How many tasks are you “managing” at one time? How effective are you while doing those things and how does multitasking impact your creativity? Join us this week on episode 106 of the Small Business Show and find out how your hosts deal with the urge to instantly respond to Slack posts and Messages.

Dave brings up the concept of Spotlighting vs. Multitasking after Shannon explains his typical method of quickly jumping in and out of many different tasks during the day. We also discuss ways to push back on distractions and how to bring back some of that missing downtime in your life.

Finally, since the guys love “Spotlighting” from one topic to another, you’ll here about the concept of allocating as much time to the news as it impacts your life. This proportional allocation can help to put things in perspective.

So, turn off all those distractions and listen in to this episode of the Small Business Show!

Chapters/Timestamps:

The post Evil Multitasking or Powerful Spotlighting to Manage Your Time – Small Business Show 106 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

The thought of even pretending to fail is anathema to your hosts on the Small Business Show. However, Dave came across the concept of the Pre-Mortem and the guys go all-in today to see how it works.

“A pre-mortem — also known as a premortem — is a managerial strategy in which a manager imagines that a project or organization has failed, and then works backward to determine what potentially could lead to the failure of the project or organization.”

Can you see why this kind of freaks us out? Your Purveyor’s of Positivity, your Champions of the Charmed Life don’t like to let the concept of failure get in the way of their ideas. This has worked for both Dave and Shannon for decades, launching new businesses and letting new ideas develop before they get squashed by negativity. But, we think this Pre-Mortem idea has some real value and on this episode of the Small Business Show, we turn the tables and tear into our own show using the pre-mortem technique.

So, how did we do? Listen in to find out and then jump over to our Support Group to share your thoughts on using a pre-mortem on your own business.

Articles mentioned:

Riskology: The Pre-Mortem: A Simple Technique to Save Any Project From Failure

1000 True Fans

The post Planning for failure? Use the Pre-Mortem technique to test your project or business concept– Small Business Show 105 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

If you had the choice, would you continue the traditions of a multi-generational business that provided decades of support for those that came before you? Or would you turn things upside down and commit to growing the business and challenging yourself (and your company) to embrace new technology, new customers and a new workforce?

If you are a Small Business Show listener, we think we know what your answer is.

Join us today as we spend some time with David Oliva of RD Appliance Service as he describes the journey from a self-employed entity founded over 50 years ago to a fast growing company that embraces change and challenges traditional methods to become the very best they can be.

During our interview, we covered a ton of great Small Business topics such as working with your spouse, expansion with new employees, raising your prices and finding a new high-end service niche and much more.

Listen in to episode 104 of the Small Business Show, then jump over to the SBS Support Group on Facebook to share your comments!

The post Small Business Interview with David Oliva of RD Appliance Service – Small Business Show 104 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

Jay Gentile has a passion for saving time, his clients as well as his own! What began as a mobile product repair business, led to SEO and web design and finally into application development and the BoosterBots family of marketing apps.

Join us today on the Small Business Show and learn how Jay made the transition from his first two businesses to ultimately creating a company that gives him the reward of helping people succeed along with the freedom and flexibility to lead his own Charmed Life. During the interview, we discussed leaving the corporate world to begin a new business, learning about SEO and PPC advertising to help clients and then using it to grow his own company and why following his interests has been so important.

We then jump into discussing the importance of telling your personal story when marketing your company, how to offer long term support on products sold with a one-time fee and sticking to niche markets where you can have a big impact.

Listen in to learn about BoosterBots success and more on this episode of the Small Business Show, then come over to the SBS Support Group to continue the discussion!

The post Small Business Interview with Jay Gentile of BoosterBots – Small Business Show Episode 103 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.

When Tyler Merritt noticed that his good friend was running a growing appliance repair business with no software to track accounting, schedules or workers, he did what good friends do: he offered to help build a customized application for the business.

The guys spent about a year putting together the app and since they figured that most small service businesses had the same problems, they decided to launch Field Harmony to help service companies manage all aspects of their operations.  The goal was to help their own business, contribute to the success of others and then use the revenue from Field Harmony to “purchase our time back from the world”.

On this episode of the Small Business Show, Dave and Shannon spend time learning about Tyler’s journey and what it took to get Field Harmony from an idea to an actual product that could be sold. We discuss partnerships, marketing, trusting your employees, the importance of asking potential customers if they would actually use your solution and much more.

Listen in and then share your thoughts on our Small Business Facebook group!

Chapters/Timestamps

The post Small Business Interview with Tyler Merritt from Field Harmony – Small Business Show Episode 102 appeared first on Business Brain - The Entrepreneurs' Podcast.