Entries by Brad Fair

I want to toss this out there and see what sticks for you. Multi-tasking is something that is expected of almost everyone these days. Being able to do more than one thing at once (walk, chew bubble gum) seems to be the only way to do anything. But is it really all its cracked up to be, or is it simply shooting yourself in the foot in a more productive-looking way?

Why Multi-Tasking is Good

Multi-tasking is good because making progress on more than one front at a time ensures your project(s) will be completed faster. You will get the added benefits of experiencing two or more different pieces of progress, learning multiple things at once, and seeing finished projects more frequently. Imagine the benefits you can gain if you're able to increase your profit by 10% because you've finished several 2% increases at almost the same time. You will also be able to take what you've learned from one project, and put it to good use in another immediately. For example, you might learn a shortcut to an equation you frequently use while working on Project 1, and that same shortcut presents a breakthrough on Project 2. When considering the positive results that multi-tasking brings, it's easy to say that multi-tasking is good.

Why Multi-Tasking is Evil

Multi-tasking is evil because it guarantees that your focus is never on one problem at a time. It pulls you in several different directions, and the experiences you get aren't as powerful because they are being saturated by other potentially conflicting experiences. For instance, two projects that you are working on can each have an emergency arise. The first emergency requires your physical presence in the next nearest city, while the second emergency requires your physical presence in the office for 24 hours straight. Unfortunately you are not able to internalize the causes of each of the emergencies because you must go from one to the other immediately. Multi-tasking also adds stress to your life by setting unrealistic expectations. In the previous example, you may stress about not being able to be in both places at once. You might also stress about not being able to foresee and both emergencies. To put it simply, multi-tasking is a burden to a productive workflow, and an inhibitor to a healthy life.

Having reviewed some pros and cons of multi-tasking, I believe that doing more than one thing at a time is a good way to get a bad result (unless it's literally chewing bubble gum and walking). If your goal is to meet a quantity of work, it may be the way to go. If you have any duty for quality, you may want to reconsider.

When coming up with the concept, I want to pick a unique idea. I want there to be an aspect of reality in the plan that will help me face the same challenges that you would face in doing your own plan. At the same time, I'm not intending to follow through with this and create a business off of it. That means that I won't be hunting down a solid management team, I won't have a real-life board of advisors, etc. I will try my best to fill in the gaps with realistic information when needed. Now, down to work!

The Concept

My business will be a manufacturing and Internet business.

Industries: education and food.

My products will include (at this point):

1. Math Crackers - crackers shaped like small puzzle pieces. Printed on one piece is a number, printed on another piece is the other half of the equation. Only the ones that are mathematically correct will fit together. Examples --
   1. piece one: "3"
   2. piece two: "+ 4 = 7"
2. Shape Cookies - cookies with basic shapes such as triangle, square, circle, oval, and rectangle. Printed on both sides is the shape of the cookie.
3. Word Roll-ups - Similar to a fruit roll-up, this snack will have a word on it, as well as its definition.

Potential Customers: Pre-school through third grade teachers, new parents with kids in the pre-school through third grade age range. (I consulted with my wife on this, since she really likes child development, and knew at what ages kids should know these things.)

Basic Marketing & Sales Strategy: Market by word of mouth, superb customer care, publications, and distributors. Maybe try to get on The Big Idea? Sales include demonstrating at relevant stores, selling to consumers there. Show the stores the demo numbers, and try and get them to buy based off of consistent sales requests during the demos.

Companies I Consider Competiton: Current snack-makers. Educational toys, though they don't have to be considered competition.

Competitive Advantages

New Products/Services: I haven't seen anything like this before.

Added Value: Every kid has an after-school or during-school snack. This company's product line adds value because it's educational and tasty!

This is my basic concept, and it will guide the way for me to move forward on my business plan. It took me just over 40 minutes to complete, and I had to ask my wife for some input because I don't have much experience in the child development business, in education, or as she will tell you, in food. If you're following along with your own plan, how does your "Concept" portion of the plan look compared to mine?

Many young entrepreneurs will come up with a superb business idea, a basic strategy, and several specific tactics. They will start their business, take on the challenge, and may even see a reward or two. One thing that I found out in my entrepreneurial endeavors is that the best ways to ensure your business goes according to plan is to document the plan.

Several entrepreneurs feel that they have the entire business plan in their mind, and will know where they're at and where they're going at each moment. That may be true for some, but for most of us the business plan is one of the most useful tools we can have. This article is the beginning of a series I will write showing you the process I go through when developing a business plan. Full Disclaimer: I did not come up with all of these bits of information by myself. I tend to follow what Rhonda Abrams outlines in her book The Successful Business Plan when I create a plan.

The First Step

Every time I have created a plan, my first thought is an overwhelming "Where do I start?!" A good friend and mentor of mine coached me in the process, and gave me a real solid piece of advice. Start by putting what you already have on paper. You'll be able to see where the gaps are, and fill them in as you research. Looking back on the process, that was an excellent first step. When you start your business research and planning, begin by putting what you already know down on paper.

How to Research

The business planning process is the best opportunity for you to reasearch your company, and other successful ones in your industry. You will be able to learn about finances, seasonality, economic influences, competitors, and a whole slew of other things. When you do your research, think outside the box and come up with unique ways to approach your data-gathering problems. You might call businesses in a different geographical region and ask for input. You should be visiting your local library during this process, and asking friends and colleagues for information if appropriate. Leave no stone unturned when you're hunting for information! The more you know before you get your business started, the better off you're likely to be.

What Should it Contain?

Your plan will be comprehensive, so it will contain several different sections. Here they are listed in the order that I will be doing them for this series:

1. Concept
2. Company Description
3. Industry Information
4. Market
5. Competition
6. Positioning and Risk Assessment
7. Marketing and Sales
8. Operations
9. Technology
10. Management
11. Social Responsibility
12. Development and Milestones
13. Exit
14. Financials
15. Executive Summary
16. Appendix

While the plan will contain a lot of research and require plenty of work, the good news is that it does have a start and finish. As I write articles for each of the sections above, I will link this page to them so that you can follow along.

When I worked for Dell, I had an opportunity to learn about how they make improvements to their business processes, resulting in better customer satisfaction and profit. They called it Business Process Improvement (BPI for short); it is similar to Six Sigma, and really helps to find where problems are in your business, giving you the opportunity to resolve the issues before they become out of hand.

Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a process developed by Motorola with the goal of improving manufacturing processes to the point of only having 3 or 4 defective parts per million produced. Using multiple quality control methods and tools, those who practice Six Sigma can, in theory, analyze their processes and change what doesn't work well. I say "in theory" because Fortune magazine mentioned in 2006, "of 58 large companies that have announced Six Sigma programs, 91 percent have trailed the S&P 500 since." Don't let that deter you though - as an entrepreneur, you should be used to taking what works and integrating it into your own systems in some sort of "mixed martial arts" approach.

Business Process Improvement - Step One

In BPI, the first step is to pick a process that you intend to improve. At Dell, they stressed that to really be BPI, you couldn't have an idea of how to improve the process before starting your BPI. Bull! Just try not to let your idea for improvement get in your way of recognizing other ways to improve. After you have your process, you should detail every single step, from start to finish. An example might be:

1. Answer incoming phone call
2. Document prospect's request, name, number, etc.
3. Email the sales manager with this information
4. Distribute prospects to salesmen based off of workload
5. Determine feasibility of prospect's request.
   1. If feasible, pass to project management for a quote
   2. If not feasible, research alternate ways to accomplish same goal
      1. If found, call prospect back and propose looking into new approach
         1. If accepted, repeat step 5
         2. If declined, refer customer to company with better fit
      2. If not found, call prospect back and refer to company with better fit

You can see that documenting a process can get pretty detailed. Once you have the process documented, there are opportunities to see where time, money, or resources are wasted. For instance, the wait time between emailing the sales manager and having a salesman work on the request may be 1 day, with no good reason why. The goal is to only do the steps that add value to the customer/client.

Business Process Improvement - Step Two

After you have documented your process and analyzed it for waste, brainstorm different ways of eliminating the wasteful steps. After you have a list (and remember, no idea is too stupid to not brainstorm), determine what effect each method will have on the process. Consider its effect on resources used, time used, and cost. Using the above example, I might decide to implement a system which gives the receptionist basic information about which salesperson has the bandwidth to accept the next prospect. That might eliminate the 1 day of waiting because of the sales manager. It might also cost $10,000, which in my case could be worth it. You'll know whether your idea is or not.

Business Process Improvement - Step Three

You should have had at least one idea about improving your process, several more if it was an extremely wasteful one. Your goal now is to implement the process. Spread the word! If your company's culture supports it, you might even explain why you're changing the process. Keep an eye on the process and determine if there were any unforeseen changes. Is the process working? If so, take note of the savings: time saved, customer satisfaction, new sales, or pure profit. If your company has more than one branch or similar processes in other areas of the business, share your results with the people who can help make the same changes in those areas.

The best part about BPI is that it's something you can do right now, immediately. You can grab a process that's been bugging you, dissect it, and come up with a much better solution. If you want a little bit of practice, go buy a box of Legos and try and build something. Then after you have it built, analyze the process you took building it, and make it better!

If you read my post "Does Read Speeding Work," you've already seen that the key to stop subvocalizing is to not give yourself the time to. How do you do that? Simple: read faster! Let's say that the fastest you can talk in your head is 300-350 words per minute. You should have a tough time subvocalizing at 500wpm if you can't speak that fast. Let me equate this process to making you comfortable with driving at 120mph by starting you off at 300mph. Learning to take in 500 words per minute or faster will have a learning curve, but here's how it's done.

Take a book that you have available, and turn it upside down. Yes, upside down! Open it up to the beginning (well, the end) and set it flat on a table. Put your hand gently on the place where you would start reading (the words are, of course, upside down). Using your hand as a guide, move it across the lines of the page at a rapid rate, following the tips of your fingers as it goes. Do this for several minutes, and don't worry if your fingers don't glide across EVERY single line. The goal here is to let your eyes move across the page, picking up each word/line/paragraph. Try for speed and consistency. It should be fairly easy since we won't get caught up in the story line of an upside down book!

After doing this exercise, turn the book right side up. Try and read the book at a rate that seems natural to you. You will probably find that you're trying to read faster than you can subvocalize. This process can get frustrating, because you've conditioned yourself to always want to subvocalize when reading. All I can say is "keep at it," because it will work for you. As you begin picking up on words, phrases, and sentences, you should try the exercise again. Turn your book upside down and have at it.

You may notice that you're starting to read more than one word at once, and possibly more than one line at once. If so, good job! You're on the right track. I encourage you to look into speed reading courses and find one that is a good fit for you so that you can continue your growth in this area. This skill has saved me quite a bit of time, and kept me on top of the game in several ways.

Every young entrepreneur knows that in the information age, there is simply too much material that needs read, and not enough time to do it in. That's why I learned how to speed read. Most people that I've talked to about speed reading are under the impression that speed reading is the same as scanning. Even Woody Allen said:

"I took a speed reading course and read 'War and Peace' in twenty minutes. It involves Russia. "

For those that think speed reading jumbles things up and makes ledgible text look like the title of this article (did you notice the Spoonerism?), you should try this exercise:

1. Grab a couple index cards.
2. Have a friend write a few simple questions (that you'll know the answers to), one on each card.
3. Have him flash the question in front of you for half a second, and then take the card away.
4. See if you can answer the question.

Chances are, you can! This simple exercise is truly the foundation of the speed reading that I have learned. It removes the one crutch keeping you from reading at outstanding rates: Subvocalization. Since you were able to see the question, read it without subvocalizing, and then answer it, you have proven to yourself that you don't lose comprehension speed reading!

Just that exercise answers the question "Does speed reading really work?" It does! It is also valid for higher rates of reading, and more difficult subjects than fun trivia. I've used it to pass history exams with only 15 minutes of study (right before the exam, actually). Sadly, stopping the subvocalization process is a little more difficult than just doing this exercise. With enough dedication, however, you can make significant progress in a short amount of time. Here shortly, I'll be posting an article about how to stop subvocalizing. Check back, and put it to the test to see how long it takes you to get through your Inc. Magazine this month! 

It is well past the point that companies get to decide on whether they will get a website or not. If you are thinking about starting a business, make sure to include the website in your planning process. If you have already started a business, your website should either be in development, or already be done.

Not having a website can severely impact your ability to reach customers. Google's VP for Online Sales and Operations says that "Small businesses are increasingly going online to better connect with both existing and prospective customers," and that "over 92 percent of adults regularly or occasionally research products online before buying them in a store." Having a website will not by itself guarantee customers, but not having one will mean that 92% of people will find several of your website-owning competitors before finding you offline (if they ever find you).

Since you know how important having a website is for a young entrepreneur's business, now it's time to think about which kind of website will you need. Will yours be informational, entertaining, or an online store? A hybrid, maybe? There are several types of websites, and each one is useful for different things. Determine what works best for your company at its current stage. At the minimum, have an informational site where future partners and investors can get to know about your business!

Buying a domain name and putting up a "This site under construction." page with your logo on it is not enough. That's simply a more expensive way of not having a website. Take the initiative to get your business on the Internet as soon as possible, and reap the benefits of being seen by those 92% - not to mention potential investors and partners.

In early 2007, I had the honor of participating in the Big 12 Business Plan Competition - a competition comprised of teams from different schools in the Big 12. My team placed third, and due to a fair bit of luck, all three winning teams were invited to the Moot Corp Business Plan Competition in Austin, TX. Each competition gave out cash prizes to top winners. I found out that another young entrepreneur there was financing his business by participating in (and winning) these types of competitions.

He had done the research to have a solid plan, and had a network that included a Senior Vice President at Microsoft (where he had interned). His idea was really unique, and was a benefit to everybody involved. His company was focused on a piece of software that was going to blow his industry away (and I'm sure it will). Since good programmers aren't really cheap, and he was going to follow through with his business anyway, he found that taking part in business plan competitions was a good way to pay the bills. He financed a full time business by doing this, up to the point that he was invested in by one of the founders of Microsoft (after a meeting with Bill, of course).

If you want to finance your startup by winning different business plan competitions, follow his example by having a superb plan, the resources to get the job done, and the guts to do it even if you lose the competition. You may have to front the bill for taking a plane to a $100,000 competition, but hey - why not? It's doable!

"Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." - Benjamin Franklin

We've all heard it, and several of us have noticed the link between all of these things. It's not that waking up early turns your bath water into vitamins and your clothes into gold, but waking up early gives you the opportunity to be much more productive each day. It is said that Sam Walton woke up early in the morning to travel to other retail outlets in search of good deals. When he found one (and he often did), he would be able to get the merchandise back to his store before the day's rush. As easy as Ben's quote is to say, it certainly seemed difficult to wake up early - at least for me.

Then, I Googled one day for How to Become an Early Riser, and found an excellent post in Steve Pavlina's blog about the subject. He informed me that to get up early in the morning, you have to follow three simple guidelines:

Set your alarm for a specific time to wake up EVERY DAY.

For example, I set the alarm for 5:30 AM. This gives me time for a long shower, breakfast, and a good hour and a half to work on my projects before getting ready for work.

Condition yourself to automatically get out of bed once your alarm goes off.

OK, so this is a bit more difficult. I literally practiced getting out of bed when my alarm went off. I'd set it for 5 minutes from now, and lay down and get comfy. When it started blaring, I'd turn it off and go stand in the shower (not turn it on, for the practice sessions). It may sound silly, but it really works!

Go to bed when you're tired.

This is an easy one. Find a good measure of how tired you have to be in order to fall asleep within a few minutes of hitting the pillow. Go to bed at that point.

Those three things, when put together, really help you wake up early! If you mess up and sleep in, you'll stay up a little later, which means that the next day you'll just be a little more tired. Your body knows how much sleep it needs, so if it needs to adjust, it will. If you really want to wake up early, I suggest starting by conditioning yourself to have an automatic response to your alarm. Then, give the process a try for 30 days and see if it works for you!

Many young entrepreneurs are so focused on the work they do that they don't pick up on the subtle differences between an excellent networker and a poor one. Here are a few tips that I have picked up by participating in networking events such as the Oklahoma Venture Forum.

Wear your name tag on the right.

This tip was given to me by one of the founders of an extremely successful securities company. When at an event, wear your name tag on your right side so that when shaking someone's hand, they can easily find your name. This helps them to remember your name; it also removes the awkward feeling associated with not knowing your name if they've been introduced to you before.

Introduce yourself to new people.

This one can be extremely difficult without practice. Networking is about meeting new people, learning about new businesses, and making others feel good about themselves. If you never branch out and introduce yourself to new people, accomplishing your goals will be much more difficult. Having a tough time introducing yourself? Here's how I do it:

1. I find a person I'd like to meet.
2. Make my way to that person, and take note of whether they are engaged in a private conversation.
3. If not, listen in, or join in.
4. When the opportunity presents itself, I simply extend my hand and say "Brad Fair."

That four step process seems difficult to those who haven't practiced it, so I encourage you to practice EVERY chance you get!

Find out your acquaintance's line of work.

This one is pretty easy. It should go something like "So, Bob, tell me about the work you do." It's even easier when their name tag has their company name on it: "Joe, I see you work with the University. What do you do there?"

Take note of what they say, too. I have met people whose services I needed shortly after meeting them. I have also referred friends to people that I have met, which is a win-win situation for every party involved (read on).

The priceless question.

This is the pièce de résistance for young entrepreneurs. This question will thrill your acquaintance, and make them happy to have met you. It works so much better when you actually make use of its answer, too. The question:

"How can I tell if somebody is a good prospect for you?"

Your goal here is to be able to refer this person business. This single question has often been the difference between somebody remembering my name and business, and someone forgetting who I was the moment I walk away. Also, any time you can refer somebody to an acquaintance, they will think very highly of you - after all, you've just helped put money in their pocket!

I know that networking can be hard, especially for those who are shy. The only way to get better at networking for business is to do it constantly. Don't worry if you make a weak impression at first. The thing about weak impressions is you get to try again after they forget who you are! Try for a strong positive impression by following the steps I've outlined above.

If you're like most people (the odds are in my favor in guessing that), you realize that there's too much stuff to do, and not enough time to do it in. This is especially true of young entrepreneurs because you're being pulled in every direction all the time. It's suprising how much time is wasted each day because people don't realize that there are faster ways to do common (and necessary) tasks to increase the time you have to accomplish your goals. Here are three things that I've made a conscious effort to improve that resulted in more usable hours during the day:

• Becoming an Early Riser

  I was curious about how those early morning folks did it, so I Googled it and found a great article on the subject. It took a little practice automating my awakening (so that I couldn't talk myself out of it), but the results were excellent. I sleep between 5 and 8 hours, averaging 6.5 each day. Assuming that most young entrepreneurs feel sleep deprived at 8 hours, let's say I'm gaining 1.5 hours a day simply by being an early riser! That's a gain of almost 3.5 times the normal work-month in my year!

• Learning to Read Effectively

  "Does it really work," you might ask. Yes! My freshman year of college, I found a little flyer on my desk as I walked into class. On it, it promised that I could read up to 3 times faster by taking this course. I thought about the benefits and decided to attend the 1 hour "seminar" advertised on the flyer. The presenter explained that she could teach me how to read much faster, and study more efficiently, by attending her course. She then showed proof that it worked by running me through a few exercises. Just in that hour, my reading bumped up by 100 words per minute. After taking the course (at a minimal cost compared to its savings), I was at around 1000 words per minute with no loss in comprehension. Don't let any non-speed readers tell you that it doesn't work if they haven't tried it! I know I have saved several hours a year using this skill, and I've been able to obtain more information than I could have beforehand.

• Getting Things Done

  Since I never really cared to be the most organized person in the world, there were a lot of things I was supposed to do that slipped through the cracks when they shouldn't have. Mostly, homework. I finally got tired of it and wanted to figure out a way to keep on top of all of the things that I had to do. I'd read about Getting Things Done in a few different places, and thought I'd give it a shot. I bought the audiobook from iTunes, and listened while I was out and about. Unlike many systems that only work when you do everything to the letter, Getting Things Done gives you several productivity enhancing ideas. In my opinion, the two most helpful are defining a next action, and reminding yourself of pending actions. If you are even the least bit unorganized, consider buying the book, or renting it from your local library. You'll stop wasting your time recovering from dropped balls, unnecessary planing, and trying to remember what's on your plate.

There are a few more things that I do to find more time, and between them all, I feel like I am much more productive than I could have ever been otherwise. I will write more about each of the three ideas above in the future.

I've seen it a million times, and at least several hundred thousand times in my own little projects or ventures. I often find that the hardest part about doing something big is taking the first step. I look back at all of the sizeable things that I've accomplished and realize that when I took the first step in doing them, I didn't even know I was taking a step!

This blog took almost no time to set up, and as of this moment I've been working on it for about an hour. It doesn't yet seem like I have much time or energy put into it, but what I do know is that I am taking the first step right this moment - the First Post!

I can't say with certainty exactly what this blog will contain, because I am the type of person that lives each moment not for the failures or successes, but for the experiences. I can say with certainty, though, that I will try and whip up a little something here and there about the things that I have learned and am learning - about how an entrepreneur can be better tomorrow than he is today.