Daily tasking in small business vs big business... what are the differences?

[CareyJo]

After reading quite a few posts and comments a couple of weeks ago, it got me thinking.... what does my daily task list look like compared to someone who's got employees and a store front?

I know that we can compare businesses in size, number of employees and revenue, but those things don't always match up.  You may have a single-preneur doing 1M in sales with no employees and a mom and pop shop with 10 employees barely making 500k in sales.

I've read several comments of Champions and others expressing the stress of managing day to day tasks and not feeling overwhelmed and it brought me to my thought.  How are we different and how are we the same and how can we help one another?

I think it would be great for us to share our best practices that keep us the most balanced and feeling accomplished.  And I really want to hear about those tiny, little things that you think are so insignificant because those are actually the big things that keep us going.  You never know what kind of motivation your tiny thing might give someone else!

I'll start ~

I'm a routine person.  I've always been organized and detail oriented.  I know that I cannot eat an elephant all in one bite and that paperwork will never, ever go away.  I also know that it's best for me to time block.  If I have two hours in the office, how much can I get done and what is my priority?  I make that decision quickly and get those things done before I decide if I have time to move on to other things.

I also developed a practice of doing routine things, each time I work.  When I process invoices, I immediately enter them in the spreadsheet, update the customer info and put them in the ledger, then file.  I don't build up a stack and do a bunch all at once.  Why?  Because it actually takes less time and when it comes time to reconcile, my work is already done.

I learned decades ago to process my mail when I receive it.  That means, if I get an invite in the mail, I check my calendar, either add it right then or respond that I can't attend.  When I sort the business mail, bills are immediately filed for paying and other papers are processed as needed and filed right then.  No waiting.

Emails - The bane of all of our existences.... one thing that is so hard to tackle and keep up on.  I have a lot of commercial accounts and a lot of emails to keep, so I have a ton of folders.  I make a point everyday to go through the sent folder and move all of those emails to the right folder so that I'm not doing huge batches of them.  When I'm done responding to an email, it immediately gets moved to the appropriate folder.  This not only keeps my inbox so much shorter but means that I'm not trying to find a response I know I sent, I can just go to that folder.

One last thing... I'm also a person who makes a habit of doing certain tasks on certain days.  This not only means I'm less likely to forget something but it won't get out of control.  For example, my husband and I both have shred bins in our offices for sensitive documents.  I shred every Monday, no matter how much is in there.  No matter the task, there is a way to do it smarter or quicker and can probably be done routinely.

One final ask ~ for the larger businesses among us ~ what does your task list look like and how much do you delegate to employees?  For those of us who don't have employees, it would be comforting to know that you have the same struggles we do and how you deal with them.

Thanks y'all!