Virtual Regeneration

Black Belt Mentality for Running a Successful Business

Last night both my kids tested for their next belt level in Karate.  As I sat there watching them, it dawned on me that there are a lot of similarities between training to get your black belt and running a successful business.

The first thing I noticed is that both need a system.  When the kids arrived at the dojo (school), they immediately go to the changing rooms and put on their gi (uniform).  Once dressed, they get their attendance card, and either sit on the deck or the stairs until their class starts.  Once in class, all the students line up according to belt rank and “bow in”.  After that, stretching, then katas (individually performed sequences that combine a variety of kicking, punching and blocking techniques) as an entire class, then they break off into smaller groups to work on katas specific to their belt level. At end of class, they line back up, “bow out” and then head back to changing rooms to change back into street clothes and then go home.  It’s a routine, it’s an automatic process.  The kids, even the littlest ones at age 4 and 5, know the system – they don’t even think about it anymore, its an automatic reaction the minute they enter the building.  Because there are so many kids coming and going from one class to another, if there was not system in place, there would be mass chaos and nothing would get accomplished. 

The same is true for a business.  Without the proper systems in place, a business will not run smoothly.  Major tasks will take longer than needed, minor tasks will get lost in the shuffle.  With proper systems in place, a business should be able to run without the owner even being present.  Such systems would include lead generation & follow up, new client management, current client management, backup (both physical and internet based), internal processes (such as AR/AP, team management, marketing, etc.), and any other major task needed to run your business. 

The next thing I realized is that, with Karate, there are many milestones and celebrations.  When first starting out, all students are at the white belt level.  They train for a few months, then test for the next level belt.  There is always a big celebration after each test.  Family and friends all come out, and make a big deal of the kids who passed.  The same is for the next level belt and so on, all the way up to the black belt level and then we, as a karate dojo family, have a big party to celebrate this milestone.  But there are many belt levels and mini-celebrations up to the black belt test. 

Owners are generally great at creating a long-term goal for their business, a vision.  It’s the little milestones that we tend to overlook.  Establishing a 5 – 10 year plan is something every business should do, but then take that plan and break it down into smaller pieces and make sure to celebrate when you reach those mini-milestones.  Have a party of your own, purchase that something special you have been wanting, get out of the office for a few days, get a massage –just make sure to recognize that you have made it that far and the long term goals wont seem so far away.  Imagine, if a white belt student only focused on getting their black belt, which is not something that happens over night, they may get overwhelmed by the task and never get there.  Small steps and big celebrations, that’s the key.

Another similarity between karate and running a business, is you can’t do it all by yourself.  Our Sensei (teacher) is the head, the heart beat, of the entire dojo, however, he has other students that help out when needed.  It is understood that if Sensei is not in the class, then the next highest ranked student (based on belt level, called a Sempi) is to lead that class.  The respect is still the same, and the class is run in the same way that Sensei would have run it had he been there (goes back to having a system – all students know how the class is run, and is run in the same basic format each time).  Obviously Sensei cant work one-on-one with all the students at the same time, so when he does lead the class, he will call on the higher ranked students to work with the lower ranked students in groups.  This allows him to go from group to group, or work with one student at a time knowing the other students are still being looked after.  Sensei also has someone else run his office management tasks (parent liaison, new student set up, phones, and supplies, pretty much anything that needs to be done to keep the dojo open).  This frees him up to do what he does best – teach! 

The truly successful business owners know they cannot possibly fill all the roles that it takes to operate a business.  They either hire employees to handle what I call the “back office” tasks, or they outsource.  Anything from bookkeeping to marketing (both online and print) to phone answering to systems creation to travel plans and everything in between – all of which can and should be done by someone other than the owner, the visionary behind the business.    Do what Sensei does – do what you do best (grow your business) and let others help you with the rest.

As I was writing this, I realized there are many more comparisons I can make between the road to getting your black belt and running a successful business.  Things like showing respect to not only your peers, but to those outside your business (or dojo) as well.  Or being accountable for your actions (Sensei is big on this one).  Or giving back to your community.  Or the discipline. Or…..list could go on and on.

We truly believe our children are better off today because they started karate 3-years ago.  And I know my business is better off by implementing the same traits that I described above.

So what is your comparison?  By what standards are you holding your business to?  I know I want my business to have a black belt mentality – how about yours!

Learn To Focus On What’s Important and Farm Out The Rest

As promised in my previous posting, over the next few weeks I am going to be featuring articles written by Tim Knox.  Tim is a highly sought-after speaker, syndicated business columnist, contributing business writer for Entrepreneur.com, and self-professed Mama's Boy (hence his new book title "Everything I know about business I learned from my Momma".  Tim is also one of the co-hosts of my absolutely favorite podcast - 48 Days to the Work You Love - with Dan Miller.

Learn To Focus On What’s Important and Farm Out The Rest

How many times have you looked around your small business and said, “There just isn’t enough time in the day to get everything done!”   Welcome to the biggest realization you will ever make as a small business owner, my friend: there are only so many hours in the day and there isn’t a darn thing you can do about it.

So, instead of beating yourself up at the end of the day over how much you didn’t get done, you should learn to make better use of the time you have.  Your time should be spent doing only those things that help build your business and increase revenue, not mundane tasks that could be handled by someone else.  It’s called “working on your business instead of working in it.”

We entrepreneurs often feel like we have to do everything ourselves or things won’t get done.  It’s a more accurate statement to say that things might get done, but they wouldn’t get done to the high standards we set for ourselves.

I feel your pain.  It wasn’t that long ago when I thought that I had to have my nose in every detail of my business.  I was personally involved in everything from designing the website to sales and marketing to product design and project management to customer support and beyond.

I spent so much time doing everyone else’s job that I didn’t have time to do my own, and the business suffered for it.  It took a conscious effort on my part to stop micromanaging and start delegating.  Not only that, I found that I had to change my habits regarding even the simplest things like checking email and taking calls; two things that were eating up several hours of my average day.

Here’s how I did it and you can, too. 

Before you can figure out the best use of your time you need to have a clear understanding of what you’re spending your time on now.   Create a diary that details your average day and include every task you perform and how much time it took.  If you spent 30 minutes answering email, jot that down.  If you spent 2 hours at lunch, jot that down.  If you spend 30 minutes on the phone talking to someone who’s trying to sell you toner ink, jot it down.  Account for every minute you spent working for the entire week.

At the end of the week list out all the tasks and the times spent on them.  I think you’ll be amazed at how much time you’re spending on things that really aren’t the best use of your time.   Now divide the list into tasks that you yourself must absolutely, positively handle and tasks that you could hand off to someone else.  Yes, I said hand off to someone else.  You’re about to learn to delegate, Heaven help you.

Here’s the whole point of this exercise: if you’re wasting time on tasks that can be done by someone else, then you need to stop doing them.  Even making small changes in the way you use email or answer the phone can save you hours every day.

In my opinion email is the greatest killer of focus and productivity on the planet. It’s a terrific communications medium and if used wisely can be a highly productive business tool, but more often than not email is used to share funny pictures of animals in compromising positions and videos of Britney Spears.  If you keep up with how much time you’re spending every day on non-essential email I think you’ll get my point.

Many of us have become so addicted to email that we check it every 2 minutes whether we need to or not.  If you’re like me you spend more time plowing through spam than actually reading email of importance.  So unless your business hinges on every email that comes in, I suggest you turn off the email program completely and only check it two to three times a day.  Better still, farm out the email checking to someone else and instruct them to only forward email to you that requires your personal attention.  You’ll be amazed at how many hours a day you’ll save.

I’d bet that you also get dozens of calls every week from people that you don’t really need to talk to.  I’ve stopped answering the phone at my office altogether and I highly recommend you do the same.  I let someone else answer the phone and they have implicit instructions not to bother me unless the call is from someone they know I’ll want to speak to, like my Mama.  Otherwise, they take a message and if the call merits my attention, I’ll return it personally or assign it to someone else to handle. 

If you’re new in business you may not yet have the luxury of farming out every task that is eating up your precious time, but once you’re in a position to do so outsourcing these tasks will free you up to work on more important things, like building your business and increasing revenue.

Tim Knox is an entrepreneur, author, humorist, and speaker. Visit www.timknox.com for more information.