Are you Focusing on the Right Things for your Small Business? Small Business Show 180 for July 18, 2018

The Small business show episode 180 for Wednesday, July 18, 2018. Greetings folks and welcome back to the Small Business show here at businessshow Co. The show, you know, that's by for and about small business owners here at least while I'm recording this in Durham.

New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton and coming to you from South Lake Tahoe, I'm Shannon Jean and we are getting some stuff done early here this week, Dave.

Yeah, we are. In fact, I think when this episode comes out, you will have left South Lake Tahoe and I will be in South Lake Tahoe.

That's right. You'll be here for the fish concert.

And I'll be back home. Right.

That's great.

That's cool. Yeah, it's fascinating how time shifting work. You know, I always think, oh, it's weird we're recording the episode early. But the reality is we record every episode early because you don't hear it while we're recording it.

Well, you know, when I talk to our listeners, you know, most folks like, oh, you know, I typically will listen to three or four episodes at a time.

Exactly.

So the date wise, other than there's some timely things, you know, like last week we did an episode on recent news article, you know, things. But for the most part this stuff has a long, long tail. And that's what I love about it is that it's out there as a resource and even a resource, you know, for us. I mean, I've made the comment many times. I'm definitely learning the most by meeting these people, doing these interviews and getting a chance to talk about these kinds of things and these topics that really help my business all the time.

Me too. Oh yeah, no, I am much better for having done three plus years of this show without question. Yeah, it's great.

Yeah, it's great. For sure. So on that topic, one of the issues I always have, I always joke around. I have small business ADD and I'm always getting something going and everything but. But I often have challenges, you know, choosing what, what is the most important thing that I should be focusing on at any one time. I know my personality is such that I will always focus on the stuff I enjoy doing, which quite often couldn't, you know, is not what I should be doing. Right. And if it's a choice between hey, design a new logo and come up with some new marketing or go work in accounting, well, I know what I'm going to ch. And sometimes I pay the price for that. So I thought if we could, we could talk about that today. That would be awesome.

Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, focus is one of those interesting things where. Yeah. Like you. My mind is always. My mind will have a tendency to go in a million directions at once, but always choosing the thing that excites me the most. Right. And I mean, I don't think we're. We're not. Well, we're definitely not unique because we're both the same way. But I think a lot of people are like us. Right. It's very normal. But we are aware that without some fundamentals and things getting done and the right things getting done in time, our business will suffer. And so that's right. You know, I am constantly struggling with this and one thing that I think in a sense saves me is that I am a huge fan of efficiency. Right. It doesn't mean that I'm never inefficient, but it, it. Because there's times when I, and I let myself do this sometimes. Well, I'll just, you know, kind of let myself wander at the computer or whatever, doing different, like either tech things or researching things or whatever. I mean, I think you need to. I need to have some of that playtime.

I agree there's value. There's definite value in that. Yeah, for sure.

But I also really appreciate getting a ton of stuff done in a, you know, in a. In a good amount of time, whatever. Whatever that might be and feeling very productive, like it's easy, like I can go and mess around with, you know, my, like earlier today, I actually had some, some free time that I sort of carved out for myself and I messed around with some things on my Synology disk station, and half of it's stuff that we use for business. And, and so that's valuable, but really, like it was working fine for business. Like, I didn't need to do any of this. This wasn't like someone was banging down the door saying this needs to happen or anything. And part of it was just personal stuff and just kind of messing around and learning new things and that's fine. But, you know, I also need know that I need to get real stuff done. And I find deadlines to be very, very helpful in, in that regard. You know, like, like giving deadlines you set yourself. Yeah.

People.

Well, I mean, for example, recording, you know, together with you today was the deadline that, that allowed me to, you know, okay, I'm going to stop this at. Someone else is relying on me to be somewhere else or at least in a different headspace at 5pm Right. And. But I Will set those deadlines for myself. And I will. I will calendar time to do various things, especially things that I don't enjoy. I mean, when I get into something, I really do enjoy it, but.

Yeah, Yeah.

I mean, you know, but it's starting things. It's like, oh, I gotta deal with our SEO. Okay. God, I hate that. It's always fun. There's always some challenge, and I can totally immerse myself in it, but I will not start it just out of the blue. Right. It's like, I need. Okay. Yep. All right. Now it's Tuesday at 9:15. And so that's the thing that I'm going to do or whatever it is. Yep.

Yeah. And I want to go back to that comment you made about feeling productive. I think that really is an important thing to. To consider as well, because in my opinion, when I feel more productive and I've gotten these things done, it kind of like tightens my flywheel, if you, you know, if you will. And. And then propels me into other things that just kind of this circular pattern that.

That.

That helps me achieve success. And if you don't feel that way, if you just kind of waffling around. And I find myself sometimes doing like, oh, gosh, I didn't get much done today, but if you break it down and like, well, you know, actually, I did. I knocked this out. I got these things done. I got that done. But I love that feeling of, you know, leaving the office and going, man, I just killed it. I got all this stuff done, you know, before lunch. You know, I've got these, you know, tasks taken care of. And I think that's a really powerful thing.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. You know, this week's been a great sort of exercise in focus and not focus. I've been involved. I've mentioned before, I'm a drummer, and I've been involved in Tech Week for a musical here in New Hampshire. They're doing a production of the who's Tommy? And so I'm actually splitting the drum duties with another drummer. But we were both there for the majority of all the rehearsals so that we could both really learn it. And my playing of it actually starts after this episode comes out, when I'm back from all my travels. But that took me out of work. The rehearsals were all supposed to be in the evenings. Things did not get done in time. And so we wound up having some daytime rehearsals, which pulled me out of the office. And I had the flexibility to do it, and it was good. And I learned the show really well, which is really good because I'm gonna take a couple of weeks off and then I gotta come back and play it with these people that have been playing it for two weeks straight. But it left me, like Wednesday night I got back from our rehearsal and was like, man. Or Tuesday night, I guess I was like, man, I got, you know, I just. I'm not getting anything done. And so I built myself a list. I always build lists. That's one way I can really be productive. And I, you know, list all the things that I want to do. And on Wednesday, I just powered through and I carved out time. I really did sort of build a schedule for myself because I had a lot of things that were sort of piling up that just needed to get done. And I built the schedule and gave myself deadlines. And, man, I mean, I got done twice as much in that day than I would on a day when I had sort of free time. But I didn't have free time because I needed to be back at the theater Wednesday night for another rehearsal. So it was like, yep, I just got to power through and get this stuff done. And I have a deadline and I can't get distracted by other things, even though I want to. And so lists are one thing that really help. And I guess this is just sort of a second part of lists is when those things come up that just, you know, that distract you. Like the little shiny thing that it's like, oh, wouldn't it be fun to do this? I just. If I don't have an opportunity in the moment to just, you know, derail myself and let that happen, I put it on a list. And that I find really helpful because it's like, okay, I'm excited about whatever that thing I just thought of is. I'm excited about it. But I know I'm not going to forget about it because I've put it on a list and it'll come back around, you know, that's great. That kind of thing is really helpful to me. And I'm not talking about crazy, like, GTD style lists. If that works for you, great. That does not work for me. I am talking for me, very basic, like, here are the things I need to do on a to do list. Not even prioritized, really.

Just.

Just a list.

And so you can check them off, right?

So I can check them off.

Okay. Yeah, yeah. I'm making. I'm making progress. And I often find, you know, even just using the Reminders app on my phone because I'm. I'm Jumping around into, you know, all kinds of different things and. And inevitably, like you said, something will pop in my head like, oh, I need to make sure I take care of that for. For this business or whatever. And just setting that reminder, you know, doing it verbally, it's like, oh, remind me tomorrow morning at 9am to do X. And it really helps me a lot. It really helps me keep focused.

Yeah.

Yeah, I like that. Yeah. Another trick I do because, you know, in business, cash is, you know, I'm always focused on cash flow. You know, what's going on, where's the money, how's things going? I often. If it's. If that's stressing me out, I'll ask myself, you know, what could I be doing? Or the people in my team, what could we be doing this moment to generate more cash? And that works really well to get you thinking of, okay, well, I can't screw around on this because that's not going to generate more money immediately. But I could do this. I could list more products, I could tweak this design, I could take better photographs and these kinds of things that maybe that you've been considering if they're directly related to generating revenue.

Wow, I really like that. That's a great question to ask like you. I find that when I am focused on that, you know, what. What can we be doing to generate more cash? Then it really is easy to let the distractions fall away. Right. Because, like, this is it. I don't want to say you're in. In like, emergency mode.

No, no.

But you're in that focused, like, this is the one thing that matters mode. And, and it's very. You get clarity is what that. What that mindset provides. Yeah, yeah.

And it's great for the people working for you as well, because, you know, we talk all the time on this show about culture and this great place and the team and this. Those things are fantastic. But you don't have any of them without the cash.

Right.

So, you know, and to remind your team of that from time to time, if you think they're kind of losing focus on what's getting done, you know, just. Just drop that kind of mini bomb, you know, on a Monday or a Tuesday, say, hey, guys, what are we each. Let's go around the table here and what do we each doing to generate more revenue right now? And if you can't answer that question, maybe it's like, okay, let's go back and let's revisit this tomorrow morning or whenever and come back with an answer. And tell me. And I would argue if you have people that cannot answer that, you need to make some adjustments in their. Whatever it is duties, focus, whatever. And it could be anything. Your customer service people. Well, we're trying to eliminate one step here because that's going to take less time and we're going solve these problems. I mean, it's, it's, it's gonna be a pretty broad answer and everyone should be able to, to think about it.

Yeah. Yeah, I like that. That's great. Yeah. What? Right. Not only does that question focus everyone, that question also, you know, solicits actual ideas. Like that's. Yeah, yeah. Two purposes.

Yeah, I like it because every, you know, we always say, you know, we're all in the customer service business, but, you know, every aspect of your business can be some sort of revenue stream, either generating that revenue or saving you money that you would otherwise be spending, you know, to take care of that business. So it is, it can really focus everybody.

I like it. I like it.

Yeah. And then one of the things I do is, you know, we talk about systems versus goals here all the time. And, you know, Scott Adams trick, and if you haven't heard those episodes, go back and listen to that. It's really valuable. But I just revisit that. The concept of what is my system? What am I working on? Are the actions that I'm taking and my team is taking, are they in sync with this system that we've developed to be successful? And if they're not, then, okay, how do I shift over here? That's kind of your, you know, your line, if you will, and you're going to weave. You're never going to go on the straight. No, I'm following it. I'm nailing everything. You're going to kind of weave back and forth. But if you kind of review that system or if you have it up on the wall, you know, instead of saying, we're going to generate, you know, a million dollars in sales this month, rather the system versus goals is, hey, we're going to generate or come up with a system that generates a million or more or even, you know, continually generates revenue and so on that system based, you're going to have successes all along the way. You're not going to have this big, you know, goal out at the end, and you're only going to succeed when you hit the go. You're going to fail or, you know, you make it, and then you're immediately back down to zero. Okay, we have to start over. With the systems, you're continually refining it and I, you know, we talk on the show all the time. You will blow past those goals. And so it's good to be able to look back, you know, at your system to help bring you back into focus, I think.

Yeah, I like. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And you need goals are dangerous things, like, for the reason that you said, because it's. You wind up feeling like you failed when in fact, perhaps not at all.

Right.

Yeah, right. Yeah. But that can be a morale killer.

Yeah, it can be miracle killer. And then especially, you know, so you got 90% of it. That's not a success. Yeah, you know, I mean, that's an A in most grading type things. It's very, very, you know, job well done. Maybe you didn't hit this one thing, but why stop? You know, just keep mo forward on that system and then just power right through that, you know, whatever those numbers are.

Yeah, yep.

You know, and one of the things I like to do, too, is, you know, survey your customers and ask them what their priorities are. And then, you know, looking at what you're doing and are your actions and is your system aligned with what's important to your customers? Because if they're not, it's going to be much harder to, you know, generate that cash flow, have that success, develop this great culture and build this awesome business. If you're not bringing to the table whatever it is your customers want from you, you know, what is the why? Right. Does it start.

I like that. What is the why? Oh, that's good. Yeah. Right, Right. Yeah. You can build a great system that creates all kinds of great things, but if it's not going to create cash flow, then it might be the wrong system vacuum.

It's, you know, you have to have people go. That's valuable, adds value, and I want to pay for that, you know, and. And so that's another good thing to ask your team and yourself. You know, what. What is it? And surveys are great. You know, it's sometimes challenging to get people to respond to them, and you may have to, you know, have a carrot out there and reward people that do it. But even small, I think small amounts of data are valuable. And if you do a survey, I would try to keep it really short and sweet, you know, just a few questions just so you can get, you know, if they have to go through multiple pages, man, they better be really engaged with you and value your company because it's. It's tough to keep them engaged throughout that survey.

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Surveys.

Yeah. One page.

It's gotta be one pager, man.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think that's great.

Yeah. So.

And then the other thing I think is really important and I find that has helped me is just doing what we're doing right here. Talking with our. With your peers, Talking with other business owners, not with other people that are employees as much, but people that own different businesses or own a company and sharing, you know, with them. Hey, you know, what's. I'm having trouble focusing on this and getting that outside, you know, input, I think, can be really valuable. You know, this week I got a call from a listener to our show and a person that I know that has a business, and they were just hitting a wal of I don't know what to put in our SEO or social media, this kind of stuff. And we talked for, like, 45 minutes, and we came up with 30 things that had to do with their business. And I said, okay, start with number one, roll all the way through number 30, and then start over. Because everybody's gonna forget what you posted 30 days ago.

Right.

And tweak it, you know, a little bit here, a little over and over. I said, you know, you've got 10 employees. You should do 10 bios. You know, that's a post. This is this person, and this is what they do for this. That. And this is their background. And that should be up in your. In your, you know, up on your website and on and on and on. And then we kept going down and down and down. And it was just a simple act of brainstorming, if you will, and going back and forth. That helped, in this case, helped him kind of refocus on what he was having trouble with. But it helps me all the time. I always feel very focused after I have. After the Small Business show.

Yeah.

You know, I'm always charged up, like, okay, great, I gotta go do this thing. I just told myself what to do.

Yes, right. Well, that's the key is. And my guess is that that conversation you had with your buddy, I'm sure you contributed plenty to that, but my guess is that at least half of the things on the list came from him. Right, of course, Absolutely. And it's just that the act of talking it out can really help solidify and crystallize those things that you sort of know in your head or, you know, you need to do something, and those ideas are sort of floating around, talking it out with someone where you can be sort of frank and honest in a way that you probably can't Be with your employees. Right? Because, I mean, you're essentially admitting, I'm frustrated. I don't know what to do. You're dancing around this failure concept. Right. I mean, you're not necessarily failing, but you're failing to come up with these ideas without doing something else. And a lot of times just having that conversation of saying, yeah, I really hit a wall. I'm frustrated. Yeah, it's these things, and I got to do this and I got to do that, and you just listen to yourself. It's like, oh, yeah, write it down, write it down, write it down. Okay, good, perfect. I'm great.

That's right. And it's like today I start to show off here saying, man, I really have trouble focusing. But just by focusing on this and putting through five, six, seven, eight things that, oh, well, this is something I should do. This helps me. I've used it in the past. It helps me. And I'm internalizing it, visualizing myself doing this. And when we're done, I'll be better for it. And so connecting with you, your peers. We've done shows on why you need to go to trade shows and conferences. That's one reason.

Yeah.

You know, connect with other people on LinkedIn. You know, you have to be part of a community. You know, go to the small business support group at BusinessShow Co Facebook. We have guys up there all the time posting what some people may think. Well, that's kind of a, you know, that's an easy question, but it's not. You don't know that. And, you know, so then you get people jumping in, oh, I do this, and this is what I would do. You don't have to worry about this. And, you know, so we've had some. Some really good questions up in there, and you can get help, you know, when you need it. For sure.

For sure. For sure. Yeah.

And, you know, one of the things I want to point out, too, is that I often, you know, the chasm between starting a business and having, you know, real success can be quite deep. And most folks that have never done it really won't understand how it can often be rough down there in the trenches, and you're reaching out to peers and getting help. But one of the things that helps me and keeps me focused on moving forward is thinking about the reason I started the business in the first place. Why did I do this? In the case of Tech Restore and Mac Rescue and rescue systems and all that, I started quite simply because I love the Mac and I wanted to come up With a way to make a living, you know, being involved with the Mac and Apple. And so I would ask myself, okay, am I able to do that? And yes, the answer is yes. And as long as the answer is yes, so this is why, you know, then I would kind of recharge myself and say, okay, great, I am achieving, you know, what I wanted to do. And, like, now it's a little different, you know, without a team surrounding me. I have remote people, but I don't have a group. And I'm walking through a building every day. And so sometimes it's a little quiet and I look, okay, well, is this where I want it to be? And I say yes. I get to work up in my studio up the hill from my house. I'm looking out, I got a great view. I get to walk down and have lunch. I mean, there's so many benefits that you just often have to remind yourself of how good you actually have it. You know, in those little successes that you have, even if you're going through a rough, rough time, thinking of those successes can help refocus you on what you need to be doing and move your. Move yourself forward. If you're in a rut, go back a few episodes. We did a, you know, a show, which I love talking about, how to get out of a rut and push yourself forward.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I like, I like. And, you know, there's nothing wrong. Like, I like, take that question you asked, like, why. Why did I do this? And as long as you can answer that question, you know, does this still work today? Yes. But if you answer no again, it, you know, it doesn't mean failure. It means that you're being smart and you have to evolve your business. Like, to think that you could create a business that's going to do one thing this way and that's going to last, you know, more than five years, let alone, you know, 20, is crazy, right? So, you know, being able to say, okay, cool, I started the business. My goal, the overall goal, like, for you was, I like the Mac. I want to work in this business. Okay, cool. Well, that. Live. That gives you a lot of freedom, right, To. To choose different. It's pretty broad, right? Yeah. So it gave you a lot of freedom. And, you know, you did. You evolved that thing over time many different ways and different permutations of it and. And that. But coming back to that, like, okay, you don't need to be married to the execution of the way you do things today that can and will change.

Oh, absolutely. And the part about success, too, is very broad. It's like, okay, well, I didn't say I wanted to become fabulously wealthy by working with the Mac. I just wanted to be able to live. And I think that a lot of folks, where they stumble is they put this big goal of success out in front of them that actually can stop them from doing things and stop them from either starting a business in the first place because they think, wow, I gotta make, you know, 20 grand a month or whatever it is, you know, this, that. And I was talking with a friend of mine who's trying to get something going on the side, and he's got a great job. He's like, yeah, I gotta get something going that could do in the evening. Da, da, da, da. And we had this conversation. I said, well, yeah, figure out how to make a thousand bucks. Figure out how to walk out your door or, you know, sit down at your computer. How are you gonna make an extra thousand bucks a month?

Yep.

Most people can't do it, but you, when you talk to people that like, well, I can't do anything with a thousand bucks. I need to make 10,000 or I need to make five or whatever.

A thousand is on the way to 10. That's right.

So, you know, don't overlook your small successes. You know, we've talked about the success list on the show, and that can help focus you too. It's like, yeah, maybe I'm not where I want to be, but. But look what I have achieved in the last 12 months or whatever it is. 18 months. And, you know, keep building on those small successes over time, and, you know, you kind of just stack them up and that leads to, you know, ultimately, I think, where you want to be.

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

That's my tips and, you know, the. My tips and tricks for the Focus thing. And we'd certainly love to hear what, you know, our listeners have to say. Feedbackusinessshow.co. or if you just want to chat, we'd love to talk with you on the phone. Send us an email, reach out at. On the Facebook support group at BusinessShow Co Facebook, and let's talk.

Let's talk. It's great. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks so much for listening, folks. Thanks for taking time out of your day to focus on what we're trying to tell you here, and hopefully it's helpful. We really. We enjoy doing this, and we enjoy doing it for you. Keep living that charm life, everybody. Yeah.

Part. This is part of our charmed life. So we thank you for indulging us.