India Development Solutions

Tips for SME managers and entrepreneurs

By Jayadev Menon            

People are constantly in fire-fighting mode. Don’t we hear such sentences repeated often by ourselves and people around us?

• I just don’t have the time
• I wish I could do a course to improve my managerial skill
• I can’t meet you this week
• I am running behind schedule
• I have not read a book since I left college.
• I wish I had seventeen hands and 2 heads.
• 24 hours are not enough

These individuals constantly crib about not been able to cope, but do nothing about it. Their situation is best explained by this story I read in a book written by a self-help guru :

A gentleman was visiting his friend; their conversation was being interrupted by the whining and moaning of the family’s dog and so he asked his friend why the animal would not keep quite.

The friend replied: The stupid mutt is lying on top of a nail.
The surprised visitor asked: Why wouldn’t he move?
To which his friend replied: It’s not hurting bad enough!

It’s like that with most of us – we are waiting for the condition to reach a crisis point before we act. When someone else talks about some chore or problem that is lying unattended we would wisely remark: “Prevention is better than cure!” But that wisdom somehow does not hold true for us!
Why do people make statements of the type mentioned above?

It’s simply because there is no Game-plan, No mission, No purpose – a quick analysis of most of those statements would reveal to us that all of them involve actions that are controlled by us! We do not need external help to start those actions – its inertia, lack of concern or the lack of awareness that stops us from taking that critical first step.

For those who think that the pain need not become chronic before they take action there is a methodology to achieve everything that one aspires for in life – one may be striving to acquire a material thing, a college degree, a promotion, a new job; the target could also be excellence in sports or arts, stronger relationships or maybe even community service. It could range from something as mundane as buying a house or a car to something special like setting up a trust to start a school or an old-age home in your locality – maybe even planning for the education/marriage of your child. 

Do you have any mission – short-term, long-term or medium-term? No matter what it is you desire or wish for, the path towards it can be broken down in Money, Effort, Time and Attitude terms – since we live in the age of acronyms shall I propose a mnemonic or a short-name that can be remembered and perchance be used – META.

Step 1:

Define your mission or purpose – no matter what you want in life – a material asset, a qualification, or emotional well-being you need to state it in the form of a purpose which gives the effort meaning and direction.

Step 2:

Define what would mean fulfilment of that mission or purpose – it should be measurable.
For eg:    For a qualification it could be a degree.

 For a material it could be purchase of the specific item or saving certain amount to buy it.
For charity it could be certain amount of time or money you have to set aside.
For a relationship it could again be time and link between the people concerned.

Step 3:

Break the major target into do-able bits. They say that the best way to eat an elephant is piece-by-piece – by using that metaphor I don’t intend to cause any harm to an animal that is already endangered by man’s stupidity; it’s only to remind us that any big task gets achieved only when it’s broken into small parts.

Eg: For a Degree it could be
-    Target for each semester, which is again
-    Broken into papers and then into
-    Weekly and daily bits for each paper or assignment.

The process of saving up for a house or an event can be broken into annual and monthly saving targets; we can also take advantage of the compounding effect by start our savings early enough.

Step 4:

Set timelines not just for the entire project but also for each small step – a specific date / time-period in which you will fulfil this task or aspiration. If you don’t put an end-date to the mission it can go on forever and there will be no urgency or priority accorded to it. If we know when the whole thing is going to culminate we can start working backward and set up close dates / times for each small chunk we have decided earlier.
Please ensure that you are tough on yourself – don’t set a timeline of 3 month to complete one paper of an MBA programme if there are 5 papers to be completed in a semester.

Step 5:

Develop a check-list for all the steps you have outlined for your project /mission.

-    Write each critical, small step in tabular format – decide on the periodicity for measurement; depending on the size of the task it could be in Years, Months, Weeks or Days.

-    Define what would mean completion or lack of completion of that step in the defined period.

Step 6:

 Based on the periodicity of the measurement, check how you have been progressing each week/month:
-    Check how often you achieve the target and how often you miss out
-    Critically analyse the reason for not achieving the goal.

Step 7:

Important Step – it’s the Feedback Loop.
Congratulate yourself for every achievement and go for the next goal; or analyse lapse and put strong remedial measures in place.
It is important to know why we have failed and even more critical to understand why repeatedly miss out on achieving certain things. Is it because we are:
-    Unaware of what is to be done
-    Incapable
-    We don’t try hard enough
-    We have not involved the right people
-    It’s beyond our means
-    We are trying to do too much

Review the progress yourself or get someone (capable and trustworthy) to help you with it. Use the feedback in a constructive manner – when you fail don’t be hard on yourself and get into a negative loop. But at the same time don’t gloss over and say that it’s okay to fail. Use the feedback to take corrective action and to move forward.

When you win try to analyse what made you win – if you are aware what you have done it can be replicated to give your further success.
Be subdued in the celebration of the interim achievement – you can give yourself a big pat on your back or a treat when the mission is achieved.

Remember, you are the most valuable resource that you have in life! If you are not willing to put in META for its development how will you achieve your life’s MISSION!