Taming the Email Tiger

You have, no doubt, heard the phrase "the time value of
money". It means that a dollar in your hand today is worth
more than a dollar in your hand a year from now. Why?
Because of what you can do with that dollar over the next
year. You can invest that dollar in an interest bearing
account and have $1.05 at the end of the year. If you
decide to take your buck in a year, your opportunity cost
(foregone investment) will be five cents. Not to mention
what inflation will have done to your purchasing power in
the meantime.

As interesting as the time value of money is to economists
and financial planners, if you're anything like me, you
probably find the whole subject just a little short of riveting.
So here's something more interesting to think about. The
money value of time. Your time, that is.

Why do you need to think about the money value of time?
Because, quite simply, once you truly understand what your
time is worth, in dollar terms, you will work your business
more productively and efficiently than ever before.

In my other life, I'm an attorney. I work for a downtown
Los Angeles law firm and, like any other law firm, what
counts is how many billable hours I clock each month.
We have software to track it all for us of course. My
time is charged out at $250 an hour. In a minimum of
six minute increments. This means that if I so much as
pick up and read a one paragraph letter from another
attorney, my client is billed $25.

Spend enough time tracking your time like this, getting
to the end of the day and needing to see at least seven
billable hours totaled on your computer screen and you
soon develop a very healthy respect for the dollar value
of time.

And because I don't want to have to be at the office for
ten hours before I've generated seven that are billable,
let me assure you I work very efficiently indeed.

In the process, I've become an expert at avoiding time
wasters and unproductive activities. As a result I can
usually generate seven billable hours from being in the
office for only eight. (The other hour is unavoidable
non-billable general admin type stuff.)

My point? Start thinking like an attorney when it comes
to how you value and spend your time. Here's how.

First, decide what level of income you need from your
business. For the purposes of our example, let's say
it's $52,000 per year or $1,000 per week.

Next, decide how many hours you want to work each
week. To keep the math simple, let's say you're going to
work 50 hours a week. Therefore, on average, you need
to generate $20 for every hour of time you spend working
in your business.

But not all of your time will be revenue-generating (i.e.,
"billable") time. Any business has its share of non-billable
time - those routine administrative tasks that must be
done even though they make no contribution to your
bottom line.

So, now you have a choice. You can either work more
hours each week to cover your non-billable time, or you
can increase the amount you need to earn from every
billable hour. The first option means working longer. The
second option means working smarter. Your choice.

Whatever you decide, keep that hourly rate firmly in
mind. Every hour of your time is worth $20 (or whatever
rate you have calculated for yourself).

Think about that when the phone rings on a work day and
it's your sister wanting you to go with her to mall this
afternoon. There's three hours or $60 you've just thrown
away (not to mention what you spend at the mall!). Tell
her you'll go with her on Saturday instead. You have to
work today. Think twice about the hour and a half it will
take you to do your errands this afternoon. Another $30
gone. Do them on your own time, not your business's.

Think $30 here or there won't make any difference? Think
about this. Do it twice a week and you've just lost over
$3,000 for the year in potential business. And when you
consider that some of that $3,000 in business would have
become repeat business, you're cheating your business
out of some serious income.

Apply the same thought process to when you actually
ARE working also. What's the better use of your time --
writing an article for this week's issue of your ezine which
will hopefully be picked up by other sites and publishers,
thereby providing you with valuable free publicity -- or
stopping what you're doing every ten minutes each time
you get new email? And reading it.

Remember: the hour or two you spend writing your
article needs to return the equivalent of $40 in income.
Writing articles is the equivalent of free advertising.
You can *easily* generate at *least* $40 in income
with that sort of no-cost publicity. My articles published
on other websites and in other ezines bring me hundreds
of new visitors each week. All for about two hours worth
of work on my part. No amount of time spent reading
email will ever do that.

Contrast how much income you generate by reading non-
business-related email during working hours. Zero. It
makes absolutely no contribution to your bottom line. So,
don't do it when you're working. Do it on your own time.

By having your "hourly rate" uppermost in mind at all
times, you can always decide what's the best use of
your time. Quite simply, it's whatever alternative will make
a direct contribution to your bottom line.

Now, obviously, no-one's going to step forward and hand
you $20 every time you complete an hour's work. You're
not someone else's employee - you're running your own
show.

Some weeks you'll put in 50 hours but will only receive
$100 that week. Or less. But other weeks, you'll put in
the same number of hours and bank $1,500. It's swings
and roundabouts.

It's a good idea to review your expenditure of time against
revenue generated on a monthly or bi-monthly basis to get
an accurate picture of how you're tracking.

The point is to know what your time is worth so you can
ensure you're getting the maximum return on your
investment that you possibly can.

It will also help you to determine when the all-important
big step of hiring employees is the most cost-effective
thing to do. If you can generate more income from each
hour if you are free to devote your time to business
development activities than it will cost you to pay an
employee to take over the routine, administrative tasks
that are currently sucking up all your time, you should
hire the employee. If you don't know what your time
is worth though, how will you ever know when that time
has come?

So, next time you're not feeling particularly motivated
to write that article and think you'll maybe just go read
the newspaper for an hour or so instead, consider this.
Would you rather spend $20 to read the newspaper at
11:15 on a Tuesday morning or would you rather read
it for free at 7:30?

Time is money and money is time. Spend them wisely.

Putting the Plan Back In Your Business Plan

Very little that is worthwhile in life happens by accident.
Cause and effect dictates that worthwhile results come from
worthwhile efforts and the converse is also true. It's
basic goal-setting theory. Set the goal, put in place
the steps that will eventually lead you there, carry them
out and you will eventually reach your destination. Think
of a business plan as a goal-setting tool for your business.

There are two main purposes for writing a business plan.
The first is to help you to manage your business. The
second is to raise capital. The focus of the business plan
for each purpose is different. In this article, we are
focusing on the business plan as a tool to help you manage
your business.

Why Write a Business Plan?

There are many reasons why a business plan is a valuable
tool when it comes to managing your business. Most
fundamentally, it helps you 'set your sail' in the direction
you want your business to go. Rather than drifting along
aimlessly, being tugged this way and that by random currents
and puffs of wind, a business plan helps you steer a
predetermined course and stay on track.

A business plan also facilitates focus. It can help you
keep your attention where it is required ... on those steps
you need to take to bring you closer to your objectives.
This creates a results-oriented mindset which helps break
the inertia that can result from a lack of focus.

The process of creating a business plan can help you to
anticipate hurdles and threats to your business and to
formulate actions to overcome adverse contingencies.

A business plan also serves to keep your business on track
by reinforcing your vision for your business. It acts as
a check and a balance, something against which to weigh
a proposed action. Does the action further the purposes
you have outlined in your business plan? If so, go for it.
If not, it is probably just a distraction.

Things to Think About In Your Business Plan

A good starting point to begin thinking about the elements
of your business plan is to carry out a SWOT analysis (what
are your business's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities
and threats)?

The strengths you identify will become the foundation for
your competitive focus. You want to think of ways to exploit
your strengths here as these are what will set you apart
from your competition. For example, you may be particularly
good with people. Use this talent in the customer service
aspects of your business to distinguish yourself from your
competition who may be lacking in this area.

By identifying weaknesses, you can plan for ways to compensate
for them. For example, you may be in a business where you have
to wait for some time to be paid by your clients and as a result
you may be vulnerable to cash flow shortfalls from time to time.
By recognizing this potential weakness in your business, you
can take steps to minimize cash flow difficulties by arranging
for an overdraft facility with your bank. Or introducing an
incentive for clients to pay you earlier such as an early
payment discount.

The opportunities you identify become the cornerstones for
your business development. What opportunities exist that you
can exploit in the next 12 months to develop your business?
Think here in terms of things like technological advances
that you are in a position to exploit but your competition is
not, possible joint venture partnerships, or the exclusive
rights to XYZ patent that you have negotiated.

Finally, the threats you identify become the foundation for
your contingency planning. By recognizing the threats that
exist to the future health of your business before they
become a reality, the better placed you will be to implement
contingency plans in case the worst happens and the better
prepared you will be to ride out the storm.

Deciding on Your Plan

Once armed with your SWOT inventory you can begin to
refine your thinking in terms of coming up with an overall
strategy for your business. Remember, you want to exploit
your strengths and opportunities and minimize the impact of
your weaknesses and threats.

Once you have your overall business strategy in front of you,
you are then in a position to reformulate the elements of your
SWOT analysis into specific goals and objectives. Write
objectives to support every goal for every area of your
business. Think about your products and services, customers,
competition, image, customer service, marketing and advertising,
financial objectives and the like. For example, one of your
goals may be to introduce a second or a third product line
in the coming twelve months; or to launch a new advertising
campaign or to negotiate a more favorable line of credit with
your bank.

By the time you are done, you will be very clear in your
own mind where you want your business to go and what you
need to do to get there. In turn, this awareness will help you
to recognize new opportunities as they present themselves.

Finally, bear in mind that a business plan is just that, a
plan. It is not carved in stone and, as with any plan, be
prepared to be flexible and make changes as circumstances and
priorities change. Work with your business plan and treat
it as a living, breathing, organic part of your business. By
constantly keeping your plan in mind when making business
decisions you can rest comfortably, knowing you are steering
your business in the direction YOU want it to go.

Organize Your Business and It Will Take Care of Itself

Describe the top of your desk. No, not what’s on it. The desktop itself.
What do you mean you can’t see it?

If your desk is covered with so many piles you can’t remember what’s
there or where to find it, it’s time to get organized. Here’s a sure-fire way
to tame the paper monster and take control of your time.

Label 31 suspension files from “1” to “31”, one for every day of the month.
Now label another 12 from “January” to “December”. File the daily files
at the front of a file cabinet drawer with the monthly files behind.

Next, prioritize every single piece of paper on your desk. Sort them into piles.
The first is for truly urgent stuff. Be disciplined here. Only include stuff that
MUST be done urgently or dire consequences will follow. The next is for
semi-urgent stuff. This is work that must be done within the next week or so.
The third pile is for stuff that has to be done but can wait until you get around
to it. Anything that doesn’t fall within any of these three categories, get rid of.
It’s a waste of time.

Now, look at your urgent pile. Can you realistically accomplish all of it
today? If not, divide it into piles, with as much as you can get done in one
day in each pile. Now create a file in your word processor called “Diary”
and then make a stack of file cover sheets. These should have space for
the file name at the top, and a two column table immediately below with
rows filling the whole page. Fix a cover sheet to the top of each file. In
the first column write the date you are going to action that file next. In the
second column write what that action is.

Next, enter the file in the Diary document in your word processor. Enter a
big capital letter for every letter of the alphabet and bookmark it so you can
jump around easily. Enter the file name as it appears at the top of the diary
sheet and the date it is diarised for, then place the file in the suspension folder
for that day of the month. Then do the same thing with all the other files in
your urgent piles. Then go through the whole process again with your semi-
urgent files and finally with the non-urgent stuff. Anything you’re not going
to work on until a later month file in the suspension folder for the month it
is diarised for. Then when that month arrives place each file in its respective
day folder.

Now if you’re still waiting on someone else when the file falls due, you can
follow them up on that day and then rediarise for further action. If someone
gets back to you before the file falls due, you can find it by looking up the
diarised date in your Diary document. It’s also a great system for scheduling
all of your marketing activities. For example, just diarise when your various
ads fall due and you will never have to worry about missing a deadline again!

By using this system you will always have a clear desk and won’t be tempted
to do only what you feel like doing. Be disciplined about doing your “today”
stuff before you do anything else and you’ll find your business will just about
take care of itself!