How to Be the Most Productive Small Business Owner in the World

Have you ever looked at a business owner or entrepreneur and thought, “How the heck does that guy have the time to do all that he does?” Personally, I can recall asking this question many times myself over the years about the business owners and entrepreneurs I saw that seemed to work and produce like they had rocket engines strapped to their backs. But in the last six months or so, all of the sudden I find myself asking this question less and instead being on the receiving end of such a flattering inquiry.

That being said, this is going to be one of those posts that may come across as a, “Hey, look at me. I’m awesome because I’m doing lot’s of cool things and I’m more productive then you, Nanny-nanny-boo-boo!”, but please understand that such exclamations and prideful imaginations are not my goal here. I simply want to help readers understand what the heck I’ve done in my life over the past year or so that has caused my work, pet projects, and revenue streams to go up and up and up.

Also, the recommendations I’m going to make in this article are not for everyone, so keep in mind that every person and every situation is different. What works for me may or may not work for you. Therefore, I only ask that you have an open mind to these suggestions and let the chips fall as they may. So here goes:

My Situation One Year Ago:

A little over 12 months ago, I found myself living a bland life as a pool guy. Now don’t get me wrong, for most people owning a business where you have the constant demands of bills, employees, customers, ect– there is simply nothing bland about it. But for me, this was not the case. I felt like I had more to offer the world and I wasn’t satisfied with myself. And at the time, I’d say my business model was average, my general productivity was average, and my satisfaction as to what I was doing with my life was less than average.

I think much of this disenchantment stemmed from the fact that I’m a teacher and coach at heart. To me, there is nothing more satisfying than helping others reach their potential and achieve things they would have never previously imagined. Somehow, I had to satiate my internal promptings and just selling pools wasn’t going to cut it. I realized that I was 31 years old and if I didn’t make some changes soon, I’d eventually just settle for less than I was capable. Yeah, sure my business would make me a decent living to support my family. And yes, I’d have many happy customers. But would I be able to say in 20 or 30 years, if I continued down this path, that I had gotten the most out of my life?

With an exceeding clarity and understanding of my then present state, I took actions to get more out of myself. I determined to attack each day more intelligently and with more vigor. And I knew if I only persisted in walking this new path, success and productivity would have but no choice to come along for the journey.

So here is a small list of the main areas I changed to get more out of myself, my business, and my personal life:

Web/Marketing 2.0

As I’ve talked quite a bit about in previous posts, 12 months ago I was a computer dummy. Despite many people in my generation, I had not yet taken to ‘the whole technology thing’. I knew this had to change and was simply tired of seeing myself as a web idiot. Luckily, I found Hubspot and started understanding the world of Web 2.0. New phrases such as inbound vs outbound marketing, social media, Twitter, Blogging, SEO, organic search, etc all entered my vernacular. And considering my passion is teaching and coaching, this whole Information Age/Web 2.0 thing made the hair on my arms stand up. It fit my personality like a glove and I knew it was everything I’d been looking for. This is why I started reading countless articles regarding this subject and watching as many videos and webinars I could find. And to put it mildly, my appetite could not be appeased.

Blogging

I know people likely don’t believe this statement, but I really didn’t know what a blog was about 12 months ago. I figured it was something like a diary for nerdy people online that liked to talk too much. Boy was I misguided. Once I really started understanding how blogging worked, I implemented it into my swimming pool company’s web strategy. Although it was slow to come around, the blogging started garnering more and more visitors and subscribers to our site. As a naturally opinionated person, I wrote about whatever was on my mind in the pool industry. And boy did a few bone-headed people get upset that some little ‘snot-nosed kid’ was impacting the opinions of so many swimming pool consumers around the country. But despite the attacks I received from these antiquated industry bullies, I continued to put my thoughts to pen. Consumers soon found they had a trusted voice where they’d get information that no one else was writing about.

Video

Video is easily the most underused marketing medium on the Web. And the crazy thing about it is that it’s also one of the absolute easiest to implement. Just over a year ago, I watched my first YouTube video. Shortly thereafter, I uploaded our company’s first how-to video about swimming pools. I carry my little flip camera with me everywhere I go and it’s amazing how I now see each job and customer I visit as a video opportunity.

Physical Health

No matter how successful we are with our temporal affairs, if we let our physical health go then we’ve accomplished very little. Knowing that I needed to be able to maintain my physical health yet not allow going to the gym eat too much of my ‘productivity’ time, I bought a nice elliptical about a year ago. Buying this machine has done wonders for my body and mind. Every single evening I get on the elliptical and workout for 60 minutes.  60 minutes might sound incredibly boring to most people, but because I have the elliptical set up in my basement looking at the TV, it means that not only can I get a great workout but I can also watch any shows that interest me.  Most people, in an effort to maximize ‘productivity’, cut TV out of their lives. Personally, I think it’s great if someone doesn’t watch TV but in my case, working out and watching TV allows me to kill two birds with one stone. With the help of TiVo, I can watch any show I’d like, fulfilling any need I might otherwise have to mindlessly vegetate in front of the tube.

Also, the other huge key to exercise that has completely impacted my productivity is the fact that I always work out at night. In other words, when I’m feeling exhausted by 9 or 9:30pm due to the day’s activities, I drag myself to the elliptical and within minutes, my body starts to feel re-invigorated. After 60 minutes of this rigorous exercise, I come back upstairs (by this time it’s usually around 11pm) and have a new found energy that last for another 2 hours or so. And it has been during these late night sessions at my computer where I’ve produced most of my blog articles and other works.

Working From Home

I’ve mentioned physical and temporal health in this article, but please understand that  I feel one’s complete fulfillment only comes through the proper balance of work, study, exercise, play, and time spent with loved ones. Understanding that productivity meant an increase in all these areas, I needed to figure a way to spend more time with my wife and children as well. It used to be that no matter what my schedule was for the day, I’d make a 45 minute drive to my office and if I was able to see my family that night after work then great. Then, when I started changing my life, I made the determination to work from home as often as possible. In fact, I made it a rule that if I didn’t have a sales appointment, I’d just stay home. And when I work from home, I simply place my laptop at the kitchen table of my house, which means I have children running in, around, and over me throughout the day. At first, much of these ‘distractions’ were difficult to deal with. But now, I’ve trained my mind to work within such an environment, which has meant that not only did I eliminate a useless 45 minute drive two times a day, but I’ve seen my wife and children more in this past year than I ever have, which has been wonderful.

Final Results

Web 2.0: To give you an idea just what a difference one year can make, I taught a large Web 2.0 seminar to small businesses last weekend. Yep, the guy that was an idiot just one year ago is now teaching large groups. I have other seminars scheduled throughout this year as well. I’m also giving free small biz website analysis services. As you can imagine, being able to help so many business owners and entrepreneurs has been incredibly rewarding.

Blogging: The River Pools blog is the most read swimming pool blog in the world. No, I’m not exaggerating. We have hundreds of subscribers and the traffic to our website is unbelievable. I receive, on average, one request a day from a pool shopper out of our installation area (Va and Md) petitioning us to come out to their state and install their pool. It’s really amazing how trust can be garnered if we give our customers great content. I discussed this in the popular ‘How to Become a Celebrity in Your Industry’ article, but just to give another example of this is the fact that I recently received a call from a gentleman in the Virgin Islands offering to fly us out to his home and pay us to install his pool. In other words, I’m now getting paid to go on vacation. Crazy, isn’t it?

And for those of you who want real numbers, over the course of these 12 months I’ve written at least 2 blog articles a week. This has equated to a company website of over 200 total pages.

Video: Our company has produced more video regarding inground swimming pools than any company in the world. These videos have only enhanced our brand and taken our company image to another level. They’ve also made us a thought leader in our industry in terms of our ability to help other swimming pool companies, which is why we started PoolSchool for Builders—Which was a direct result of other companies wanting to visit and learn from us in an effort to enhance their trade.

Physical Health: Today I weigh about 182 lbs. This is less than what I weighed as a junior in high school. Physically, I feel strong and healthy (I have a resting heart rate of 50 beats per minute), and this gives me the energy and stamina to write and produce quality content late into the night (or should I say morning ).

Family: I’m glad I’m writing about this and not speaking, because it’s a topic that makes me quite emotional just thinking about it. My marriage and family life is better than it has ever been right now. The relationship I have with my three kids is at an all time high. I simply cannot express how happy I feel saying this.

Final Thoughts and The Sales Lion

Well if you’ve managed to get through this long post, hopefully you’ve gotten a glimpse of how my life, as well as my productivity, has drastically changed over these past 12 months. I mentioned earlier the desire I had to better utilize my talents in order to get more out of life. This desire has led to the blog you now read, The Sales Lion. Instead of hiding and hoarding all the sales, marketing, and life lessons I’ve learned this past year, I use this blog as my trumpet to other like-minded individuals around the world who are seeking more from themselves.

Since starting this blog about 4 months ago, I’ve written about 40 articles at an average of 1200 words a piece (I focus on quality over quantity). And how have I found the time to add this into the list of other daily demands? Well, I believe that as we go about life and refine further and further who we are, as well as exercise our talents, our abilities to achieve great things will be constantly enhanced. In fact, I’d venture to say that our minds and capacity to produce greatness will soar with every moment we spend endeavored in doing those things that will bring us the greatest personal reward and satisfaction. That, for me, is this blog.

So my hope is that if you feel you’re not reaching your individual potential, or that your business is falling short of what it’s capable of, then start today the process of stretching yourself. Look into the mirror and see who you currently are and envision where you want to be. Once you do this, jump on that path and don’t look back. Greatness is simply around the corner for all of us, if we only trust our gut and take those initial steps.

Thoughts on productivity? What’s holding you back and what has worked for you? As always, I warmly invite you to express what’s on your mind in the comment section below.

If you liked this article, you may also like:

5 Steps to Becoming a Small Business Owner ‘2.o’ in 2010

10 Basic Website Design Skills EVERY Small Business Owner Should Know Right Now

Exercise: The Best Motivational and Productivity Tool in the World

5 Reasons Every Small Business in the World Should Write an EBook

Why “I’m not a Computer Guy” is the Lamest Excuse in the World for Business Owners