2 Ways to Lock in Your Gains in Business. ROI of over 500%

Are you in business and not sure how you can become more productive and save time?

Well, so am I, and I have some advice for the lot of you!

1. Use a Microsoft Template! This activity is so easy, I don’t understand why people don’t do this. Using templates will save you hours of time formating in the long-run. What’s the difference between a template and a regular office document? Basically nothing, except that when you open up a template, you’re creating a new document with whatever has been premade instead of building a document from scratch. Building a document from scratch is usually a huge waste of time, especially if you routinely use similar types of documents! Not to mention, you’ll probably build the document differently each time, leading to sloppy mistakes and an allure of unprofessionalism.

Using templates is a great way to increase the professionalism of your business, and save countless hour-glasses full of time.

Templates Save a TON of Time: Longboardable Letterhead

Notebooks save time too!

Steps:

I. Open up Microsoft word, excel or powerpoint.

II. Chose an existing document, or create one from scratch.

III. Modify the document so that it becomes a blank and consistent starting point for all future documents of that type. Add your business logo, change the fonts, titles, themes and colours, add instructions for employees, and write down tips that you might otherwise forget.

IV. Select “Save As” and choose “Microsoft word template” (or whichever template suits your needs).

V. Rejoice in the time savings! Avoid formatting your future documents.

Another way you can enjoy these time savings and then some is to customize an existing template to your future needs. Microsoft word comes preloaded with a ton of templates, such as letter-heads, budgets and so forth. There are also hordes of existing user-made templates on the web. The documents you use are probably not THAT unique. But if they are somewhat unique, no matter! Just modify a template by opening one up, and “saving as” the way you did before.

So how much time can this really save? Well, according to my calculations I stand to save roughly 12 hours per month. That’s an 800% return on my time investment (building the templates) Per month!!!! And that’s assuming I need to build entirely new templates from scratch each month!

800% ROI per month. Do it. Do it now!

2. Automate your workflow! If you own a Mac, there’s a program called “Automator” which allows you to automatically command your computer to do things in predictable ways. The best part is, you don’t need to be a computer programmer to use it. It took me 4 or 5 tries to get the hang of it. Don’t fret though, that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the hours you’ll save by using it.

Take protecting your files for instance. Are you protecting sensitive information? Something tells me you’re not, since going into “preferences” on Microsoft word is a hassle and typically of low priority. That is, unless you loose some sensitive business information to a competitor or an employee with his or her nose out of joint.

Try using automator to set the passwords for 10 or more documents at once. Or just password protect them all!

An automating that adds a password and “Author” field to a batch of documents took me 12 minutes to make and less than 1 minute to run. It doesn’t matter how many word docs I have, it will still take me a fraction of the time as it did before! The automator build is a one time undertaking, but the savings are recurring! As an entrepreneur, I can’t afford to spend loads of my time on seemingly low-priority busy work. Why not let your Mac do the busy work for you!

I could automatically modify every document on my computer in less than half an hour! The best part is, any time you want to do this again, you have the automator file you built save (like a template) for future uses! The more work you have to do, the better your return on time invested building an automation is.

Automater Start Page - Where the Time Savings Begins

I. Start by opening up a new “custom” automation.

II. Drag pieces into the field. Make note of what needs to be your “input” and your “result”. Match your outputs of previous actions to inputs of subsequent actions. A good place the start is by ‘getting’ the files that you want to change. Files usually collect in folders so the “get specified finder items” is a good place to start. Remember, whenever you are getting folders, and what you really want is the items inside the folder, you must use the “get folder contents” operation so that your computer knows to modify the documents inside the folders, not the folders themselves.

Simple Automator Process

Simple Automator Process

III. If you’re new to automater, test your work and view the results after every operation you drop. If you are unsure of a result, test it with 1 file before you modify an entire batch of files.

IV. Search the modifications you want to make. Many are available online, but for a new user I would suggest searching within automator’s existing operations, for simple tasks you often find yourself doing, such as modifying many files in a similar way. This applies to most all types of files- images, folders, documents and so on.

V. When using microsoft word operations, make sure that you filter out any of the selected documents that aren’t .doc, .docx, or .txt files. Also make sure to filter out files that have the “/” in their names- for some reason these don’t work well with automater.

VI. Add the “security” operation to your process to set a password for all the documents (when the process runs). Also add the modify properties operation to change meta-data such as author, description, keywords etc.

Microsoft Word Automation Example: Set Word Document Properties

VII. Don’t forget to add the “save” and “close” operations to your word documents. You don’t want automater to leave 20 + unsaved files open.

VIII. Save your automater file for future use! Lock in your productivity gains! Encourage staff and collaborators to use automater.

I find that even 2 hours a day spent on making my life easier in the future has profound compound effects. In essence, as one person I can now do as much busy work as 4 or 5 people could the manual way. Best of all, over time you learn how to automate faster, which results in ever greater returns on your time investment.

Automator Time Savings (Return on Time Investment)

With 5 automations per month, processing 1000+ individual files through routine operations such as filing, renaming, setting metadata, sorting, converting etc., you can save days of your time. Skeptics! I know you’re thinking that these numbers seem too good to be true. Well, if you’re a slow learner and you don’t have many tasks to process this is most definitely the case. However, if you use automater and give it your undivided attention for 3 hours, you will most certainly save time in the long run. However, if you don’t even try, and continue to do things the old way, your ROI will always be a big fat 0%. You may even loose your competitive edge to guys like me who take the time to learn about how their computers can save you a ton of time.

Lock in your gains, and remember that achieving a high ROI (t) is as important, if not more important than achieving a high ROI ($). Why? because the more time you save, the less stressed you’ll be, the more important things you’ll be able to do, and the fewer employees or outsourced services you’ll need. And if we all do this, we’ll all have more time to worry about what’s really important- our health, our friend and family, and our happiness. 🙂

Bonus Time Saver: Don’t open more than 8 windows at once on your web browser. Though you might thing mass opening will save you time, it won’t. We’re usually much too impatient, and as a result switch from tab to tab looking for the page that loads the quickest. In reality, this slows everything down. Take it one or 2 pages at a time, and you’ll be able to fit in more pages viewed, and more article read per hour. Take it from a chrome-tab addict currently in rehab.

Shameless Plug: And if you’re in the market for a Longboard, checkout Longboardable.com. We launch in September.

Why I Chose Longboarding

You’ve probably noticed a lot more people riding around on wheeled platforms this year. They’re not regular wheels though, they’re extra wide, and extra soft. The soft, flexible, polyurethanes that we have today weren’t always around. Longboarding today owes its existence to the evolution of durable, yet affordable plastics, not to mention to the invention of trucks.

Of all the many benefits of Longboarding, here are the TOP 5 REASONS why I Longboard.

1. Short learning curve.

When you’re busy, picking up a new sport is the last thing on your mind. But to reap the many benefits of longboarding, it helps that the sport is damn easy to learn. In the words of a fellow Tristan, “There was literally nothing to learn” (in the context of me teaching my sister how to longboard).

WHY is it so much easier to learn than Snowboarding, Skateboarding or Wakeboarding?

The ANSWER may surprise you. Continue reading, or scroll down.

2. Worry-Free Six Pack

When you get into the habit of Longboarding, your six-pack just happens. Impossible? It happened to me, and it can happen to you.

I’ve only had a true six pack twice in my life. The first was when I was in my mid-teens. Back then, I had the self-discipline to go to the gym and do sit-ups 3 days a week. That gym was a dungeon, but it was all worth it for those coveted abs.

Then highschool rolled around. Along comes drinking, weed and income to buy fast food. Opps. That six-pack shrunk to a four-pack, then to two pack.

The beauty of longboarding is that your abs develop naturally as you move from A to B. You don’t have to think about isolating muscle groups, or cramping your back. Your abs develop on their own, because they help you progress in the sport. Your abs are flexed naturally, not forcefully.

What would you do if you stopped thinking about your gut, and started thinking about something else? Who knows. But thinking about your gut is a huge waste of time, no?

There’s nothing wrong with a gut, and you shouldn’t feel shame for who you are. But if you want a solid core, and you’re like me and just naturally lazy, taking up Longboarding will surprise you in more ways than one.  Your woman (man, or lack there of) will thank you for it.

3. Shorter Commutes.

If you’re like most recent grads, you probably take the bus, or public transit to get to work. (I’ll get to you car and bike people in a minute!) The problem with transit isn’t just the speed of the vehicles. Admittedly, the transit stops slow you down, but in many cases transit saves you time because transit vehicles often have the luxury of avoiding traffic with dedicated lanes or by being underground.

What really kills transit as an efficient transportation option (in terms of total trip time) is traveling to and from the stops! Longboards really cut back on this time. Your walking time can be reduced by 2/3rds, with a longboard. Easy. And what about those days when you get up a tad too late and you miss your bus? No sweat- beat it to the next stop! More often than not, you can catch up to the bus with your longboard, and save your late ass from having to make up an excuse. Longboarding is a refreshing way to wake yourself up.

Then there’s the time you save walking in your neighborhood- getting to and from stores, your place, restaurants, the post office, fast food, the bank and so on. Individually, the trips don’t seem like much – 10 minutes saved here, 2 there – but collectively, small savings can free up a lot of time. I calculated that I save 30 minutes per day by longboarding around my neighborhood. That’s a 90 hour savings for a 6 month season (seasons are generally 8 months in Canada, but I took out 2 months to account for rain days).

So longboarding frees up an extra 90 hours in my life, what will I use that time for? Well, I’ll use it for sleeping in. I’ll get more work done in a day. Relax more. Read more. Socialize more. What would you do with an extra 90 hours?

Bike People. I hear your skepticism. Why not get a bike? You murmur. Bikes are, after all, faster than longboards. You’ve got me there.

Here’s the thing. The average speed you travel is not the only factor at hand. Disagree? Then might I suggest you take an airplane to work? Clearly there’s something else at play here- albeit exaggerated in the plane example. Speed isn’t the only factor that affects how long it takes to get from point A to point B.

Taking an airplane would be absurd traveling across town to your office. Why? Because you can’t walk out your front door and onto a plane. You have to set up your flight, and get to and from the airports and wait for your bags to finish rotating around a metal conveyor belt. Waiting, security and boarding will eat away at your time. Now, at sufficient distances, taking a plane does make sense. At some distance, a plane and a car actually take the same amount of time in total.

Total Trip Time = Distance /Average Travel Speed + Set Up Time + Put Away Time + Delays

Now, unlike bikes, with longboarding, you can ride right out the door every single trip. (Most people don’t keep their bikes in their front closets.) And when you’re on a longboard, you can take shortcuts that bikes simply can’t pull of. Bikes make sense for distances of >1 KM. (up to a certain point)

Longboards make sense for distances <1 KM.

I drive. Not a ton, but enough. Cars are good at what they do, and since they’re a permanent fixture of you place of residence, the set up time is pretty modest. But what about parking…

Parking kills your time gains. Looking for it, walking from it, paying for it, defending yourself for where you do it. Don’t even get me started. But hey, you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do. Parking is one of those annoying facts of life and owning a car. But you can still save time with a longboard! I longboard to and from my dad’s car wherever I go.

Most people don’t associate time-savings with Longboarding. But here’s the catch- when you’re doing something to save time, you will naturally do it more. Commute your gut into a six pack, and save time in the process.

3. Sweet, sweet carving.

I’ve cross-stepped around the biggest selling point of longboarding. You can carve down a street, the way you carve down a snow-covered hill. You can even propel yourself across mostly flat terrain. No holding onto a rope behind car, though that does sound like fun. I never thought it would be possible to feel a smooth road in the same way that you feel power on a hill, or perfectly flat water at the cottage. I was wrong.

4. The terrain park is already built.

Just take a look in your backyard. If you’re like most people, you live in a city. Your city is your playground. I guarantee that if you live in any decently sized metropolitan area you will discover a ton of great longboarding spots, that are already there!

Board Sports are my thing. I was weened on Waterskiing, and have indulged in Skiing, Snowboarding, Surfing, Wakeboarding, Kneeboarding and Wakeskating over the years. I was never a fan of Skateboarding because I didn’t have the patience, or the tolerance for pain. The fact of the matter is, these sports are great, but I can’t live in the city and get any good at the same time. They simply aren’t accessible. I can’t wakeboard home from the bank, though if anyone finds a way to do this, kudos! Drop me a line.

5. The price is right.

You can get a decent complete for $250. And the nice thing is, you aren’t paying for gas for your boat or for lift tickets. There’s barely any maintenance and you can use the helmets and pads you likely already own. And if you substitute transit, for longboarding you can put those savings towards a better board. Then there’s the value of your time.

Bottom Line: When it comes to board-sports, you simply can’t beat a longboard in terms of value. I discovered Longboarding last year and am on my 2nd season. Today, I’m maneuvering the streets in ways I hardly thought I was capable of last year. It’s really that easy.

5. bonus; help the environment by consuming less fuel.

I’m not saying a longboard the solution to the environmental crisis, but it’s a step in the right direction. The less we burn the better.

Your answer…

So why is Longboarding so much easier to pick up?

Simple- accessibility. Unlike Wakeboarding and Snowboarding, you can typically longboard within 2 minutes of walking out your front door. The result? While the sport might not be THAT much easier pound for pound, it is much MUCH easier to get the time in. Not to mention, you save yourself all the extra work and energy involved in putting on snow gear, or filling up your boat with gas (and recruiting a spotter) every time you want to go out. That effort can be redirected towards getting better, and getting better faster.

And what makes it easier than skateboarding? Cracks. Longboards can ride over cracks with ease, (due to the big urethane wheels). Skateboards can ride over cracks too, but for beginners, cracks can bite, and seriously turn you off the sport.

And lastly, if you’re from Canada, check out our commerce store. We live and processing orders as of Friday August 19, 2011.

www.longboardable.ca