My Quarantine Epiphany

This epiphany for deep, focused work really solidified itself while we were under quarantine during COVID-19.

I was having to learn to work from home, like so many of the entrepreneurs I know. 

Or better yet like my wife had done for years.

Sarah owns a bookkeeping business and she would always tell me how difficult it was during the summer, because our three children would take turns interrupting her day. 

For a bookkeeper interruptions, means administrative mistakes, like putting the decimal in the wrong spot.

Well, now I got a taste of it. 

During those first few weeks of quarantine, I was helping dozens and dozens of entrepreneurs navigate SBA loan hell.  

Every day, one of my so-happy-not-to-be-in-school children would come bounding in to ask very important questions like, “Can I have a cookie?” or tell me, “Ava threw a sock at me!” 

Each time they would do that, I would get totally distracted and it would take forever to get back on track. 

By the way, it takes an average of about 25 minutes (23 minutes and 15 seconds, to be exact) to return to the original task after an interruption, according to Gloria Mark, who studies digital distraction at the University of California, Irvine.

I finally had a come-to-Jesus meeting with them and said they weren’t allowed to come into daddy’s office (the master bedroom) unless there was a really big fire or someone was bleeding profusely. 

After that little announcement by me, I remember thinking that I needed to research a question about the PPP loan.  Then I saw a news article about small business tips to surviving COVID-19; then I got a text from my one of my clients, which made me remember an interesting video that I wanted to watch; then I saw something in the video that made me remember I had a post on LinkedIn that I was super proud of and I wanted to see if got any likes or comments; then I noticed that I had two invitations to connect to people that I sort of knew and I clicked on their profiles to read more about them and one of them was local and for some reason that made me think about an email I was supposed to send; then when I opened my email there was another entrepreneur that had a question; then I started another tab in my browser to research that question….

And then it hit me.  

Each of these little thoughts and each of these distractions were just like my kiddos asking me one more question. 

Except the distractions I created weren’t sweet little faces that were hoping for just a little guidance from their dear ole dad. 

Nope.  They were just one more endorphin rush to the brain that led to absolutely nowhere.  Well, except for a frustrating day where I had been really busy, but accomplished very little.

Personally, I have always been big on time management and prided myself on it.  I would block out time on my calendar, turn off some of the notifications on my phone, and make some effort to not check email every 10 minutes.  I was ahead of most folks at least. However, I would still have way too many days, where I didn’t know what in the world I had accomplished.

I decided right then and there that every time I saw a notification (you know the redbox with the white number) I would picture one of my children’s faces asking me another question. 

 If I wasn’t willing to answer question after question to my kids, then that goofy little notification wasn’t going to get my attention either. 

Sure, I could rationalize that it’s the client of my dreams that was going to hire 100 people and make national news. 

In reality it’s just another black hole of a 45 minute set of distractions.  And I was tired of distractions. 

The same goes for every fleeting thought in my head.  

I don’t need the answer to, “I wonder how many people liked my post?” or “what is the latest breaking news on CNN/Fox News/whatever” right now.  

If it’s super important I’ll remember it later.  

And if it’s truly business-related and I know that I MUST KNOW the answer, I’ll simply write it down and make it a point to find out at the end of the day, when after I have spent my energy on more important topics. 

This decision has made a dramatic improvement in my production, creativity, and most of all my sanity. 

The real problem for our generation of entrepreneurs (or really anyone) is not the Democrats, Republicans, China, Russia, sitting too much, or what kind of mask you wear. 

The real problem is our complete inability to focus and actually think all of the way through a problem and creatively solve it.  

We are way too submissive to distractions and digital clutter.  

We have fully embraced being plugged into a giant machine and we don’t know or even seem to care about who’s running the show.  

If you want to run your own show, it’s time to unplug and take control. 

Try this tomorrow. 

Think of a problem that you would like to solve. 

Then spend 90 minutes thinking about it with nothing but a pen and paper. 

No phone, no computer, no music, and no podcast. 

Odds most of you won’t make it 90 minutes.  

Heck, I’ve seen people give up after 9 minutes and give excuses about how they work really well with more stimulation, i.e. scrolling endlessly on their phone and pretending it is research.  

But this is your chance. 

 

Everybody else is distracted with multitasking and made up emergencies.

 

There is a huge business and personal opportunity to do what means the most to you by diving deep into your work like nobody else will do.

 

 

 

 

 

This Is the Beginning, Not the End

 For the past 4 ½ months I’ve worked harder from home than I think I ever have in the office.

My email and phone have been blowing up with confused and frustrated entrepreneurs.

I have been on countless ZOOM conference calls and feel like I’ve read every article on SBA loans humanly possible.

I’m not feeling sorry for myself, because small business owners have been through 10x worse. 

I’m just stating the reality of the situation.

Now that the world is opening back up with people getting out and most likely the Payroll Protection Plan (PPP) loan will be changed to give more time to work through the forgiveness process, it may feel like we are coming to the end of this thing.

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but this is the beginning, not the end.

The recession will be real and it will be tough.

It’s like when the preacher baptizes a new Christian.  The preacher doesn’t say, it’s all over and you can coast from here on out.”  The preacher says, “Now is when the real work begins.”

During the Great Recession over a decade ago, Middle Tennessee lost several good businesses.  

They couldn’t generate enough revenue to pay fixed expenses, let alone for the business owner to feel like they were making the money they deserved.

However, several good businesses started then too.

·         Future Vision Energy (now Energy Lighting Services)

·         Green Village Recycling

·         Campione’s Taste of Chicago

·         Epic Events Centre

·         Café Rakka

And several more thrived, despite a down economy.

So what should you do?

I’m sure you’re over being told to just “pivot” or “every problem presents and opportunity.”

Both of those things are true, but sometimes the tone deafness of it makes you tune out altogether.

But there is something to changing your mindset.

Right now more than ever, you need to turn the TV off, put the phone away, and quit listening to your favorite angry radio/podcast host telling how things are worse than ever.

A)     You don’t have time for it.  You’ve got a business to run.

B)      It’s an energy suck and makes you anxious!

Unless, you plan on doing something meaningful with the information you obtain from the clickbait driven world we live in i.e., going to work for a local non-profit, sending money to a charity, peaceful protesting, writing your Congressman daily, etc., then you are just feeding your mind junk food.

Yes, I get that we have an obligation to be an informed citizen of the U.S., but that really only takes minutes a day and not hours.

Here’s the analogy that comes to mind.

The way we are “staying informed” is like, saying, “I’m hungry so I would be foolish not to eat.” 

But you’re not eating 2-3 healthy meals a day that are filled with fresh fruits and vegetables.

You’re snacking all day long on Doritos and Twinkies.  Lots of them!

Quit putting junk food in your brain!!!

So what should you do as a small business owner that is real and tangible?

·         Use that time and energy to reset your 2020 revenue goals. Literally, put pen to paper and write out what your revenue goals for the rest of the year MUST be in order to survive and/or get back on track to your original goals.

·         How many customers will you need to survive/thrive for the rest of the year?  What is you new average sale worth?  That will tell you how many customers you need each month to make this happen.

·         You’ll have to change your marketing in a lot of cases.  Be willing to set aside time on Tuesday and Friday afternoons and call people and ask for referrals and follow up on leads.  Send out good email marketing that people will find helpful and make them want to buy from you.  For some of you, social media is necessary, but also noisy right now, so pay close attention to what is working and quit spending time on the stuff that isn’t.  

·         Take this time to get your bookkeeping organized.  If you are unable or unwilling, talk to your CPA or bookkeeper.  This is not an expense you can afford to cut.

·         Decide on how many employees you truly need to move forward.  I understand that a lot of employees are making more money on unemployment versus working, but let me be blunt here.  This is a good time to upgrade employees in a few spots.  Unemployment is no longer 3%, so you can find possibly find someone else that has the right attitude to help you take your business forward. 

·         Be willing to streamline your business as much as possible and cut expenses that aren’t related to marketing.  Ask for deferrals and work out payment agreements.

And if you are overwhelmed and don’t know what to do, then just do one small thing. 

Even if you only take a piece of paper and pencil, write one sentence.  Make one phone call.  Send one email.

But do SOMETHING!

Your momentum is everything right now and you can’t just sit there.

As far as the TSBDC goes, we are currently forming partnerships with accounting, marketing, and human resource firms to help businesses get back on track.

Hopefully in the coming month or so, we will have real, in-person workshops and in another month or so even live, one-on-one counseling.

In the meantime, if you own a business and want to receive free, one-on-one confidential advising through email and/phone go to www.tsbdc.org and click on Request Advising.

Stay safe and let’s get to work!

 

Your Experience Can Lie to You

Malcolm Gladwell is one of the authors (Outliers, Blink, The Tipping Point) and podcasters (Revisionist History) that I really pay attention to. 

He has a unique way of looking at things from all angles. 

One thing that Malcolm Gladwell said in his book, Outliers, has really stuck with me.

He is credited with saying that you need 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. 

Here’s his quote:

“To become a chess grandmaster also seems to take about ten years. (Only the legendary Bobby Fisher got to that elite level in less than that amount of time: it took him nine years.) And what’s ten years? Well, it’s roughly how long it takes to put in ten thousand hours of hard practice. Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness.”

That doesn’t mean that 10,000 hours of practice will make you an expert, but it is a prerequisite to becoming an expert.

And this makes sense.

You can be good at what you do, but without years of practice, you won’t become an expert.

And while experience matters, unfortunately, our experience can also lie.

I’m a big believer in practice makes perfect.  But if you are practicing bad habits, they will eventually get set in stone and make you think you have perfected something.

For example:

In parenting – “Well, I raised three kids and none of them turned out to be ax murderers.” is a favorite statement by grandparents when giving out unsolicited advice to parents. 

They are saying that they’re advice should be used, because they are experts. 

And they think they are experts because you aren’t an ax murderer.  Seriously.

While they get credit for not raising ax murderers (not sure why that was the benchmark for Baby Boomers), there are 7+ billion people on planet Earth. 

The stork brought exactly zero of them. 

But you would have to assume that there aren’t 7+ billion people that could be considered experts, correct? 

That’s not to say that a lot of grandparents aren’t experts, but they can’t all be experts, simply because they were parents for a long time.

In your job – Have you ever had a boss that was in over their head?  It’s called the Peter Principle.

The Peter Principle is an observation that the tendency in most organizational hierarchies, such as that of a corporation, is for every employee to rise in the hierarchy through promotion until they reach a level of respective incompetence.

Simply having several years of experience in your job doesn’t mean you are necessarily great at your job. 

You may just be good enough not to get fired.  You know, like a C+ student.

In small your business – “We have 20 years of experience” is often a marketing strategy that is much overused. 

Yes, I want my insurance agent to have a lot of experience in reading policies, but I would prefer someone that is experienced AND good. 

It is quite possible that our experience is just good enough to keep you in the same place for 20+ years.

So how do you know if your experience is lying to you?

• Are your sales the same now as they were 5 years ago?
• Are you doing the exact same tasks that should’ve been already outsourced or do you have the same exact number of employees from 5 years ago?
• Are you doing the exact same thing in all areas of your business because “that’s the way we’ve always done it”?

If the answer is yes to any of those questions, your old experience may need to be tossed for some new experiences out of your comfort zone.

10,000 hours is only good if it leads to expertise.  It’s not good if it leads to complacency.

Oh, and the ax murderer parenting comment doesn’t apply to my parents or my in-laws…much😁.  

This Bad Habit Might Be a Good Thing

One of the worst habits we have in my household (well, I have) is comparing what we have to someone else has.

And there’s always someone with something nicerJ.

•          We got a 55 inch 4k TV, but…my sister-in-law got a 75 inch TV that has such a clear picture I thought that Derrick Henry was in their living room.
•          We went to the beach in the fall, but…another family we know owns their own beach house.  And a lake house.  And a cabin in the mountains.  And blah, blah, blah.

We are constantly comparing ourselves with others to measure how well we are doing. 

This is not a very healthy thing to do on an individual basis.

But…

This could be a good thing in your business!

No, you shouldn’t stress out if a competitor has a new product or just moved to a bigger location.

However, you should be comparing your Income Statement to the industry average.

Why?

“What gets measured gets done!”

For example:

•        If you are a restaurant owner what is your cost of goods sold (COGS), compared to other restaurants? The average is 37%.
•        If you are a landscaper, do you know what your payroll costs are compared to other landscapers? The average is 22.50% and revenue per employee is $72,347.
•        If you are a department store, do you know what your rent is compared to other department stores? The average is 5.36%
•        If you are a real estate broker what should you be spending on marketing compared to other brokers? The average is 3.52%

Small business owners do a good job of comparing their current business to what they did last year, however, they need to know how their Income Statement compares to the industry as a whole.

Common measurements are your costs-of-goods-sold (COGS), net profit margin, current ratio, percentage of expenses versus income, etc. 

Comparing against other businesses in your industry is a more accurate way to determine how well you are doing and what you could improve upon.

Below are some great places to find these types of benchmarks for your industry:

• Your CPA
•   www.bizstats.com
• Your trade association for your industry
• You could always contact your friendly TSBDC for this type of comparison, charles.alexander@volstate.edu 

p.s.

And if you just got a new smoker, I don’t want to hear about it.  Mine is just fineL.