How to be more efficient

First, get motivated: As the saying goes, “if there’s a will there’s a way.” Motivation is key for anything. If you want anything bad enough you’ll do what you have to do to get it. Every other efficiency tip is a “way” but the will must be there to do anything. Believe in yourself and get excited about your vision. Some great resources on Reddit’s Motivation and LifeProTips pages.

Next, schedule time well: The most successful people in the world have the same 24 hours as everyone else. Although there are thousands of time saving tips, here’s one that I found to be very helpful: schedule calls. How often do you call someone or receive calls while they/you are in the middle of something? It takes a typical office worker an average of 25 minutes to return to the original task after an interruption. When you know a call is coming, you can have whatever materials, questions, etc. prepared beforehand. This brings me to my next point…

Then, declutter: An organized desk, computer desktop, etc. allows you to quickly find what you’re looking for. It also helps you concentrate because there are fewer things out there to grab your attention. If you don’t need it, file it or throw it away. If you’re not sure, scan it and save it in the cloud. Now you have it everywhere and nowhere (very zen, huh). Ultimately, you’ll need a clean space to work. Now that you’re prepared to work, this brings me to my last point…

Lastly, work focused: Now that you’re working, you have to maximize your work-time. One thing that works very well for me is listening to music. Not just any music, for me I like non-lyrical, medium-fast tempo, instrumental music. Spotify has great playlists that I follow. Hours of crunching numbers on excel and reading industry reports for my clients goes by faster when I’m listening to focus music.

Here are some more efficiency increasing tips in my article.

April 11, 2016

12 businesses you can start now

12 businesses you can start right now dog walking

Here’s an interesting article from Inc. Magazine about 12 businesses anyone can start right now. The reason why many people can do these is that they can have low barriers to entry (e.g. startup costs, regulatory hurdles, etc.), moderate competition, and decent industry growth potential. The list is:

1. Meditation studio

2. Consulting

3. QA testing

4. Online research

5. Virtual assistant

6. Corporate cleaning service

7. Dog walking

8. Lawn care and snow removal

9. Homemade gourmet foods

10. Green consulting

11. Assembling Ikea furniture

12. Personal organizer

The article misses the most important thing: Passion. That is why entrepreneurship is NOT for everyone. If you’re going to start a business, you have to be willing to work very, very hard at it. So if dog walking is your calling, go out there and make some money!

April 10, 2016

Be like water

April 9, 2016

Be an “overnight” success

March 23, 2016

Do not be among the walking dead

Ben Franklin is a world-class intellect in both books and in life

January 20, 2016

The Importance of Bootstrapping

The importance of bootstrapping cannot be emphasized. Most businesses fail because of a lack of cash and bootstrapping’s main objective is to do the most with the least amount of cash.

Bootstrap – adjective

A situation in which an entrepreneur starts a company with little capital. An individual is said to be bootstrapping when he or she attempts to find and build a company from personal finances and/or from the operating revenues of the new company.

“The business was a bootstrap operation for the first ten years.”

Most startups do not have a bunch of cash lying around. The importance of bootstrapping is all the more critical for them. Businesses have to make do with what little they have. We often tell our clients that as the CEO/Founder, they are also the janitor. One potential client wanted to hire a marketing manager for her startup. Hiring a marketing manager was vastly beyond her revenue allowance. She should have allowed us to consult on how to manage her own marketing campaign. She then could’ve saved a fortune by being her own marketing manager.

The temptation to abandon bootstrapping is strong, especially when investors come knocking. One of my clients attracted large investors with a business plan I had prepared for him. Initially, I budgeted a modest salary for him in the financial projection. He saw that there was a good amount of retained earnings (something investors want to see) and had since budgeted a larger salary for himself. I had to tell him to reduce his salary. I am not alone in emphasizing this sentiment:

A red flag goes up for Mark [Cuban] when a Shark Tank contestant says that he’d be comfortable with a six-figure salary. Ultimately, Mark and all the other sharks walk away from the deal.
Serial entrepreneur Neil Patel, founder of Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics, reflects on how glad he was keeping a $5,000/mo. salary even after raising $4,000,000 in seed and series A rounds for KISSmetrics.

Your Startup Guru advised a client to pay himself less and take in dividend income instead because it is taxed at a lower rate. In business, cash is king, and the CEO doesn’t want to be the kingdom’s worst drain.