College and Small Business: My Lessons Learned That May Help Entrepreneurs
June 14th, 2011 | Small Business Tips | No Comments »So, I finished my first year of college and it wasn’t too bad, but being on campus was sort of distracting. I took a bunch of courses, including one Math course(now I’m completely done with Math!), however, most of those courses were critical thinking courses. What I learned in my first year, while doing those courses, can be applicable to small businesses.
- Pay attention to deadlines! This is important. Even if the deadline is a month away, one should always keep an eye on it. Small business owners can often get overwhelmed from the sheer number of things that they have to do (remember, small business usually means less employees), so it’s better for them to keep some extra time before deadlines to get stuff done.
- Keep up with your reading. My courses had a lot of reading required for them. I did do most of it, but I did not space them out and as a result the readings got a little overwhelming. Since small business owners have to read reports and do a lot of paperwork, this is a good tip to keep in mind.
- Print stuff out if you have to. I know we’re all trying to save paper and help the environment and all, but reading on a screen is not fun. You can do it for a while, but if it’s a 5pg PDF with very dense text, you’re better off printing it out. You can even scribble notes on it if it makes you happy. This is especially useful if your employees are emailing you their reports.
- Don’t work in the same place all the time. Sometimes working in a different place can help you concentrate. Sometimes, when I was doing my readings, I would go outside. It helped me focus. For small business owners, try holding your meetings on the rooftop or even outside the building.
- Use something other than a Powerpoint. Everyone uses Powerpoint. Why not switch things around a bit? I remember one of my TA’s used something called a Prezi once. It was a lot more dynamic than a PowerPoint. This would help employees focus a little more on the content.
These tips helped me get through my first year, so maybe they will help you too.
