Mini-Biz Buzz

As you know, I’m a big supporter of DIY (do-it-yourself).  Sometimes it’s your only option, especially in the early stages of business.  There are tons of books, courses, seminars and webinars out there, covering everything from PR to accounting.  And many of these are good.  But even if you learn everything and understand what needs to be done, there are only so many hours in the day. 

Frequently, after taking a course, we realize we don’t have the time or interest in handling the tasks ourselves.  When this happens, we are inclined to hire the person that taught the course.  There’s nothing wrong with that, but assess your time and personality before shelling out money for anything. If you think might hire a professional in the end, don’t waste your money on the DIY course.  Instead, put it toward hiring a professional. 

If your budget won’t allow for that, and your schedule won’t allow for you to do everything, there is an alternative.  Take DIY courses and/or read some books, and then hire a temporary assistant, virtual assistant, or bookkeeper to do certain things for you. 

Once you know the what, how and why of certain business activities, you can direct someone to do what you would be doing (if you had the time) at a fraction of the cost of hiring a professional.  The more you know, the less likely you are to overpay for relatively simple tasks, or to hire an unqualified person.  Learn as much as possible about all aspects of your business.  Then do what you can, and farm out the rest.  Taking this approach will save you some money, and keep you from hating your business.

When you are in the beginning stages of building your business, there is a very good chance you are doing most, if not all, of the tasks yourself. You are in charge of product or service creation, sales, bookkeeping, shipping, and more. And don’t forget laundry, taking care of your kids and making dinner. The natural inclination is to multitask, but you may just be making things worse.

 
Research shows that our brains can only focus on one thing at a time. You can probably handle a couple of basic things at one time, like grating cheese and talking to your mom on the phone, but not several things that require concentration.

Experiments that measured brain activity during multitasking have shown several different negative effects. First, regions of the brain that specialize in visual processing and physical coordination are activated, leaving less energy for the areas that are used for learning and remembering. Basically, you are just processing the information.  There is little comprehension and you are probably not committing anything to memory. Second (and I think much worse), increased levels of stress related hormones are present during multitasking. Stress realated hormones are very hard on the body, so multitasking is unhealthy.

You will have much more success, and a greater sense of control, if you build a clear and manageable to-do list. Then work your way through it, one task at a time. You’ll actually get more done, and more out of what you do finish. If you need a little help, here’s a link to my previous post about time management.