Start right. Setup your productivity for success
Whether you are building a lifestyle business, a Youtube Channel, or a small business, the key ingredient to succeeding is staying on task. A common theme of any advice is that whatever you do, you should do it consistently for a long time. But starting anything that will give results after investing a lot of work and waiting a long time is not only hard, but also risky if you do not setup yourself for success.
The Solution: establish a productivity system. A productivity system is a set of habits and practices designed to improve your productivity. Modern productivity systems take a holistic approach to productivity and mention concepts like goals, motivation, productivity, time management, attention management, and work-life balance. These are just two popular productivity systems:
- Getting Things Done or GTD (focuses on attention management)
- Agile results (holistic approach)
By establishing a productivity system, you avoid “The blind men and the elephant†problem, where everyone is telling you how to solve particular problems without seeing the big picture.
The quick and dirty business plan
You need a business plan for three reasons. One, you need to know if your business is viable. Two, it lets you test your assumptions once you start running your business. And last, it acts as a motivator, meaning your business plan should be written in a way that motivates you, and anyone involved in the business, to take action. This is not a corporate business plan. This is not a prediction of the future. This IS your first business coach. Here is a practical business plan outline – What problem does your business solve?
- Who are your competitors?
- What is your Goal?
- How will you know you are getting closer to your goal?
- What is your strategy for reaching your goal?
- Consulting and Research
A word on consulting and research.
Give the above outline a quick look and identify the areas you need to research. Consult Google, Youtube. Maybe enroll in a Udemy course. Buy some books. Those are great sources since nowadays, most consultants are putting their advice in those places. Once you have all your research done, revisit the outline. You should be able to complete all sections fairly quickly now.
Executing
With a great productivity system that motivates you to get started and a business plan that shows you the path, the next steps are all about execution. This is where the productivity system comes into play. When starting a business, you will be wearing many hats.
A productivity system helps you keep your priorities straight so you can feel productive even when there are many things to do.
There are aspects of building a business that are not so glamorous, such as accounting, bookkeeping, support, dealing with angry clients, etc. But they still need to be handled. Once again, a productivity system helps you see these tasks and either shows you how to delegate them or see them from a perspective that motivates you thus helping you get them done.
In summary, to build a successful small business, you must start by setting yourself up for success. Adopt a productivity system to keep you on task. Create a quick business plan that helps you stay motivated and allows you to make decisions quickly to avoid task overload.
