Earlier this month I was guest speaker at the meeting of the Mums in Business Association (MIBA) Durham and Teesside branch and I shared with them a few things I’ve learnt in the corporate world that have really helped me in my own business.
Now those of us who’ve set up our own businesses often focus on the things we want to do differently from our day jobs, and usually these things include having more freedom, more flexibility, answering to ourselves, choosing who we spend time with, all of those types of things.
But it’s important to recognise that those of us who have a day job are usually* employed by a successful business and so there are a lot of learnings we can take from those businesses and apply to our own to help us be successful too.
The first area I covered was a way of working known as agile. Now, it’s originally from a project management methodology but it’s fair to say aspects of agile are used interchangeably with the aim of speeding things up (“can we be more agile?” usually translates as “can we do it faster?” in my experience!). Going faster is only good if you’re headed in the right direction, so really understanding why you’re doing what you’re doing is the first step.
As an example, writing a blog post is only helpful if you know why you are writing it, what message you want to share, and why your reader needs to hear that. When you ask yourself those questions, you get really clear on the purpose and value of the action you are taking, which makes it much easier to take the action, and know when it’s done.
When you know why you are doing something, you can then think about the value of that outcome. In most jobs and businesses (and in life!) there is usually far more to do than time allows. I have long lists of tasks and ideas but I don’t get lost in them because I prioritise them based on that value. It’s not an exact science, but by asking myself “why am I doing this?” helps me focus on the outcome, and the value of that outcome. When we focus on outcomes we get stuff done.
One of the principles of agile that I think is key for those new to business is the focus on tangible outcomes. What that means is that your time is focused on working to complete a specific output that adds value. In practice this means that instead of saying “I’m going to work on my business all weekend” we say “I’m going to create X” where X can be a blog post or an email to your subscribers for example. You have something tangible at the end that confirms you’ve done what you said you would, which is the result of the time you’ve spent working. Doing it this way round focuses you on doing the right things, those that add value, and even better, you finish the things that you start. The process forces you to produce, and to be productive you need to produce! And scrolling through social media, well we all know that’s not productive.
When we talk about agile we also often use the acronym MVP which stands for minimum viable product. Which sounds far more complicated than it is. All it means is asking yourself what is the least that can be done for this tangible deliverable to be of value. So taking an email to your subscribers, your MVP might be an email that shares something helpful with them. It’s like stripping what you’re doing back to basics. You don’t need a logo to send an email out. You don’t need a fancy email signature. You don’t need to write 5 well thought out paragraphs. They *might* add extra value but you don’t necessarily need them and if you let the absence of them stop you sending the email then you’re blocking the value that your customer might get if you just sent the no frills version out. Your customer might really need to hear that, today.
Another of the principles of agile is iteration. Basically, get a good enough something done and out there, and then make incremental changes to make it better. I did this with my website, tweaking it regularly and adding pages as I went along. Sometimes it’s easier to see what changes we need to make when we have a starter for ten version.
Taking this approach also helps us to stop procrastinating and seeking perfection. One of the biggest problems I see in my clients is they don’t get stuff done because they don’t think it’s good enough. Putting stuff out there that you’ve created makes you vulnerable, to people commenting, judging, and criticising.
It’s not easy, I know that. As I write this I’m in exactly the same position! I’m doubting myself, questioning who am I to write about this, expecting criticism even. Completely irrational but from an evolutionary perspective our fears are there, whether founded or not, to keep us safe. I get past these by knowing why I’m writing something, and what the value is (to share ideas that other people might find helpful when setting up a side business, so that they take action and don’t procrastinate!), I know what my deadline is (more on that later) and I know that it’s a message people want to hear as the lovely MIBA audience kindly gave ace reviews when I shared it with them too.
And you know what? There’s a saying about people who are critical always reserving the most criticism for themselves, so I like to remind myself of that when I worry about what others think. But honestly, not everyone will like what you write. And that’s okay. It doesn’t make it less valuable to those that do.
Anyway back to agile and another of the aspects of it which helps avoid procrastination and perfection and that’s time boxing. Basically chunking down the work you need to do into manageable amounts. So whatever the tangible deliverable is, finishing a good enough version of it within that allocated time. It’s human nature to work to a deadline, and it’s something I use to help me get stuff done.
This is exactly what I do:
1. Work out what my tangible value-adding deliverable is. For example, writing a blog.
2. List all the steps I need to take to do it. Using the blog example again that would include everything I need to do to get that blog finished, from decide on the topic, do research, write key points, proof read, post it.
3. Assign a time to the steps I’ve listed, basically how long should each one take.
4. Group them into timeslots that I work in, so usually for me that’s 40 minutes.
5. Schedule the timeslots into my diary, so I know when I’m going to get these all done.
Once this is done, I know that I’m going to meet my deadline and time won’t run away with me because I’ll be focused on what I need to do in the time that I have. Now yes, sometimes life gets in the way, but once I’ve done the work to decide when this all slots in, it’s much harder to procrastinate or give up the time to do something, because it’s a hard plan with a finite amount of time associated with each task.
So I think I’ve banged the drum enough about agile, so swiftly moving on to something that absolutely complements it, Lean. Lean started in the manufacturing industry and is used widely in business these days to drive efficiency. One of the aspects of lean that works very nicely with agile is called flow. It’s that state you’re in when you’re focused on one thing and nothing is going to distract you, you’re fully absorbed in what you’re doing.
When you’re in the state of flow, you do great work. The problem is that in these modern times where technology is constantly buzzing, and distractions are aplenty, we suffer regular interruptions and our work can suffer as a result. For years we’ve worn multitasking as a badge of pride, but neuroscience has proven that we’re not actually doing multiple tasks at once, we’re instead switching from one to the other. And repeatedly switching our focus takes up significantly more brain power.
The key to getting in flow is to remove all the distractions. Turn off notifications. Put your phone somewhere you can’t see it. Ideally take yourself off somewhere you can’t do anything else. I have an office at home but if I want to do great work, I go to my gym and sit in the quiet area and find time flies and I’m focused and productive. Before I know it I’ve tackled whatever was challenging me and I’ve created something I’m proud of. That’s flow. Use flow to create the tangible value-adding deliverable and it’s probably going to be better quality too.
Another fundamental part of Lean that I swear by is simplification. So many clients that I work with overcomplicate things unnecessarily, so if that’s you, then stop. Please. Whatever your business is, whatever it is you’re doing, make it as simple as you can. Don’t learn this the hard way. Trust me, it’s painful.
Another lesson I shared from the corporate world was what gets measured gets done. In most of the jobs I’ve had (not all, see the asterisk again!) there have been targets and tracking against those targets. I’ve had it drummed into me over the years that metrics matter, and whilst I didn’t always appreciate the importance, in my own business I make it a priority. I know my audience size, my conversion rates, you name it and I can tell you what it is, and what I want it to be.
Regular progress reviews are also important. I like to work out my long term goals, then break them down to an annual goal, and break that down on a monthly basis. I find a month is a good amount of time, I’ve tried measuring progress daily and weekly and find these too often, they take up time that can be better spent doing something more value adding, but that’s just my opinion.
Right, that was a lot of information, so a quick recap for you!
- Prioritise based on value
- Focus on creating something tangible and finish it, even if it’s an imperfect version
- List your actions and schedule them in
- Rid yourself of distractions and work in flow
- Give yourself a deadline
- Make everything as simple as possible
- Be specific about what you want
- Measure progress regularly
I hope you found this article helpful. I’d love to know if you have any more tips so please let me know in the comments!
*I say usually because I was reminded recently of a job I had working for a company who were privately owned and had made a loss for 11 years in a row when I joined them, and suffice to say I didn’t singlehandedly turn it around! The finance director wasn’t concerned about this and didn’t think I should be either, but I was! Surely the point of working in a business, either your own or as an employee, is to make it successful and that includes positively impacting the bottom line 🤷♀️
