Paul Lemberg and I share a similar goal in the work that we each do. Ultimately, both of us strive to help business owners use productivity to increase business success.
Paul has developed something called the Formula 5 system in which he lists 5 aspects of a business that can be altered to grow the business. The first 3 parts of his Formula 5 are:
1) Increase your conversion rate.
2) Increase your value per customer.
3) Increase the number of leads.
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I’m not much into video games. I have nothing against them (although they can eat up time like crazy) but I just have other things on my radar that are more pressing for me. Regardless, I can appreciate a good video game, not just for its artistry but for what it can teach business owners:
Video games are a great intersection between technical proficiency, artistic ability, and user experience.
When those things intersect in the right ways, a compelling game is created. Your business is similar:It’s an intersection between those three things.
- You need technical proficiency to make sure your website and backoffice operations are running correctly
- You need artistic ability in your design, branding, marketing, content creation, packaging,
- You need a positive user experience throughout the entire process, from the time someone first interacts with your business until long past the time that they’ve purchased and used your products.
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A friend of mine is a high school music teacher by day. And, since she’s not a full-time music teacher, she also plays in a band on the weekends to help with the bills.
I was reminded of her when I read an article by Jonathan Weber at TheBigMoney.com, Outsource Yourself. Weber says that, in difficult times, business owners should outsource their skills to earn additional revenue. He, for example, writes his own primary publication but also writes for other publications and produces media products and conferences for other companies. In a way, he sounds like he’s simply restating the freelancing model, but I get the sense that he envisions it to be even bigger than that. I suppose, in a way, it’s not unlike my college whose primary purpose was to educate students but it would also rent out its unused facilities to organizations that needed classroom-style space. And it’s not unlike my friend whose primary work is as a high school music teacher but who makes money on the weekends in a band.
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Just when I think I’ve heard every industry talk about the issues they have with productivity and scheduling problems, along comes another one to highlight that scheduling is a common problem no matter what you do.
Our time is precious: We have 24 hours each day and we want to eat, sleep, spend time with family and friends, and let’s not forget about taking a little “me time” to catch the latest episode of “So You Think You Can Dance”. Oh, and we need to work somewhere in there, too.
It just makes sense that we continue to learn how to work more effectively so we can earn the same money but spend less time doing it. The rewards, of course, are more time doing the things we enjoy doing.
Recently read: Productivity tips for professionals
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A friend of mine just returned from a trip with his family. It was the first time he went on a multi-state trip in his brand new Prius and he came back bragging about the mileage. The last multistate trip I went on was in an SUV (with apologies to the environment) so the difference was, of course, dramatic. My rented SUV guzzled gas and it felt like we were just driving from gas station to gas station to fill the hungry beast.
In comparing mileage notes, it was interesting to think of the parallels with business: The SUV took a massive investment to start and run, and it would only run for a short time before it needed more fuel. Many businesses – especially small businesses and solopreneurs – are like that: They market their business, then do the work, then need to market again for more business.
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Business owners work hard to create a business that hopefully will become a valuable, revenue-generating asset for them. IF a business survives, that is a tribute to the entrepreneur. But IF a business thrives, that is even better.
So, how does a business get from “survive” to “thrive”? I suggest that the clue is in the title: Are you managing? Or managing? Yes, it sounds strange so let me explain:
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Recently, I purchased a hand-made greeting card online. The price was fair, the service was excellent, and when I received the card in the mail, it was beautiful. The company has a compelling brand and offering and is connected in the social media marketing world.
It’s rare that I see a business performing so “fluently” with all of these factors so I sent a quick message of thanks to the company owner and we started a little conversation.
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This is a message for all business owners, entrepreneurs, project managers… and basically anyone else out there who has a big task to accomplish. I know you have it tough. Projects are big and unwieldy. It’s hard to start. It’s hard to gain momentum. It’s hard to maintain momentum. It’s hard to juggle everything and get the project successfully completed. But projects ARE completed successfully even though they looked daunting at the beginning.
So, how can you give your daunting, unwieldy project a fighting chance at success? I’ll give you one of the top secrets to make it happen: “Just get started”.
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