Over the past 4 years, I have developed several habits that have helped me go from unemployed, to the owner of three companies. For a little insight into how I operate, I am a hyper creative visionary thinker and idea factory. I have never had a problem thinking big picture, so it’s easy for me to lose sight of what I need to tackle for my daily tasks. Have I mastered every one of these areas, no. But each one of them has become invaluable in getting even one step closer to success.
1). Wake Up Early
For years I operated later in the day, getting up at 9am and going to bed around 1 or 2am. This was partially because for years working in the restaurant industry, and the majority of work centered around lunch, diner, and late nights. After I got married, my wife would get up early to get ready for her job as a teacher, and I would get up with her. She spends 2 hours in the morning getting ready for her day, and I spend that time working on designs, finances, my website, and coming up with new product ideas. About a year ago, I started going to the gym at 6am every morning, and this completely changed my mindset for my entire day. But sadly COVID hit and closed the gyms for months here in New York, so I lost my momentum. But for me, I still get up early every morning and get a jumpstart on the day before most people are even up. Just because you work for yourself, and make your own schedule, doesn’t mean you should operate like a 19 year old college student milking their video game addiction. Sleeping enough and putting in place boundaries to guard your time will become invaluable in creating the lifestyle you desire. Control Your Time!
2). Multi-tasking
One of the skills I learned managing kitchens through my 20’s working in culinary, was working on multi-tasking. When you are cooking something, you don’t just sit around for that one thing to finish. You have a pot on the stove simmering a sauce, you have chicken & baking in the oven, the mixer is whipping up a batch of spin dip, and the meat slicer is cutting sliced turkey for sandwiches. This idea of having multiple operations going all at once is a skill that has allowed me to become highly productive in whatever position or capacity I am working in.
In whatever you do, do it with excellence. The one thing you have in this life, that you can never get back, is time. So utilizing your time wisely MUST become one of your top priorities. Find equipment or strategic ways to maximize your efforts. In a practical sense, when I am making candles, I will wick up containers, then while the glue is setting, I will label the lids and prepare to melt the wax. Then once I pour the candles, I will begin preparing the next order for production, or I will prepare my packaging for shipment of the previous order. With multiple steps in my process, there is always something top work on.
3). section out your day
one of the biggest mistakes people make, and I am still working on this, is sectioning out my day. I always feel like I have to respond to emails, DM’s, and text messages right away. The problem with this mentality is, you could go through your whole day communicating, and not actually accomplish anything. So in order to not get sucked into the vortex of social media and email, set aside 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes at the end of the workday. Now obviously you may have some exceptions to this, but for the most part, your productivity on social media is over after the first 15-20 minutes anyway. SO putting a 30 minute cap gives you the freedom to brows, but not waste hours on something that won’t actually give you any rate of return.
I also highly suggest batching your marketing imagery. If you post once a day on social media, take a couple hours one day week, and take all your images for the week. This way you aren’t devoting Hours each day to figuring out what to post.
4). Batch processing
if you are like me, and produce a lot of the same product, or multiples of the same product throughout the year. Take that little extra time and investment in the things that sell the most, and batch process them.
Candlemakers: For me there is roughly 10 different candles in my lineup that are the most popular out of my 140 fragrance options. SO I have started to make 50 or 100 at a time to simply have them on hand. This way I always have them in stock, and I don’t have to take the time to produce them every week.
Woodworkers: If you make cutting boards, and they are custom to a particular customer, make 20 of the same cutting board. Use the table saw once, glue up and clamp several at a time, run them through the planer at the same time.
Leathersmiths: If you produce signature leather wallets for your own brand, make 20 at a time instead of 1. Especially if you use a sowing machine, a lot of time can be taken up in the process of switching out thread color. If you dye your leather, dying enough leather to make 20 wallets is far more efficient than doing 1 at a time.
EDC Machinists & sellers: Even though the thing to do is drop limited runs, make enough for the year of each product all at once, it will not only typically cost you less per unit or for material, (so your profit margin will be higher), but it will make your life a lot easier! you will spend less time communicating with suppliers and machinists, and you won’t have to postpone a drop if your supply doesn’t come in on schedule.
Simple batch processing can cut down a lot on your production time, and over a years time, it can literally give you several extra days to work on other projects!
