Prioritizing Tip to Improve Your Bottom Line

I don’t know about you, but as a small business owner there are about a million and one different things on my to-do list each day. In addition to necessary tasks like bookkeeping and responding to clients’ e-mails, I also have a marketing to-do list about a mile long. One day I was meeting with a client who said something to the effect of, “There’s got to be a way to track which daily tasks will bring in the most money. I feel like I’m wasting my time on projects that aren’t giving a good return. I just feel so scattered.” A light went on in my head! (Any time I hear, “there’s got to be a way…”, the entrepreneur inside me wants to discover a solution).

The way to track which daily tasks bring in the most money is easy. Simply get your list and assign each task a certain number. Take your daily task list or to-dos and assign each item a number between 1 and 4. A “1″ means that you could potentially make money TODAY by completing that task. For me, the task of giving a sample session to a potential time management coaching client would be a “1″. Next, assign your tasks that could potentially make you money this week with a “2.” In my experience, a “2″ is when I go to a networking meeting. A “3″ gets assigned to any task that could make you money this month, a “4″ this quarter, and a “5″ this year. A “5″ is still important. For example, I’m working on a book that will potentially bring great returns when it is self-published. Consider “4″s and “5″s as good investments.

How does this system motivate you? Instead of looking at your daily task list and sighing, you will get excited to see that you have the potential to make money very soon, even today! If that doesn’t motivate you, I don’t know what will! Try out this system and e-mail me with any comments and questions. If you really want results, contact me and ask for a free 3o minute sample session.

Good to Great

Jim Collins, an MBA professor at Stanford and researcher extraodinaire, wrote a fantastic book called, “Good to Great.” He watched the stocks of big businesses and found eleven that increased abnormally in value and that sustained the shift for at least 15 years. After dozens of interviews with executives, he discovered attributes of each “good to great” company that were in common.

As a success coach specializing in time management and goal achievement, I’ve taken the simple principle of “Good to Great” and applied it to my clients. I ask small business owners, “what are some things you do in your business that are good, but that could be improved so they’d be great?” One client commented, “I’ve never thought about that!” He then named off three things that his company could improve that would increase sales. Next, we put together an action plan for each of these three things. I asked him a lot of questions, such as, “how could you implement that change?” and “what is the next step?”

As a coach, I spend a lot of time helping people take great ideas and help them develop great action plans to carry out their ideas. There is nothing more frustrating than having a great idea and letting it fizzle into nothingness.

What could you do in your business or your life that would take things from a good level and make them great? What would the benefits be if you disciplined yourself to make positive changes?