Establishing a Routine

Contributor post by Rena Tom

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If you are like most small business owners, you wear many hats to keep your business running. There just aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done, and tasks can fall in the cracks and not get done at all. It's easy to get sidetracked with something fun when you are doing something you don't like. Conversely, you may find yourself in fire-fighting mode literally all the time.

Establishing a routine can make your work-week activities more evenly spaced out yet make sure you don't miss a crucial deadline. It will also help you get over paralyzing roadblocks, and let you be more efficient with your time. Finally, if you do get derailed mid-activity by caring for a sick child or repairing a leaky roof, the routine is there for you so you know where to pick back up after the emergency is over.

To create a routine, you must know what you are already doing, and when. First, write down all of the processes you do - and I mean ALL of them. Break them down into individual tasks. Note which ones are rote and repetitive, which are easy and which are complex. Estimate if the work happens daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. 

Try to group the processes naturally so you don't struggle when shifting gears. You might have groups like:  catching up on email, website updating, ordering and paying bills, production time, creative time, packing and shipping, and connecting with your community via blog or social media.

See what you can either automate (with a technological solution) or delegate (to an employee, temp hire or intern).  These are going to be key for you to move forward with your business, unless you can clone yourself! Try to allot some of your profit toward reducing the amount of work you do that is basically grunt work.

Now, draw up a calendar for daily, weekly, and monthly routines (and yearly - income tax, anyone?) and fill it in as completely as you can. This part can seem either depressing or exciting, depending on if you are a glass half empty or half full kind of person. Just remember that you do so much for your business - you are amazing!

What about free time? Don't eliminate it from the routine, but do budget for it. It's important to pencil in some creative time, a day to hit the museums for inspiration, a weekly lunch with a friend to get you out of the studio, and plain old free time to play hooky and see your family.

If you are worried that this kind of scheduling does not allow for quickly responding to your customers or clients, the key is to set their expectations from the start. Let them know the timeframe they can expect a response. You must remember that not everything is an emergency, and you'll be better able to respond to their needs when you aren't feeling rushed or put out.

Finally, decide what a drop-everything situation is, and allow yourself to respond accordingly. It could be bad (the school nurse calls) or great (Real Simple wants samples ASAP) but if you know what to do beforehand, your business won't suffer while you are attending to your top priority.

What kinds of routines do you have in place that are effective for how you do work?

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Rena Tom is a retail strategist for creative business owners. She previously owned Rare Device, a boutique and art gallery with locations in New York and San Francisco that was renowned for its carefully edited collection of design objects, books, housewares and accessories, and for supporting small, innovative designers and artists whose work was not easily found in stores. Rena blogs about personal projects as well as retail trends and small business tips at renatom.net. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and baby boy in an apartment filled with too many laptops, Sprecher root beer, half-finished craft projects and overdue library books.