MAIN CAUSE OF LAZINESS #1 AND How to Immediately Improve Productivity by a Quantifiable Amount!

Procrastination – Often as trades people we are creative. We have tactile skills to create with our hands. We NEED to think outside the box to create. We are not easily replaced by robots for this reason. Our creativity is our biggest asset in my humble opinion.

But, it's also our biggest burden. When a creative gets boxed in, bored, or overwhelmed motivation dies fast. You go into analysis paralysis, or just simply stop caring. And its hard to overcome.

Solution: Set a time on your phone for each day where you will not be interrupted. Maybe its 530 when you get home. Set a second time that is for 5 minutes later (5:35). Commit immediately to spend JUST 5 minutes a day on whatever you KNOW you blow off. Maybe its just cleaning your old socks out of your car. Maybe its febreezing those nasty Foot-dungeons you call boots. Maybe its making a list for the stuff you will tacking in the coming days. Just do it. Even if you are still lazy and never exceed the 5 minutes, 5 minutes 5 days a week times 52 weeks, that is over 21 hours of extra stuff you accomplished a year. (over 2 full work days, or a solid weekend you can spend just starting some other project you know you won’t finish). Now imagine you set aside 10 minutes? 15? But I do suggest starting small. It immediately kills the overwhelm because even if you don't get further than putting away those welding gloves in the shop, you still in truth, accomplished the 21 hours per year goal.

How does this improve my work situation you ask?

Well, when is the last time you looked at your resume?

When did you last update it?

What state is your toolbox in?

Are you up to date on all your WHMIS?

Have you made a list of further training you would like to take one day or wrote a strategy on how to accomplish it?

Have you called your mother lately so that she can also nag you about all the above (aka ask how she can help you achieve your goals)?

When have you last searched a job bank to see if you are eligible for a career move?

Have you read about changes to changes to regulations?

Have you reviewed any of your professional evaluations and tackled some of the issues within?

Have you exercised? Eaten a Brussels sprout lately?

Have you looked into any of those things you keep saying you “gotta look into it” about?

Stop being lazy. Its crushing everything you are capable of and meant to do.

- Team Havasu

DONT BE LAZY

According to “www.Whyamilazy.com” (That’s cute. I like that) The first step to defeating laziness is understanding the main causes of laziness. It proceeds to list the main 10 causes and goes into the detail of each. But I don’t much care if your car is a trash can (although it’s a symptom of the unaddressed problem) but I DO care about how it pertains to business and your success as a skilled, employable or entrepreneurial tradesperson. So over the coming weeks I will cover all 10 issues and address the solution.

10 STEPS TO START YOUR BUSINESS

We have decided to start a blog. There is so much happening right now in the world of the skilled trades and it is exciting. Starting a business if you don’t have a mentor or good friend in the industry can feel not just daunting but downright insurmountable.

But I am here to tell you it is doable.

If we, for simplicity sake, were to keep things broad, it would look something like this (and I do think this is of value because truly I don’t think most people know where to start)

1. Decide what you want to do. Keep it simple. Like Tim Hortons (ah, how Canadian of us). Decide on a good coffee and make it. I think most of us conservative typed people agree, expanding the menu to the epic proportions was more of an annoyance to us than a wealth of great new items. Tim Hortons. I implore you – go back to Coffee and Donuts. I dread the thought of buying a coffee to sit 20 minutes in a drive through so Sue can order 17 ham and cheese sandwiches, ask what toppings are the that new fangled donut, and request that her bagel be gluten free.

Decide on your COFFEE AND DONUTS.

2. Research how to do it well. When we are jack of all trades, we spread ourselves thin. We derail the possibility for ourselves of becoming MASTER OF ONE. One thing that everyone knows you to be “The Guy” (or Gal) to go to. I was gifted a fantastic book once entitled ‘Master of One: Find and Focus on the Work You Were Created to Do’ By Jordan Raynor. I will link it below. It is not tremendously long. It has summary’s at the end of each chapter. It is written from a Christian slant – and if that is not your jam, that’s ok – the message is still delivered in an effective way. I will link it below.

3. Decide if you’d like to be a NAMED / NUMBERED COMPANY, or SOLE PROPRIETORSHIP. I could talk about it. But I won’t do it justice. Instead watch the www.youtube.com video I link below. He is Canadian. He has an accent like a European mobster, He is Eugene, best of all, he is brief.

4. Get Legit. I know. This is where the dream screeches to a halt right? How do I do that. This is where things could get broad. Want to have a Sole proprietorship? Ready for this? Take five minutes and Google: How to register as a sole proprietor in (insert province). Click on the respective government website. Follow directions. Incorporation? Watch a bit more of the Youtube videos by Eugene, (linked below). There are businesses like that out there that can get you 100 percent set up. Alternatively, a website like www.corporationcenter.com will also get you totally set up from the comfort of your home. (No we are not paid by them, its just who we used personally and I like that there is information on their website for people who truly don’t have a hopeful clue in hell what they are doing, such as us when we first did it).

5. GET A DOMAIN. Listen closely. This is important. Find out if you can get your business name should you chose to go that route. (There is a way, its called a Nuans search. www.corporationcenter.com can do it for you). IF your business name is not take, and you can achieve it – REGISTER THE DOMAIN BEFORE you register your company. There are yucky internet evils that see your corporation name as its registered, register a domain then try to sell it back to you for ridiculous money. And it’s a heartbreak when you just spent all that dough to register a name you now can’t make a website for. Even if you keep it broad when you get your domain – we are technically Havasu Industries Canada Inc. We simple got the domain www.havasucanada.com (and we also bought www.havasuindustries.com as well along with some .ca domains just to be sure).

6. Set up a Business Bank Account and Insurance. I say business account BEFORE insurance because getting that credit card and those checks in hand can can take even up to 2 weeks and you can’t do business easily without those things (you can but your accountant might dislike you for it). PLUS once they are in hand, you can start your business insurance set up right on your business banking / credit card.

7. Set up a LinkedIn account. Personally I don’t love linked in. But there are a lot of people who are great at it. I am not one of them, but it IS a way to network. I am MUCH more of a face to face person. I like to really get to know someone’s energy and let them know mine. But it is a starting point. Also it DOES help you focus your business identity by asking you to present yourself in one way or another to the world. It at minimum gives you time to pause and think of what you have accomplished (accreditations, education) much in the same way as a resume, which will better help you to present yourself to the industry when you start to go out into the world. You may be great at wrenching but it wont get you anywhere if you can’t say WHY you are the BEST person for THAT wrenching job and how you are set apart.

8. Look up Bids and Tenders in your industry or Get Networking. Put yourself out there and REALLY tell everyone you know what you are up to. Don’t be shy and pretend you don’t have a right to be out there doing you. ITS OK if you are not an expert yet. You are saying to the world you are GOING to be an expert, nay, a force to be reckoned with, in just a matter of time. And, You are asking them to give you the time to say why. Integrity goes far. Saying “I don’t know the answer, but I am the guy who will DO EVERYTHING to know now that you ask” is big. There is power in that. Get familiar with what bids and tenders are (just google it to start) and apply for them. EVEN if you don’t get a single job, you practiced and learned. You are now WAY ahead of the guy who is just on step one. Look at you and how far you’ve come.

9. PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE. Don’t stop your learning curve. Sign up for a sales course, a second trade ticket, licence or whatever. Sign up for a MOOC. What is a MOOC? Massive Open Online Course (I may have mixed that up but google MOOC). They are free, or even cheap, and there are ones on everything from your feelings to Climate Change or equality in the workplace. Look, I don’t care if you believe in climate change or not. Bob with the Region of Wherever may not either, but if he likes you, that climate change course or your woke understanding of equality makes you a great guy to justify hiring because it make him look great to his bosses. Because after all its Climate Change. (P.s. We subscribe to the idea at Havasu Industries Canada called "Don't be a Dick.". We don't need to be "woke" we don't need to "believe in climate change" because we believe in treating ALL people with respect and dignity and we strive to be respectful of the earth around us by responsibly caring for our environment. So, don't be a dick).

10. Be confident and believe in you. We have all met that guy we look at and say “He can't even tie his Effin' boots up, let alone how'd he get that job?" If he can, you can. It’s a number’s game out there. Don’t get discouraged, take 10 no’s and go into the 11th opportunity ready to win it. Like dating. Even if you ugly, you say hello to enough other humans and someone will find your pug face cute or charming. Just go giver and giver till you’re winning at your first million and all those “no’s” wished they looked past that mess of a face because you own a yacht when your aren’t busy being the master of rebuilding a shit-pump.

-Team Havasu

Resources:

Jordon Raynor's Book: Master Of One: https://jordanraynor.com/

WWW.CORPORATIONCENTRE.COM

Youtube Eugene's Info

Our website - https://cbes.ca/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/CanadianBiz

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/cbes