When someone finally goes out on their own, it can be tempting to abandon deadlines and do your own thing for once in your life. Big mistake. Even more, that attitude could sink your entrepreneurial ship.



Because we are inherently lazy creatures, we need deadlines to be efficient. Think about it. If there were no deadlines, your newspaper or magazine would not be available when you expect it; the 9 p.m. news may come on at 11:15 p.m. long after you are in bed; your advertisement may run the week after your scheduled promotion!

In most corporations where I have had an inside peek, deadlines always seemed to get pushed back. At all levels of government committees are formed to study the problem, focus groups are created to take the pulse of the problem, reports are written to get at the problem.

Running a small business will rarely allow these kinds of delaying tactics. Deadlines can and do turn goals into reality. The ONLY way to attack a problem in a small business is to roll up your sleeves and dig in and that includes setting a deadline for finishing it.

Action is the name of the game, not excuses and delays. The small business owner or manager is constantly up to his or her neck in deadlines with almost no one to whom they can hand off the action required.

Real life in a small business is not like high school where you can miss a deadline if your dog ate your paper. In the real world there are NO excuses. Sleet, rain nor dead of night will allow you to cut yourself slack on your own deadlines.

That web site will never get up and running. Those phone calls to new prospects will be shelved until those prospects buy elsewhere. That brochure will not get laid out, the video you need for your next ad will not get recorded and that ad will never be placed.

Small business owners and managers often forgo pleasures and fun things in order to meet their deadlines. They stay up late. They do what needs to be done. Often it hurts. Mom, I don't feel well. I need to stay home today will not work for the entrepreneur. Whining is not allowed in the small biz environment.

Nope. Sick or stressed, crashed computer or stalled car, the entrepreneur meets deadlines. They rarely get sick. They often play hurt. Those traits are part of the game that set you apart from your competitors, no matter what business you are in. You become the pivot point of any deal, because you are the person that makes things happen.

Successful small business owners and managers rarely stall and make excuses no matter how difficult the task or the challenge. They set deadlines and meet them come Hell or high water.

They set and embrace deadlines and train themselves to faithfully and firmly follow-up. Deadlines and follow-up habits become the norm in a well run business.

Make your deadlines fair but real and the productivity effectiveness in your business will improve. I guarantee it!