Is Your Business A Pain, Or A Pleasure... Written by Noel Peebles
If your business is successful, then chances are you have poured most of your time, energy and spare money into it - for what may have seemed like forever. Your company may have become your life . . . an extension of yourself. Can you really imagine life without it? Is your family dependent on your business? Do you discuss it around dinner table? Is your business an education and training ground for your children... a way for them to gain some working experience and earn some pocket money? Could it be that your business is like a member of your family? On other hand, is your business a ball and chain around your neck which you can’t wait to get rid of? Or, when you first started, did you only intend to stay a short time and things sort of never turned out that way? Whatever your situation, selling your business will be one of most important things you’ll ever do. It’s very important that both you (and your family), and your company are ready to make change. And it could be a big one! For starters, you must be prepared to hand over reins of ownership and management to someone else. You must accept that they might do things to your business that you would never have dreamt of doing. They may replace all your staff, they may change marketing focus. They may even grow your business to great heights you always hoped for but never quite achieved. On other hand, they may destroy everything you’ve built up.
| | When Your To-Do List is Longer than Your DayWritten by Jean R. Charles
Time management is not about managing time. Time is a constant, it does not change. The only thing we can change is management of ourselves. So, if it's end of day and you're only halfway through your To-Do list, it is time to upgrade your self-management skills.Are you being efficient as opposed to being effective? People typically do small easy tasks first and often run out of time to then handle larger more difficult and maybe more important items. Are there some days that you get through your list and feel like you haven't been productive, and other days when you complete only 2 or 3 items and feel very accomplished? Those 2 or 3 things were probably important ones. The important tasks are ones that move you toward your goals. These should be your priorities. The question to ask yourself is "What is most effective thing I can do right now?" As you go through your list, you have choices of actions you can take with each item. One system that works well is 3D system - Do it, Delegate it, or Dump it. The Do items are those important priority items - your priority. Do them now. Do them completely. Completion is important, as most people spend major amounts of time and energy on things that were not previously handled completely. Everything from a cluttered office to damaged relationships are examples of incompletions. How much time is spent looking for misplaced papers in that clutter, or thinking about what you should have said to that person? If these things had been taken care of completely in past, a lot more time and energy would be available to handle your priority items in present. Awareness of what is not complete in your life is a good first step to becoming more effective. An assessment tool called "Clean Sweep" lists 100 common incompletions in areas of Physical Environment, Well-Being, Money, and Relationships. It can give you a good indication of what areas of your life need attention. You can choose to delegate some of important items on your list, when you know that someone else can do them as well or better than you can. Know your strengths and surround yourself with people who are strong in your weaker areas; then delegate.
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