Operating a One Man Business
I cannot tell you where I first heard the expression, it was most probably at school. The meaning is obvious, it refers to someone who operates a kitchen on his or her own and does all the jobs that need doing.
If you run your own business and are a one man operation, chances are, you do everything from reconciling your accounts, to making the sales call and doing any client work that needs doing.
Any person starting out in business, will soon discover that without a team working together, you end up doing everything, or if you are lucky enough to afford being able to subcontract it out, you still need to be able to monitor the work done for you.
Working for yourself, by yourself is hard work. There never is enough time to get everything done. So how do successful people do it, but you end up working long hours but never get on top of things? You have to start examining every task and ask, “Is this the best use of my time?”
If you are honest, you will discover that there any tasks that are unnecessary and should be stopped and many necessary tasks that take up your time and prevent you from running your business. These should be outsourced or someone employed to handle them.
And I can hear you say, “But, I cannot afford it!” Fair enough!
You need to prioritise your tasks and then compartment them. The Goal of any business is to make money and to make money, you have to provide a service or product. And before you can do so, you have to market and sell your business.
But the money you make needs to be recorded. You track your money as it comes in and you track your expenses.
So in order to compartmentise your time, you need to plan and you do this “unplugged!”
Take a sheet of paper and write down all the various tasks you have to do, then work out what time is most suitable for theses tasks. Next, look at how much time you should allocate per task, before moving onto the next one.
Now it is time to go plugged again. Take a spreadsheet and divide it into days and subdivide into half hour periods. Remember to allow yourself time for a cup of coffee and something to eat and any travelling you have to do.
Now you have a plan that should help you to get on top of things. Be prepared to change things around when something does not work. Don’t accept what I telling you and follow my advice blindly, rather adapt to your unique circumstances and hey, don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Work to a plan and you will find the following is true,
Plan to succeed, fail to plan and fail.
