When most of us hear or say the word “multitasking” we think we are talking about a way to be more productive.  The truth is that “multitasking” makes us less productive and leads to burnout.  In fact, if you are seeking to grow your small business, you must be focused. 

Whether you are starting up your own business or running your own business multitasking is the opposite of focus.  It is about having several focal points at once.  The truth is that we cannot do several things at once.  In fact, studies have shown the human mind is only capable of doing one thing at a time.  We don’t multitask.  We switchtask.  And, every time we switch back and forth from one task to another there is a switching cost. 

Switching costs come as we have to momentarily review where we were at before we can start again.  And, the more complicated the task the higher the switching cost.  In fact it is estimated that the average worker loses 2.1 hours per day or over 8 hours per week in lost time by switch tasking. 

Even computers, where the term multitasking came from, do not multitask.  A processor, CPU, performs many tasks in sequence and can switch from one program to another very quickly that may make it appear to be multitasking.  The only way a computer can multitask if there is more than one processor.  This is sometimes called multiprocessing. 

Take a look at your business and your day.  To grow small business and to have a successful performance strategy you must focus your time.  If you don’t you will have too much going on and burnout.  Successful small business is about focus.  And when you lose focus you end up doing many things and few of them well. 

As a result your business and you will stagnate and fail.  If you want to learn more about multitasking I highly recommend the book by Dave Crenshaw, “The Myth of Multitasking”.  It is a short, quick and entertaining book that will give you some immediate insights on how to better utilize your time and move your small business forward. 

Owning your own business is a great challenge.  Start focusing and stop multitasking and the challenge will become more manageable and you will be more likely to succeed and much less likely to burnout and have the business fail.

To have success in growing your small business you must have movement by design.  I believe that this concept is best summed up by Zig Ziglar when he asks if you are leading your life as a “wandering generality” or as “a meaningful specific. ”

Small business growth and personal growth are not accidents.  They are intentional.  You may say, wait a minute.  Things just happen.  Think about it.  Things happen to all of us.  Yet, you choose how you are going to respond.  You are subjected to opportunities.  Sometimes they come clothed as problems.

Regardless, if you are a meaningful specific, or a person who has goals, then you will make your decisions about what comes your way on whether or not it fits with your goals.

To be successful in owning your own business you must have a design.  You must have vibrant, exciting goals.  You must have a vision of the future that excites you.

Think about this.  Goals are dreams with deadlines.  And, if they are written down, you are much more likely to attain them.

Dream about your goals for a moment.  Do you want small business growth?  Do you want more money?  Whatever it is you want, if you set goals you will start a process that will increase the odds of you attaining the outcome you want.

Create movement by design. Dream and visualize what you want.  And, even better write down your vision of the future you want.  When you do, your odds of success have increased by over 50%. Be a “meaningful specific” and increase the probability of your success.

That’s right!  To be successful in growing your small business you must know that when everything else fails all you need to do is go back and read the directions.

You may be asking yourself, what does he mean?

Growing small business and small business growth don’t come with directions.

You are right in one sense.  Yes, you can read a small business ebook or books about small business success. Or you can have consultants, advisors or coaches to help you along.

But, without a clear set of directions you are 60% more likely to fail.  What are directions?  Directions are the goals you set.  Goals are not just for a week or a month.

Goals must also be long term.  They must give direction for the next year, five years out and ten years and beyond.

To have the success you desire you must have goals.  Your goals are the directions you will go back to read.  They will keep you on course.  They will help keep the vision of success alive.

Yet, without goals you will have a tendency to waste a lot of energy wandering and bumping into things.  This takes time, energy and causes pain.  It happens because you have no set of directions.

• Create your own set of directions.
• Create your own performance strategy for success.
• Write down your goals.

When you do these things you increase the odds of your success by 60%.  Those are the directions for small business growth and success.

In owning your own business one of the most important things to help you grow is to provide exceptional customer service.  Yet, we get engrossed in delivering the product or service and do a poor job of handling problems and questions. 

Ultimately, this will kill most small businesses.  Small business growth and running small business successfully is not something you do by chance but by design.

How often have we heard about or had direct experience with a company where we paid our money and then there was a problem.  I am sure all of you have had this happen to you at one time or another.  And, when we have a problem the worst part is not be able to reach someone who can give us some immediate direction to resolve our problem. 

Too often, companies today and many small businesses look at customer service as an expense.  When done right, customer service can become a profit center.  There are many components to having successful customer service.  More than we can discuss here.  In fact there are small business books, small business ebooks and small business courses that address customer service.

Let’s take a look at one component.  Successful small business is in larger part about having a good attitude.  A good attitude in this instance means validating the customers thoughts and feelings.  Rule number one to exceptional customer service and having a successful small business is that it is all about them and their perception.  That is a good attitude.  It is not about you. 

In working with small business and small business coaching some of the deadly phrases I hear go along these lines….”I’m sorry but I got busy or I would have called you back.”  Another is: ” I had a crisis or the employee was sick and that’s why no one got back to you.”  I could go on and on but you get the point. 

All of these responses are deadly because it becomes all about you and not about them.  What you are saying to them is that you don’t run your business well enough to take care of them.  In essence when they are calling you with a problem and you don’t respond properly or in a reasonable amount of time you are subconsciously telling them that they now have to run this part of your business since you aren’t capable of it. 

Think about it.  When you have to call someone more than once to get a response then you are having to solve the problem you have but now you are having to solve another problem which is poor customer service. Now you are asking or telling the customer by your actions to manage this part of your business since you can’t.  This will kill a small business if the customers start having to manage your customer service department. 

Rule number one is to have a good attitude where you put yourself in your customer’s position.  Then, and this is the key, design your customer service to meet the customer’s needs.  When you do, you will be amazed at the growth your business will experience when you handle problems well.