Starting a New Online Business

If it is true that you can't teach an old dog new tricks I am in trouble.  Arthritic, smelly, fur falling out all over the place and four-legged I might not be, but transister radios were cool when I was a teenager.  Yup, I am that old - I can even vaguely remember the Beatles the first time round!

I am comfortable with the world wide web, I know how to use most of the programmes on my computer; I even know how to use all the apps on my mobile phone.  So I feel fairly comfortable with new technology.  But not with nechworking (a little word I came up with to describe the technology of online networking). 

Why am I bothering you might ask yourself.  I am bothering because I intend to plunge into the icy internet pool  and start a business online. 


Doubling Up On Business Ideas

I have been listening, watching and learning for a long time now (I think my type is described as lurkers on some forums) and I know that when starting a new business online it is vital to use  social media to get the message out to potential clients.  But there are so many things to do, so many things to learn; where, I asked myself, will I get the time?

Well, not by multi-tasking, that's for sure.  Multitasking is a system for applying 40% of your attention to two or more tasks, while the remaining 60% struggles to switch you beween the tasks and keep you breathing. 

No, I realised after thinking this perennial small business maangement problem through.  The answer is not multi-tasking, it is job-squaring.  That is, instead of trying to do multiple jobs at once, do one job but make it have multiple outcomes. 

The Trick is Planning

The trick, I came to realise as I thought about it, is in planning.  And focus.  Close focus.  The kind of focus you would apply to the fit of your face mask if you knew your neighbour had Ebola.  This is how I hope it will work in my case.

1. I have a very good approach to longer-term planning which can be broken down into smaller and smaller time-frames until you are actually writing out the tasks you will do this week in order to make sure you will achieve your long-term goals.
2. So far so good.  "But what", I asked myself, "if having given each task a slot in my diary, I then used it as a heading for my daily blog entry, an idea for my tweet and a basis for any other social media entries I made that day? 
3. That way I actually square the task.  Not only has one job been made to have several outcomes, but each outcome bolsters the original job in that I have to think through my daily actions in detail before I undertake them.  Pure Dead Brilliant as Glaswegians would say".