Don't drop a ball!

It's a bit like juggling, this business thing. There's so much you are trying to do at once, and you have to keep all the balls in the air!

Not done much specifically to do with the business today, as I've been busy with other things. But I have had a couple of ideas (mainly PR & marketing related) so I've made a note of them. I have to keep lists of my ideas, as otherwise I'd never remember them, even by tomorrow I'll have completely forgotten about this one! And I'd kick myself if I missed the chance of implementing one of them.

I get tons of ideas, or lists of things I need to do/check, when I'm reading books, so I add those into my notes aswell. Keeping it all together in a notebook (instead on scraps of paper all over the place) means I can review them regularly and take appropriate things to the next stage when necessary.

A few weeks ago, I was a bit bothered that it was all getting out of control, and I couldn't see the woods for the trees. So I drew up a 'Timetable and Countdown to Launch' work programme which is split into monthly tasks from September to May. Pre launch, launch (March) and immediately post launch.

It allows us to focus on the priorities and not get carried away spending time on things that aren't that important yet. We brainstormed everything we think we need to do, and then I divided a table into columns showing Technical activities (actually getting our product right), Marketing activities (market research, PR and direct sales) and Business activities (bookkeeping, tax, company structure, finance etc). It's worked a treat.

But as I sit here and look at September (being 30 Sept today) I realise that I've probably done about 70% of what I set out to do, but loads more that weren't in the original plan, but became necessary - such as this blog for instance! That's fine, because it needs to be flexible, and I can add things to the months as we go along. For example, I forgot that I needed to buy a scanner, so that's been added into November's tasks, and it means I can forget about it until then. Frees your head up and stops you becoming so overwhelmed at the size of the job in front of you.

Dropped off the first lot of 'gifts' for our market research respondents yesterday. Hope they liked them!

Kirsty