When I wrote "Don't Start Your Business Until You Know It Inside Out", I did not mean to say that you have to be an expert in every aspect of your business. But you have to know well enough to have a good idea of the operations of your business from various perspectives.

Perfection can be the enemy of success seem controversial. Being a perfectionist can be one of the most destructive habits when it comes to the success of your business. The fear of not being able to do it right often stops people from even starting.

The truth is, almost nothing is done perfectly the first time. What's really important is your decision to act in order to get going and move in the direction you want to go.

1. Know what you are doing
2. Start what you have to do
3. Improve it until it's good
4. Review what you did
5. Polish it until it's very good

For instance:

Before your business makes a million, you need to make $100,000. Before that you need to make $10,000. And Before you make your first $10,000, you need to first make $1000. 

Many, fail because they are looking for the instant fix to fulfill their dreams instead of following a path of continuous improvements and accomplishments.

Success is built upon continuous learning. Your action controls your destiny.

When it comes to business, being efficient and effective is the ultimate goal. You can be efficient without being effective by doing things that don't matter. You can be effective but not efficient by doing something worthwhile, but taking too much time or having it cost too much.

What we need is to become both efficient and effective at the same time, for ourselves, and for our employees.

First Things First

The keyword here is prioritize. Every task has its own priority. When you make a list of things to do, assign a value to each one and identify the importance of each. Asking yourself the question "Do I have to do this right now?" is often a good practice to determine the importance of the specific task.

In fact, the 80/20 rule also applies here. 80 percent of your results will usually come from 20 percent of your efforts. Shocking? I think not. Find out what that is and focus on that 20 percent.

Utilize Technology

This is the reason why new technologies are being invented all the time - to improve our efficiency and effectiveness.

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to accomplish so much while others struggle along barely able to attend to their daily needs? Highly effective people usually fulfill their achievements with less work and effort than those who accomplish little.

Perhaps these highly effective people utilize some sort of technology, e.g. computer software(s), to help them to produce better results in less time.

For example, did you know...

• Increasing your monitor size could increase your productivity and efficiency up by 40%?
• Adding a secondary monitor could increase your productivity and efficiency up by 65%?
• Changing your seat and placing keyboard/mice in a comfort location could increase your productivity and efficiency up by 20%?
• Having a computer that runs fast could increase your productivity and efficiency up by 200% on average?

Be Organized

There is no such thing as a disorganized person, only the ones who choose not to organize themselves. Make things easier to find. Time spent looking for things is wasteful and completely unnecessary; in fact, it's frustrating most of the time.

Life is too short to spend looking for things. Agreed?

Write It Down

No one is perfect. And I believe many of us have already mastered the skill to forget things accidentally. That is one of the skills I wished I didn't become so good at it.

Write down notes, e.g. on sticky notes, and place them where you can easily access them. This will reduce the chances of you forgetting things that are of high priority.

When Are You Most Productive?

This is the question that you must ask yourself. Some people are highly productive in the morning, and some people are productive in the late evening. It's always better to work for 2 hours when you are highly productive than to work for 8 hours to come up with the same results.

Einstein once explained his Theory of Relativity in this way. "If you sit with a beautiful girl, two hours seem like two minutes. But if you sit on a hot stove, two minutes seem like two hours. That's relativity."

The results produced in an hour of focused, committed, high-intentioned activities can be hundreds of times more valuable than the same effort without these ingredients.

How Effective and Efficient Are You?

This is a very debatable statement.

"I don't have to know how to do it, I just need to find someone who knows to do it for me."

For management perspective, a good manager doesn't have to know every job, only how to get other people to do them in efficient and cost-effective ways. For small businesses, that concept is a dangerous naive.

The truth is, most small businesses start out without hiring employees. You simply don't need the extra help until your business grows to a certain stage when extra help is needed. New small business owners often end up covering many different aspects of their businesses themselves.

Besides, let's say you are opening up an automobile repair shop and you don't know much about auto mechanics. How are you going to properly hire and supervise mechanics? You have absolutely no control over the quality of the services you business has to offer.

Know Your Business

A skilled, dedicated owner often can make a venture successful when others have failed. You have to know that your customers will exchange their money only for the conviction that you are giving them their money's worth. Which means that you will need to know what you are doing.

If you are looking to start a pasta business, you have to have good understanding in every aspect of pasta making, from mixing eggs and flour, flattening the dough, and slicing it into strips. If you run a restaurant business and the food isn't good, you are the one who either improves it or goes broke. Simple as that.

Love What You Do

It is a fact that the average small business owner spends more time with his entrepreneur journey than with his family. Truth hurts, I know. With that being said, it makes sense to be at least as careful about choosing your business as you are about picking your other half.

Only a few of us are lucky enough that we can meet someone on a blind date, settle down a week later, and have it all work out wonderfully. You can, of course, start your business as if you are on a blind date. And if you are lucky enough, you will succeed. But if you aren't, it only takes 1 failure to through you in debt.

In relationships, as in business, most of us make better decisions if we approach them with a little more care and preparation.

Do You Know Every Aspects of Your Business?

As a business owner, you need to make sure that you are not blinded by one aspect of your business that you overlook all others. Many new starters are so enamored with their "brilliant ideas" that they never bothered to think about the negatives factors that doomed their ventures from the start.

Let's say you love fixing computers. Running your own computer repair shop sounds like it would be great fun. Perhaps it would be, but if you see yourself constantly repairing computers all day, who is going to meet customers? who is going to answer the phones? and who is going to market your business? Every aspect of a business has to be carefully considered before one actually starts one. 

Continuous Learning

Some people want to become business owners because they want to be independent. Some start business ventures for personal fulfillment. Some do it for money, respect, or power. These are all good reasons to start business ventures. Unfortunately, while the potential for great success exists, so do many risks that lead to failures.

Starting and running a business is very hard and demanding work that requires a wide range of skills few people are born with. If you are planning to start a business, be sure to prepare yourself to learn and deal with all aspects of the business.