Where does stress come from? Well, the researchers tell us it comes from
two sources: People and situations. And those situations have one thing in common. We
don't feel like we're in control of them. What we're going to talk about is how to put
some of the major processes in your business into control to reduce your stress and
improve your profitability. I'm going to ask you to look at your business process and give
you some principles for managing it more effectively and easily.
Let's start with the process.
What I've found helpful with my clients and myself is to make a list of the kinds of
mail and phone calls we receive. Then put each one of those at the top of a sheet of paper
and list the things that have to be done next, in order. Mark the ones that are problems.
Once you've got the process in mind and the key problem areas marked, it's fairly easy to
start thinking about dealing with them effectively.
Key Principles
As we move through this article, I want you to keep three basic principles in mind.
Principle number one is to get the important stuff done. Take any list of tasks you've
got to do. On that list two or three things are the really important ones. Move them to
the top. Do them first. It's simple. No matter how many things you've got to do, there are
a very small number that give you the most bang for the buck and you need to make sure
those get done.
The second principle is to handle routine things routinely. Receiving mail, scheduling
work, writing checks, and getting information are routine functions. They shouldn't be
cause for crisis. In fact, anywhere in your system that you have a recurring crisis is a
place you want to pay special attention to.
You want to set up systems that handle the routine things in a routine manner so you
don't have to worry about them. Those systems include your computer system, of course, but
they also include the way you handle paper and how you schedule your time.
Our next principle is the principle of batch processing. This means that you group
similar work together and do it all at the same time. This is especially important for the
administrative kinds of detail work that you probably don't like to do.
With those principles in mind, let's look at three key things. We'll look at time
management, scheduling management, and accounting management in a small business or shop.
Time Management
There are lots of time management courses and books out there. They all pretty much say
the same thing. Make a to-do list, put the important stuff at the top, and do the
important stuff first. There's no cosmic wisdom there. But lets look at some things you
can do to make that more effective.
Set aside a specific time to do the work that's important but not urgent. You'll find
time for those pieces of business and crisis that come firing at you over the phone, but
you probably won't make time naturally to do your accounting and administration. You'll
have to schedule time for that.
OK, when do you schedule it? Take a look at yourself and when you do this kind of work
best. I've worked with folks over the years who like to deal with this stuff first thing
in the morning before they start in on any of the other business of the day. They think
that that means that they can get that out of the way and have great energy for the work
that they really like to do.
Other people I've worked with do just the opposite. They want to get started on the
real work of the business. Then they'll schedule the administration, accounting, and
planning work for later in the day.
You decide what's right for you. If you can't figure out what's actually best, try it a
couple of different ways. Then stick with the one that works.
OK, you've decided to schedule stuff, how much time should you allow? The trick here is
to allow enough time to get the tasks done. I've been in business myself for almost 30
years. I've worked with a lot of small business people. I can give you a good idea of
what's involved here and that is that you're going to need about 90 minutes a day to keep
all of this stuff under control. You may be saying to yourself right now, "I just
don't have that time."
Make it. It's important.
Now you've got the time set aside. What can you do to make that time more effective
when you get to it. Don't get to the time you've set aside for administration, accounting,
and planning and have to spend your time getting the mail into the proper folders. As
work, mail, and other things come in, have some simple folders that you can drop them into
so that all your material is together later when you need it.
After all this is in place, it's time to hunker down and do it. You'll find that this
involves some changing of your habit patterns, so it's probably best to figure that you're
going to take a couple of months to get this right. If you've got somebody you work with
closely, or a spouse that helps you out or advises you in the business, tell them what
you're doing and have them help you stick to the schedule you've set.
Scheduling
Scheduling in most small businesses and shops is something that goes on pretty much all
the time. Calls and mail come in (in most business it's mostly calls) with needs to
schedule the work. Here are some tips for getting that done most effectively.
Oh, by the way, you're not going to see much computer stuff here. Most of my smaller
business clients simply don't like them. The computer program usually has them working in
a way or in a place that's not real comfortable.
In most small shops and businesses, scheduling works best using a scheduling board of
some kind that's visible to everybody. If you can add some color coding to the board,
that's usually good. Visual methods and methods using color are more effective for most
people.
Make sure that board is near where you get the stuff that comes in that you have to
schedule. If that's the telephone, then put the board near the telephone.
Have a backup. When a call comes in with a job you need to schedule, it should be
written on a note and posted on the board. Then drop the note in a folder that you'll
review at the end of each day to make sure all of the scheduling changes and markups got
done properly.
It's also best if your schedule board can be visible to everybody. Get one of those
write-on, wipe-off boards that you can get at most office supplies where you can put lots
of different variables on it to keep things up.
Accounting
Most of us hate accounting. It's not because it's so bad, we just have never learned to
do it and so there's more stress around it than the things we know how to do. The best
news for small business in a long time is that there are now some computer programs that
help make this process, if not fun, then at least easy and routine.
QuickBooks is an excellent small business accounting package. It does what most
businesses need, can be customized and is easy to use. The longer I'm in life and in
business, the more I find that I look for simple and easy systems as opposed to the more
powerful and more complex. That's because I'm more likely to use the easy simple ones and
get some benefit out of them.
With a system like Quickbooks, you'll make entries on the computer pretty much the same
way you did them by paper. You'll write checks and enter deposits.
The advantage of using the accounting software is really pretty simple. If you use it,
the process of doing your basic accounting functions gets easier, and some of the more
advanced things like generating statements happen automatically.
There's also the advantage that using good accounting software will help you prepare
better materials for your professional advisors.
Now here's some tips on how to choose a software package whether QuickBooks or any
other accounting package.
Talk to your professional advisor first. If you've got a regular bookkeeper or
accountant, talk to them about which software package they prefer. You want a system
that's simple and easy to use, so the final choice has to satisfy both you and your
advisor.
It's getting more and more common for you to be able to get trial versions of software.
You may be tempted to do that with accounting software, but in this case it's not a good
idea. The reason is that the setup is likely to take you time and effort even with a demo
package. And you'll be spending time and money that might be just wasted.
Instead, ask around other businesses that do what you do and see what packages they are
using. Then invest some time to go see what the package looks like. Try to make a judgment
about whether it's the kind you can use and will use.
Once you've picked out your accounting package (the cost on these is usually in the
$100-$150 range) you'll need to get things set up. Plan on finding a local consultant who
works with business like yours and this specific accounting package to help you do two
things. He or she should help you with the setup, making sure that the chart of accounts
matches the chart of accounts you have now and that other things are set up the way
they're supposed to be. They should then work through the first set of entries with you.
Let's go back to our basic principles here and see what we've covered in this article.
You're going to want to get the important stuff done.
You'll want to get routine things done routinely. Get rid of those crisis that happen
again and again.
Think about batching things and pulling together common kinds of work so it can be done
more effectively.
And, as you look at your operations, look at things that are easy to do that help the
work process flow.
That's it for this material on how to get the inside of your office moving along
effectively. In our next article we'll look at ways that you can reach outside the office
and do your marketing and sales more effectively.
Reviewed: 2/15/03
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