after torn rotator cuffs and a meniscus repair. I know what it’s like to have a body part that has to relearn how to work and work well. Walters works with women to help them reawaken their core and reach the goals they’ve established for themselves in a way that is effective for them. Although her niche is women over 50, Walters says we all need to take time to decompress and build healthy habits. She says, “Maybe you’re feeling a little fluffy around the middle. Or you have tech-neck from looking down at a keyboard, or a screen, and you’ve lost some of that uprightness.” While standard advice is to do 150 minutes of general exercise or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week, simple things like stepping away from the computer and stretching a few times a day will help to improve your posture and mood. She says, “It’s about self-care. If we don’t take care of ourselves, we won’t be able to take care of others.” If you feel you don’t have time to exercise, try incorporating movement while doing regular activities. Gentle stretches can relieve tension in your neck and shoulders and only take a few minutes. Use the stairs instead of an elevator, choose a parking spot a little further from the store, or take the dog for an extra walk. Little actions add up and are a gentle way to create routines that get us moving. ✔
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For more information about Martha Walters Fitness and her Core 50+ women’s program, you can find her on the web at sutrapro.com/martha...
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Amy Flores-Young
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Do you ever wonder why some people master their schedule with military precision, while the rest of us waver between moments of productive brilliance and overwhelm?
It’s frustrating when you know you’re working hard, but every time management system you try leaves you with too many tasks and not enough productivity. What can you do? Between recurring tasks, project tasks, phone calls, emails, and a million other things that pop up every day, it’s difficult to stay organized and get things done. The good news is that difficult doesn’t mean impossible. For most people, successful time management comes down to making better choices. Productive people have three things in common. They know how to identify & prioritize They avoid complex systems They allocate their time wisely There are dozens of excellent time management systems out there to suit just about every activity and work style. The one thing they all require is an ability to recognize the difference between essential tasks and busywork. The Pareto principle, otherwise known as the 80/20 Rule, states that 80% of your results come from 20% of your effort. Take an honest look at your to-do list. Which tasks actively move a project forward? How many of the remaining activities have to be done right now? If you’re like most people, many items on your to-do list don’t do either. Try a simple Eisenhower matrix if you’re unsure how to determine if a task is a priority. When you take a moment to look, you will find that many important tasks are not urgent and can be rescheduled, delegated, or even automated. In case it’s not obvious, anything that isn’t urgent or important shouldn’t be on your to-do list. Simplicity Is King Remember the goal. You want to improve your time management to increase productivity. When you look at popular time management systems like the Pomodoro technique, Kanban, and eat the frog, the first thing you notice is their simplicity. Pomodoro Technique - Break your workday into 25-minute increments with a 5-minute break in between Kanban - A visual system to track progress and manage workflow Eat the Frog - Identify the most important task and do it first These systems work because they are easy to use. If you can set a timer, tape a sticky note to a wall, or identify the most important task of the day, you can do any of these. Mastering the Clock It would be nice if allocating time was as simple as figuring out how long a task should take and blocking off the appropriate time slot, but time management has a lot of variables. Are you waiting for a team member to complete their component? Do you have other obligations that have a set schedule? Do you have to answer phones or help customers while you work? The best time managers understand the importance of focusing on key tasks and portioning their day. Key tasks are your top three weekly priorities. These are the activities that you must work or complete by the end of the week. Depending on the complexity, they can be worked on one day or broken down into more manageable steps called daily priorities. The goal is to achieve a workflow that balances important projects, daily activities, and unexpected interruptions. With this in mind, limit your daily priorities to the three most important things you have to touch or finish that day. Many people find that time chunking, or assigning specific times for predefined types of activities, is helpful in creating a functional work routine. For example, if you set aside 9:30 AM - 11:30 AM for client projects, you would have at least two hours every day just for client projects. The same would apply to other regular daily or weekly activities, such as staff meetings. Breaking your workday into regular segments makes it much easier to make time for essential activities and move on to the next task, even if you haven’t finished the one you’re working on. It doesn’t mean you can’t work on client projects after 11:30 AM, but it guarantees a regular, uninterrupted time slot to get things done. Finally, don’t fill in every minute of your schedule. Leave at least a 5 - 10 minute buffer between activities to step away from your desk and take a break. That’s something many people forget about. A little movement or a brief change of environment can do wonders for your productivity. If you struggle to remember to take a break, schedule it. It doesn’t matter if you call it time management, business efficiency, or productivity, at the end of the day it’s all about figuring out how to maximize a finite resource, time, for optimal output. Try the steps outlined above and don’t be afraid to be ruthless. You may just find that prioritizing and limiting your daily to-do list to the three most important tasks will give you the time to focus and finish the work that needs to get done. ✔
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Join the Business Guild's Accountability for Business Owners mastermind group! We meet every other Friday from 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM (ET).
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Travel Planner - Retreat Concierge
Niche marketing—you’ve heard people talk about it, but do you know why it’s a beneficial business strategy for a small business owner? Niche marketing is a great equalizer for organizations that don’t have deep pockets or dedicated marketing staff. You could even say it’s the ultimate secret weapon in a micro-business-owner’s arsenal. Instead of discussing the typical ‘why you should embrace a niche strategy,’ we’re going to show you how one micro-business owner, Amy Flores-Young from T-Travels, built her entire business model around it. BACKGROUND Flores-Young has been a travel agent for four years. Before becoming a full-time travel professional, Flores-Young worked as a national trainer and facilitator. She used her extensive background with event planning, customer experience, and business management to establish herself as the go-to travel expert in four distinct markets. If that’s not impressive enough, two of those years were during the COVID-19 pandemic when many travel options were limited or non-existent. Niche Marketing Works for Almost Any Service The trick to niche marketing is to figure out what problem you solve, then identify who would realize the most benefit from it. For Flores-Young, her first travel niche was easy. As a mother of a disabled child, she knows how difficult it is to travel with a disability or chronic health needs. Things like making sure your transportation, hotel, and other activities are wheelchair accessible, preparing for a medical emergency when you’re out of town, and having a backup plan in case an important item gets lost in transit can make an already chaotic travel experience overwhelming. Having someone who can help you navigate the challenges of traveling with a medical need goes a long way to ensuring an enjoyable experience. Niche Marketing Is a Great Way to Extend Your Reach One of the biggest misconceptions about niche marketing is that you can only choose one market. The reason Flores-Young is so successful is that she targets four distinct markets: Disney Vacations Disability Travel Retreat Concierge Services Ancestry & Genealogy Travel Except for Disney, her other markets are micro-niches that concentrate on a specific subset of the traveling public. Flores-Young says the key is to keep each niche small and focus on one market at a time. It may sound like a juggling act, but the magic of modern marketing makes it easy. Once you have a website and establish a presence on social media, you can schedule updates and posts in advance so you can stay on the radar while you are focusing your time and money on another market. This brings us to the next point. Niche Marketing Can Help You Quickly Position Yourself as an Industry Leader It’s the classic story of the big fish in the little pond. The goal is to position yourself as the go-to expert so you can develop the relationships that lead to referrals and sales. A smaller audience gives you that opportunity. Flores-Young says, “As a traditional travel professional, I can serve anyone, but it’s too generic for marketing. It gives you nothing memorable.” When she puts on her retreat concierge hat, she isn’t just selling travel. She is selling her professional expertise to help clients meet revenue goals and provide a wow experience for their attendees. Flores-Young has an entire program that walks her clients through the retreat event planning process, including sales, marketing, and customer experience. This is what she calls the pre-work, and it happens long before the client books the hotel. That’s what sets her apart. Working with smaller markets means you can laser-focus on the details and customer experiences that help you establish yourself as an industry expert. Niche Marketing Gives You the Flexibility to Respond to Change Which sounds better? Dumping all your resources into one large market where you have to compete with everyone, or curating a collection of smaller niche markets that give you some breathing room when things go sideways? Embracing multiple niches gives your business diversity and stability. COVID-19 hit the travel industry hard. Between lockdowns, supply chain issues, and worker shortages, it was not an optimal time for families or anyone else to go on vacation. It could have been a business disaster, but Flores-Young could respond because she had already established multiple niches. Her retreat concierge service was an ideal candidate to adapt to COVID travel planning. People plan retreats 8 - 12 months in advance, which gives some time for restrictions to ease. They’re also well-suited to the smaller groups needed to meet many local COVID protocols. It doesn’t mean she can’t book a Disney vacation for a family or make travel arrangements for someone with a special medical need, but for right now, her attention is on helping coaching clients plan COVID-friendly retreats. Niche Marketing Is a Fantastic Use of Resources The last thing you need to know about niche marketing is that it is a smart way to maximize your resources. Competing in a large market with a small budget is like standing on a soapbox on a street corner holding a paper sign. A few people may notice you as they pass by, but it’s impossible to get traction when the competition has the money to buy digital billboards that are visible across the city. When you target a small segment of a specific audience, you can tailor your message so you stand out. Flores-Young succeeds in her niches because she goes to where her target audience is and practices “deep listening to people in the community” to figure out which gaps she can fill. This is how she discovered a market for ancestry travel planning. She saw the popularity of at-home DNA tests and online ancestry services. She listened to people talk about traveling to find their cultural identities and realized that they needed more than a plane ticket and a hotel room to track down family records and explore their ancestors’ customs and traditions. That’s the beauty of niche marketing. You don’t have to hire a marketing team or spend thousands of dollars on social media and Google ads. All you have to do is to be present, ask questions, and listen to what people say. Smaller markets give you those opportunities to connect with people and have meaningful conversations that build relationships and trust. And as we all know, the know-like-trust factor is the foundation for long-term customer relationships that generate leads and sales. ✔
www.floyotravel.com
"Before you commit to a market, ask yourself if it's a small enough niche to float to the top."
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The value of networking is developing strong business relationships. The Business Guild’s virtual bi-monthly PowerUp Relationship Building events are focused on building those relationships between like-minded business owners to “know, like, and trust” each other. PowerUp Relationship Building is designed to foster strong business relationships by sharing ideas, collaborating, and connecting each other with the people and resources they need to succeed – creating a space to help each other grow their businesses. These bi-monthly virtual evening events offer: Moderated topics Group discussions Break outs for 1-to-1s In Episode 6 of the Success Funnel podcast, Pat and Lisa chat about the value of networking with PowerUp. For more information about The Business Guild's PowerUp Relationship Building events, please visit our page on Eventbrite or click on the events page on thebizguild.com under Connect. ✔
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Business & Strategic Planning This includes federal business resources, useful tools, and all of The Business Guild's business planning templates. Web & Graphic Design The web graphic design resources feature useful tips for choosing a CMS, building a website, improving page speed, and site maintenance. It also covers graphic design tips and links to several free graphic design programs. Sales & Marketing Sales & Marketing has info about ERPs and CRMs; tips, tricks, and strategies for boosting sales; top picks for email marketing programs; templates for sales and marketing campaigns; and links to community partners. Classes & Training The classes & training section offers a collection of live and on-demand classes, events, and seminars from The Business Guild, our members, and community partners. Back Office This section contains a variety of back office tools and resources for your HR, accounting, and IT questions.
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