5 Steps to Better Focus

An entrepreneur's perpetual to-do list can be daunting.  In fact, you could probably spend an entire day just creating and prioritizing to-do lists. For me, this process manifests itself in the daily prioritization of tasks. In order to make sure that I spend as little time as possible deciding "what to do" instead of actually "doing," I've – through trial and error – developed a vetting process and come up with some guideposts to help me weed through the never-ending morass of tasks in order to bring it from its scarily overwhelming hypothetical state of "need to do" and into the wonderfully satisfying state of "done."

Sometimes your daily tasks can look as frenetic and disjointed as this communal painting that over 100 people contributed to over 3 hours at our ArtJamz Underground Studio opening in Crystal City. (Photo credit: ArtJamz, 2013)

WILL IT DRIVE REVENUE
One of the positives of bootstrapping / self-financing is that you don't have millions of dollars of angel or VC money to blow through – your choices are constrained and focused because of budgetary limitations. Of course, one of the negatives about bootstrapping / self-financing is also that you don't have millions of dollars of angel or VC money to blow through. This means that your decisions should be driven by the bottom line. Essentially, if I'm looking at 10 things to do, I ask myself "which project is going to lead to revenue generation the fastest?" Cash flow is king ... or queen.  One draw back is that this question tends to get applied mostly to short-term operational must-haves, such as inventory and restocking of merchandise. For example, we serve wine at the studio and sell merchandise. If we run out of those, we don't make money selling wine and merchandise. So, the task "restock wine and merchandise inventory" fits squarely under the "will it drive revenue" filter and gets bumped up the "importance totem."

IS IT LUXURY OR NECESSITY?
I applied this mantra liberally during two recent build-outs of ArtJamz studios, but it applies to the daily operations of the business as well. Just ask yourself, is this something we "really need" or  can we get by with our current system / situation? Yes, we needed a refrigerator for our wine. Could we use a $4,000 bar back refrigerator? Sure. Did we need one that expensive to get done what we needed to get done. Nope. We found a solution for $400 that works just fine. We could have easily spent $250K on the new ArtJamz studio build-out. We spent about $30K. People love it. We're doing just fine. Using the criteria, I have kicked a few large projects down the road a bit – one such project is the implementation of a new POS system.  We need a new POS system, badly. One that is cloud-based and scalable across multiple franchises and enables us to operate like restaurant, with assigned tables, tabs, tipping, etc. etc. I found one I like. Took about a year of research. But it's very expensive and will take about two months to fully integrate with our staff as well as back-end accounting system. Our current POS – a $29 app – works just fine for now.  We will eventually switch over in the next few months, but there were other "will it drive revenue" issues I decided to focus on first as I deemed the new POS as a "luxury" instead of a "necessity," which it will eventually become.

IS SOMETHING DUE?
If you're growing and expanding chances are you are spending a lot of money and you have multiple vendors to whom you owe money – inventory, legal, accounting, taxes, etc. etc. The list is never-ending. Obviously, if something is due, it gets put on the top of the to-do totem. Stay current. Stay in the green. Pay your bills and handle your responsibilities on time.

IS IT SOMETHING YOUR TEAM  IS PINING FOR? 
One of the many traps a business owner can fall into is retreating into hubris and amusing you know what's best for your business 24/7. In the case of ArtJamz, where we have a retail location that I'm not at 80% of the time, it's important to listen to your team who are in the trenches and operating the location and interacting with your brand and customers on a daily basis. When they come to you and say "We really need to XYZ." Listen to them. Evaluative. And then get it done and implemented.

WILL IT LAY THE SEEDS FOR FUTURE GROWTH?
The "will it drive revenue" question above tends to get hijacked by immediate short-term needs. But, an entrepreneur solely focused on the operations of the here and now will lose the big picture and slip when it comes to strategic thinking. Long term projects that create additional revenue streams also fit under the "will it drive revenue" question and shouldn't be drown out by immediate needs. I'm currently spending a lot of time building two new revenue generating initiatives: The ArtJamz Academy – an online crowdsourced art-class marketplace and our Artz Bazaar – a more digital way to sell art. Both will generate new revenue for us. I deemed the time, resources and investment needed to incubate and develop these additional revenue streams as crucial to our long-term survival. So, these projects get bumped up the important totem pole too.

Whatever system works for you is up to you. But don't get overwhelmed by your task list. Find a consistent way to evaluate what's important and then allocate a set and consistent amount of time each week getting them done. Trust me, all will get done if you keep chipping away at it. And remember, it won't get done in one day, so, for goodness sake, save time for having fun and kicking it with your loved ones and friends – this should always be at the top of the list!