Small Biz Ahead | Small Business | Starting a Business

Have you ever walked into a networking event and walked right back out for fear of embarrassing yourself? Or fear that you wouldn’t find anyone to talk to? Networking is scary, but if you’re a small business owner, you’ve gotta do it. Today on the podcast, hosts Elizabeth Larkin and Gene Marks discuss how to

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Welcome to another episode of the Small Biz Ahead Podcast. Sign up for the weekly newsletter so you never miss an episode. Do you have a question you'd like Elizabeth and Gene to answer? Submit your question to the Small Biz Ahead Podcast.

In this episode, Elizabeth Larkin, managing editor of Small Biz Ahead and small business owner and columnist Gene Marks discuss the article:

How I Manage Myself So I get Stuff Done

Gene: Elizabeth how are you?

Elizabeth: I'm great how are you?

Gene: I'm doing good so far but the day is early yet.

Elizabeth: The coffee is not done yet. Whether you're operating as a sole proprietor you're managing a team of employees your business’s most valuable asset is your time and Gene you recently wrote an article for us detailing how you get stuff done and most of it is really about how you manage yourself.

Gene: Correct.

Make Your List Your Way

Elizabeth: So let's go over some of your tips from the article. The first one is that you make a list every single day. Now what do you like about making a list?

Gene: And remember Elizabeth when we you know we talk about people that are managing themselves and trying to be productive sometimes it's like the person it's like you're almost like born with the ability you'd like to have that trait about you. So I like I've always been a list maker so whoever's listening to this podcast you have to look at yourself and ask am I a list maker as well as at the kind of person that I am because that's what I am. I mean I have I have two lists that I followed every day. I have a manual notebook that I carry on with me it's a composition book and throughout the day as like things come up I'm constantly adding to like his running list of things that need to be done. I'm following at all I'm always referring back to that list of things I need to follow up on. And the second list I have Elizabeth is I have a CRM system so I use a product called gold mine my company sells five CRMs so you should have a CRM system or even just if using outlook or Gmail something where you have tasks that you can schedule you because I have my lists my CRM system of people to call back and emails to send. So I have these two lists of sort of things to do when other words like projects to follow up on things not to forget and I have this other list in my CRM system of calls and emails that I'm sending. Sometimes when I'm using my manual list I'm like I'm talking you Elizabeth and your like hey Gene make sure you give me a call next week I may make a note of that of my manual list then when I get back to my CRM system I'll put it in there as well so that it never falls through the cracks, but it's lists, lists, lists there is always like stuff your to do you I've always got things that are sort of pending I'm so I know nothing falls through the cracks for important to me.

Prioritizing Your Task List

Elizabeth: Now how often do you go back and prioritize that list because calling me next week might not be the most pressing project that you have for that day.

Gene: Yeah it's a really good question I mean you know it’s funny different people different ways of prioritizing their own lists. I don't. I mean what happens is that whatever ends up on my list at any given point of time I'm always scanning that list you know or even if ...

Listen now to the Small Biz Ahead Podcast: Welcome to another episode of the Small Biz Ahead Podcast. Sign up for the weekly newsletter so you never miss an episode. Do you have a question you’d like Elizabeth and Gene to answer? Submit your question to the Small Biz Ahead Podcast. In this episode, Elizabeth Larkin, managing editor […]