Valuable Advice from Jerry Seinfeld

Most people have fallen behind a time or two and said “there just aren’t enough hours in a day.” Making the most of the mere 24 hours doesn’t always come easy to people. Staying focused can be difficult, especially when it comes to long-term goals that don’t demand urgent priority, like filling documents or even exercising for example.  

Brian Isaac, a blogger and software developer, received surprisingly valuable advice about time management from none other than comedy legend, Jerry Seinfeld. The advice that the creator of the hit show, Seinfeld, gave to Isaac can be used in almost every situation for all kinds of working people.

Years ago, when Seinfeld was a new show and Jerry still worked the comedy club circuit, Isaac was aspiring to be a sand-up comedian. One night, Isaac took advantage of his opportunity to ask Seinfeld for advice when he (Seinfeld) was headlining at a club. Isaac sought advice about how to succeed in stand-up comedy and, not surprisingly, Seinfeld replied by saying that Isaac should write new jokes every day. This advice stuck with Isaac because of what Seinfeld said about how the advice should be carried out. Isaac explained:

He (Seinfeld) told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker.

He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. "After a few days you'll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You'll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain."

“Don't break the chain,” he said again for emphasis.

This calendar phenomenon can work for any working person who wants to make the most of their time. Unlike their employees, business owners don’t have the “luxury” of a boss to keep then on target. Often times owners have to force themselves to stay motivated and make sure all their responsibilities are taken care of, particularly when their hard work doesn’t grant immediate benefits. These responsibilities can include making calls, networking, and staying organized; the only way to successfully carry them out is to keep up with them every day.

So, listen to Seinfeld. Find a wall calendar and start putting an X through each day that you complete your obligatory tasks.

Remember: don’t break the chain.

Plan for Disaster: Don't Lose Data

I read a great article the other day that stressed the importance of disaster-recovery planning. The article states an overwhelming percentage of small businesses that don't have response plans in case of backup failure. If that is the case, these businesses are vulnerable to data loss.

No one is immune to the consequences of natural disasters. I have always advocated the importance of off-site backups in addition to the on-site backups that most businesses have. If an incident occurs, like a flood for example, any business that solely relies on on-site backups could lose an enormous amount of data in a single second.

For more information, I highly recommend that you read the article by clicking here. Contact me with any questions.

Mobile Computing for Small Businesses

For some small business owners, spending time in the office is surprisingly becoming more of a luxury. With days spent out on sales calls, networking, running errands, or generally being “out-and-about,” owners often have limited time for staying on top of day-to-day operations.

Luckily, new advances in technology offer helpful methods for staying connected while on-the-go. A few years ago, mobile computing meant lugging a laptop around with you everywhere you went. Today, owners and employees can accomplish an extraordinary amount of tasks using a “thin client” and a cloud model for business computing.

A “thin client” is a device that is used primarily as a display and input device which is connected to a remote (or cloud) server, making storage capacity and processing power less significant. Examples of “thin clients” include netbooks, smart phones, ultra-light laptops, and tablets like the iPad.

Your business’s data and productivity applications, like Microsoft Office and QuickBooks, reside in the cloud. You can think of it like the old mainframe/terminal model, where data lived and heavy-duty processing occurred on the centrally located mainframe and workers interacted with the mainframe through terminals at their desks. In this case, the mainframe is the cloud and the terminals are the “thin clients.”

Now, your “terminal” goes wherever you go, and you can access the “mainframe” from anywhere you have an Internet connection!

The cloud and thin client model provides many advantages to small business owners. Imagine striking up a conversation with a potential new customer at a store and being able to pull up a presentation on ROI using your Smart phone. Or imagine nurses in a medical practice having to ability to access diagnostic documentation and patient records from a lightweight tablet instead of a bulky laptop (not to mention the ability to update the records in real-time).

The best thing about this model is that you don’t need a Fortune 500-sized IT budget to take advantage of this amazing technology.