Sometimes delays are important, but if you’re not adding value, then it is not good.

Some level of friction and delay are prevalent in virtually every business. Depending on what you are trying to achieve, they are not automatically bad things. There are times when deliberately slowing down (introducing delay to) an activity is the right thing to do. But where they are a result of poorly evolved processes, lack of training or resources, or lack of knowledge - it’s time to take action and remove them from your life!

How can we define Friction and Delay? Friction is whatever gets in the way of a smooth and uninterrupted flow of events. Think of sliding along a bench covered in sandpaper versus one covered with oil. Delay is adding time without adding value.

High levels of these in any business are expensive, leading to lower productivity, and higher costs.

Why do businesses tolerate these levels of friction and delay??

They are considered a cost of doing business.
Many business owners don’t know or realize that there is another way of doing things – a way that could really improve their business

The business suffers from inertia when it comes to improvements.
Inefficiencies cause significantly lower productivity as employees create workarounds to get the job done. Over time, the workarounds become the accepted process, and the opportunity for taking action on the source of the problem is forgotten

Too much time is wasted on dealing with the symptoms.
Many owners spend tremendous time and energy dealing with the results of delay and friction in their organizations without striking at the cause of the problems

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In September 2006 (for reasons too long to explain here), I had no internet or email access for 26 days. We all know how much we rely on these for running our business (and our lives), but it’s not until it’s actually taken away from you for an extended period that you realize the full extent of your dependence.

Needless to say for the first 2 weeks I was feeling very pressured about my inability to respond to client enquiries, communicate with people and generally get things done.

But what I did discover very quickly was how much actual work I was getting done because I didn’t have the email or internet to distract me! In fact, by the time 3 weeks had passed, I was really enjoying my extra freedom - yes freedom.

This experience truly opened my eyes to my own inefficiencies. Once you get over the feeling of being out of control you realize that you are actually very much in control. In today’s world we’re led to believe that we always need to be accessible - to our clients, our suppliers, family and friends. Not so. By choosing to control how frequently we communicate, and at what time, we put ourselves in the driver’s seat.

So now that I am back on line, I’ve made some significant changes. I would highly recommend them to anyone, particularly if you are strapped for time.

Turn off automatic send/receive on your email program

I used to have Outlook set up so it would check for new emails every 10 minutes. Really, I was just asking to be distracted. To turn this off (in Outlook) click on Tools, Mail Set Up, Send/Receive. Then uncheck the box “schedule an automatic send/receive every x minutes”. Now you can decide when you want to read your emails.

Download emails no more than 3 times per day (2 is even better)

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People’s lives today are jam-packed with great projects, ideas, to-do lists, errands, things we should do, things we could do, duties and obligations. No surprise then, that many of us feel we barely have time to do the things we have to do (or think we have to do), let alone spare time for fitting in anything extra.

Why do we insist on keeping ourselves so busy? We have trained ourselves to believe that to be busy improves our chances of success in this world. The “no pain, no gain” mentality. Also, our minds love to be active. For many high achieving types, taking “mental time out” is tantamount to laziness!

Being busy is not necessarily a bad thing – often we accomplish a lot in our busy lives. But when we get to a point where the level of activity is running our lives, it’s time to take some action! Ask yourself:

Why do I choose to take on all the things I do? Do I really understand what is driving these choices? What are the things I can’t do that I would like to, because I am too busy?

Enter the simplification process. It sounds deceptively easy but the reality is usually different. It’s hard to let go of things that you have invested time, money and emotions into.

I suggest people look at 3 areas:

Firstly, stop doing things – just stop. Pick 2 or 3 activities (like projects, committee memberships or DIY home activities) and decide not to do them. That’s the first big step.

Second, examine all the great ideas you have in your head – the things you keep thinking about that take up mental space (financial goals that have yet to come true, becoming a size ten, pipe dreams). You’ve done OK in your life without those things so far, and chances are that you’ll continue to survive. Give them up.

Third, reduce or eliminate your errands.

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Procrastination happens to the best of us. And we rationalise our action (or lack of action in this case) in so many ways.

The harsh reality is that procrastination is just a nice way of saying avoidance. Why do we avoid things? Simple - because we don’t enjoy them, or because they take us out of our comfort zone.

So instead of succumbing to the dreaded beast – try these tips for getting over the procrastination hurdle:

1. Be honest about why you are avoiding the activity. Is it fear, is it that you don’t get on with someone, is it because you have to deliver bad news and you’re not sure how to go about it?

2. Commit to doing it at a certain time. I usually do the things I like to avoid in the morning, so they are out of the way.

3. Prepare! If you need to write yourself a script, do it. If you need to have absolute quiet, switch off the phones for a couple of hours. Whatever it takes – set yourself up for success.

4. Just do it!

5. Reward yourself when you are finished – but only when you are finished. I reward myself by going out for coffee afterwards, or taking a break.

6. Appreciate the feeling of getting something done that would normally sit in your in-tray for ages.

7. Consider whether you should actually be doing this job. There are some things that we just aren’t suited to, or that we don’t have the expertise for. If the things you avoid fall into this category, consider outsourcing them to an expert.

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All organizations run projects from time to time. Yet more than half of all projects started fail their objectives. Why is this so? Read this article to discover ten things you can do to improve the chances of success with your project.

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GOAL SETTING

PART TWO

BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND:
Are you a goal setter? If you are not I hope you will be after you read this. Did you know that it is a proven fact that if you set a reasonable goal and read it two times a day that it is almost impossible that you will not accomplish your goal. If it is that simple why don’t we all do it? Well, who ever taught us how to do it? We have all set “NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS”. That is not what I am talking about here. I am talking about VISUALIZATION. I am talking about doing something about it not just resolving to do something about it.

GOAL SETTING - WHY DO IT:
Well first let me just give you a couple of examples to inspire you on. Several years ago there was an East German ice skater practicing at the Olympics. The lights went out and when they came back on SHE WAS STILL SKATING. Everyone asked her how she was able to skate in the dark. She said the lights made no difference to her. She and so VISUALIZED her routine in her mind that she could do it with the lights on or with the lights off. She knew every move perfect. Every time to start and stop, to slow and speed up. She could skate the routine best in her mind. That changed the entire Olympic world. After that they began to study the East German teams and realized that is why they were all winning so many gold metals. Remember that? WHY? Because they used visualization. They did it in their minds before they ever did it on the field.

Another example: In 1957 they took a survey of the graduating class at Yale University. One of the questions they ask in the survey was if they had written goals. Only 3% of the class said that they had written goals. They then looked up the surviving members of that graduating class 20 years later. Guess what.

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Recently, I received an announcement regarding a symposium for mid-career professionals on “Moving Up the Ladder.” Priced at $2,500, the three-day course was sponsored by a nationally respected business school.

Rather than tie up three days, here’s a 15-minute short course. First, the Executive Summary … Someone stole the ladder.

Today’s organizations are struggling to survive in fiercely competitive global markets. They’re restructuring, outsourcing, re-engineering, downsizing, subcontracting and forming alliances with friends … and enemies.

The plugged-in, turned-on Internet-driven marketplace has issued new mandates to every organization to make dramatic, sometimes drastic, changes. Successful firms find they need to be lean, agile and quick to respond. The result has been a leveling of the corporate structure. Middle management layoffs don’t even make the news any more. The thousands who find themselves suddenly without jobs wonder what the *&%$# happened.

Companies Struggle to Survive

What happened was, we changed the way we do business, and firms must adapt to survive. Companies around the globe are eliminating excess
baggage … abandoning bureaucratic practices … dramatically reducing the amount of time it takes to get things done. Organizations that don’t or won’t accelerate their change will disappear … many already have.

The same is true for business professionals at every level who work in this Information Age. Forget about moving up the corporate ladder. Focus on making you your career. The truth is, no one owes you or guarantees pay increases, promotions, a job or even a career future.

In 1995, one in five American employees had been with their employer less than a year. Two out of three, less than five years.

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Why do business owners work so hard for so little reward? Why aren’t more business owners having a great entrepreneurial lifestyle instead of working virtually every hour of business operation?

These are the important questions few self employed business owners are asking themselves. So just what is the point of owning a business if you work long hours for little reward and how can you change it?

There is something you can do and its to focus on one important number in your business and aim to improve it with all your effort and focus of attention. This one number when improve upon can make a dramatic difference to every aspect of your business and lifestyle.

And that number is your Net Profit Margin.

Too many business experts are talking about sales, or profit and not net profit margin. They are all missing the point. Here’s why…

Typically businesses are focused on growth, for growths sake. If they generate more customers they put on more staff, buy more equipment, stock up on products and all their overheads increase proportionally. Sure, sales go up, profit goes up but so do your costs and overheads. Before you know it there’s less money in the bank account after all that wonderful growth and busy-ness but the net profit margin hasn’t budged a percentage point, in fact the vast majority of times it has dropped down.

Look at the statistics for benchmarking, or talk to a dozen accountants and you’ll see the facts - 90% of all SME’s have a net profit margin of less than 10%, so at $1Million in total sales the overall net profit is less than $100,000. A figure hardly worth working 12 months as a business owner to get considering all the stress, responsibility and hard work they have to do for it.

But what happens if you don’t grow for growth sake, just because you have a demand from new customers and marketing?

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