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Tame Your Email Inbox Forever

Is your Inbox overrun with unread messages? Are you using your Inbox as your to-do list? Are messages falling past the bottom of the screen, only to be lost forever? Do not fear, I’m here to help.

I am a neat freak. I have been ridiculed throughout my life for having a place for everything, and putting everything in it’s place. But more than once in my working life, my email Inbox has been a tragic mess by any standard. I see it every week in one clients office or another. Here are some ways to get on top of the problem, and make “Inbox Zero” a reality.

Declare Email “Bankruptcy”

This is exactly what you think. Pick a start date, highlight EVERYTHING before that date, and hit the delete button. This is clearly not the best way to organize your information, but chances are you are not going to go back and read or use those 2 year old emails anyway.

Create 3 simple Inbox folders

This is the system I use, and it has absolutely changed the way I process my messages. It is based on the book Getting Things Done by David Allen. In your Mail program (I use Apple Mail), go to Mailbox->New Mailbox.

menu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the “Name” field, type @Action. Do this two more times, creating @Waiting For, and Processed Mail. The “@“ symbol makes it sort properly. When you are done, it should look like this:

mailboxes

 

 

 

Now, it’s time to process your email. Go through each email (Touch it ONCE ONLY!), and do one of four things:

1) If you no longer need it, and know you will never need it again, delete it and don’t look back.

2) If you no longer need it, and but need it for future reference, drag it to the Processed Mail folder. With today’s advanced search functions, you can easily find it again if needed.

3) If it is something for which you are waiting on a response before you can act on it, move it to the @Waiting For folder.

4) If requires your action, move it to – you got it – @Action.

Work through your Inbox until it is empty – and I mean EMPTY. Now, with your messages sorted into the proper folders (and many deleted), you know where to go for the proper action. Once you achieve Inbox Zero, you will never go back, I promise. Let me know if these tips work for you, or feel free to add yours in the comments section.

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How To Be Profitable And Still Lose Your Business

How could this possibly be? If I’m showing a profit, isn’t my company doing well? Don’t I have money in the bank?

Not necessarily. The culprit is poor management of:

CASHFLOW

Failing to properly manage cashflow is one of the largest deficiencies I see in small businesses. I am constantly being told, “My books show that I made money this month. Why is my cash balance so low?” Failing to monitor cashflow will sink your small business faster than anything else. Cashflow is one of the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that is vitally important to monitor on a regular basis. Here are some tips that can help:

Cash does not equal profit

Cash = Money In – Money Out

Net Profit = Revenue – (direct costs + expenses)

Money in is not always revenue. Cash can come into a business from investments made to the company (equity), money paid back that had been previously loaned out (asset), or loans taken from a lender (liability). Likewise, the opposite is true. Money out can be something other than expenses. Repayment of loans, dividends to investors (like you, the owner), and loans made to others take cash out of the business, but have no impact on the net profit.

Expenses and direct costs aren’t always money out

If you receive a bill, such as a bill for utilities, and record it into your accounting system (you ARE doing that, right? Right?), it is registered as an expense, reducing net profit. However, the cash remains in your account until you pay the bill.

Revenue is not always money in

If you sell your product and services on credit, or simply send out invoices, the sales are recorded as revenue. But, depending on your average days to get paid, the cash may not come in for 60-90 days.

How do I fix this?

There are several tools available to you that can help manage your cashflow, and make sure there are no surprises. The first option is a simple Statement of Cash Flows. This should be readily available from within your accounting software, or your accountant can create one for you on a monthly basis. Another option is third-party software, such as LivePlan. LivePlan connects to your QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop, or Xero account. It gives you web-based, realtime metrics to monitor cashflow, and many other important budgeting and forecasting tools.

If you are looking for help with managing your cashflow, or simply would like some help getting setup with some of these tools, feel free to comment below, or send me an email.

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The First Steps to Begin Your Business

Continuing our series on beginning and running a small business, in this post I will touch on three first steps to take.

Structure

C-corp, S-corp, LLC? Many people make a mistake here by going too far. They think the first step to starting a business is to visit a lawyer, spending thousands of dollars, and filling out tons of paperwork. This is simply not the case. While there are times to seek legal counsel, if you are providing a service or selling a product you create at home, the steps can be quite simple. If your company name is different than your name, all you may need to do is file a single sheet of paper at the county courthouse called a D/B/A (for “Doing Business As – as in, John Smith d/b/a John’s GunSmithing”). In most cases, you do not need to create a new entity for tax filing, at least not as a startup.

Bank Account

This is a big one. I have known several people who have made this mistake. Keep a separate bank account for your business activity only. NO PERSONAL TRANSACTIONS! It is important to keep your personal and business activity separate, so you can know if you are making money and to avoid any “corporate veil” issues.

Accounting System

Whether it be QuickBooks Online, FreshBooks, or some other software package, it is imperative to have a tool for analyzing your information. You can have great fun selling your product and building your empire, but if you don’t know your most basic financial numbers, you could be in big trouble. At a minimum, you should know your cash on hand, accounts receivable, and accounts payable.

Like most things, putting down a solid foundation helps ensure success in the long run. Start with these building blocks, ask for help when needed (I’m around), and let’s get started! Leave a comment below with anything you think should be considered a first step.

 

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2 Ways To Protect Your Personal Information This Holiday Season

As we go about continuing our series on starting and running a small business, I wanted to take a break to share some resources that focus on keeping your personal information safe. These also have the added benefit of helping reduce junk mail and keeping you out of debt. Sound to good to be true? Take a look at these:

www.donotcall.gov. This is the National Do Not Call Registry. If you register your phone number (I registered my entire family) on this list, it keeps telemarketers from cold-calling to solicit you. The process is quick and simple. It will not stop calls from charities, surveyors, or companies with which you have an existing business relationship, but it can dramatically reduce the number of solicitations you get. Not to mention annoying phone calls during dinner! Many of these calls are not even legitimate businesses, and many people (especially the elderly) have been scammed out of their personal data.

www.optoutprescreen.com. This one is my favorite. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the Consumer Credit Reporting Companies are permitted to include your name on lists used by creditors or insurers to make firm offers of credit or insurance that are not initiated by you. The FCRA also provides you the right to “Opt-Out”, which prevents these companies from providing your credit file information for these offers. Simply put, if you Opt-Out, for five years you will not receive unsolicited credit offers tempting you to go into debt. Again, I Opted-Out my entire family.

During the holiday season, you can never be too careful with you personal information. Use these two resources, and sleep a little better at night. If you would like some additional tools for running your small business, get a copy of my free e-book 30 For 30: 30 Tools to Take Your Small Business to the Next Level. Leave a comment below and share with the rest of us a way you protect your personal information. Click the share buttons to share this with anyone else.

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What Kind Of Business Should I Start?

Did you quit your job yet? Not yet? Good! Before you pack up your desk, let’s make sure we have a plan. Don’t step off the dock before you have at least one foot in the boat.

You will hear many people tell you to “follow your dream” or “find your passion”, and it is largely true. You should find work in life that you love and go after it with your whole heart. But don’t be fooled. Desire is not enough. You must also be competent at that desire. And, most importantly, there must also be demand for what you are selling. Your dream career will be at the crossroads of your Desire, your Competency, and market Demand.

So how to you decide what that is?

In his book 48 Days to the Work You Love, Dan Miller suggests you “gather flowers from those within reach”. Think for a minute – what do you do to relax after work or on weekends? What is your greatest area of service to your fellow man? What activity energizes you, rather than making you feel drained when you are finished? Start there. Do you tinker with old cars? Be a vintage vehicle shade-tree mechanic. Collect guns? Become a gunsmith. Love to paint? Paint small 5×7 landscapes and sell them on Ebay. I know of a woman who enjoyed making gift basket arrangements, so she started a business to serve people on the Labor and Delivery wings of hospitals. Start with things you know about now, and work outward from there.

It is important that you also be good at this endeavor. Trust me, you don’t want me painting landscapes. My brother is a great Emergency Physician, but don’t let him touch your computer. Competency in your field will help set you apart from the crowd. Where do your knowledge, skills, and abilities intersect? What have you always been told you were good at? Look there.

Lastly, having a desire and competency for something is great, but if no one wants to buy it (or if you don’t know how to monetize or market it well – a later post) you will not succeed. The old saying, “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door” is not only horribly dated, but it is no longer true. You have to demonstrate that your product or service will meet the needs of the market. You need a platform. Serve well, and you could be rewarded with what Rabbi Daniel Lapin calls “certificates of appreciation” that look suspiciously like dollar bills.

So, dream for minute or two. Then, leave a comment below saying what type of business you think fits your desire, competency, and market demand. Writing it down is the first step into that boat. Join the journey.