The first two things I do every Monday morning

In the last few years, I have helped quite a number of friends and business acquaintances who are starting their own businesses in Singapore by doing their websites for free or at a very very low cost.

I am always glad to see more fellow Singaporeans owning their businesses, because I believe this is the way our country should develop. It is also my small way of contributing back to society.

I will meet them for a couple of hours to understand their business model and hear what inspires them to start out on their own. This inspires me, even though I have being running my own company for the last twelve years, because I feel that there is a danger of hitting a comfort zone and getting stuck with the same way of doing things every day.

Seeing them venturing out of their own comfort zone reminds me to always think that way.

As the objective is about their websites, we will end up with me sharing some past experiences because, for their websites, the most common issue is the lack of regular updating after launch.

At this point, the simple advice I give is about the first two things I do every Monday morning before everything else. They are: check cash flow and update website.

These two tasks can be delegated now as I have a 15-man company, but I have somehow gotten to the habit of doing it myself since I have being doing it for so long.

For those starting out, my reason is very simple. It concerns a new company's top two priorities: current flow of cash, and sales and marketing which is immediate-future flow of cash.

Checking cash flow involves going through billings to make sure everything is in order, that there are no overdue receivables, checking the cash at bank and projecting how many more months you have before running out of cash. Basic survival, especially if you are new.

Updating website is a habit that is cultivated. It doesn't mean my company website is updated weekly. It just means that the question is asked: is there anything that should be updated on our website?

This also implies updating any communication and marketing channels: Facebook, blogs or emailers that you may want to send regularly, and even updating any physical posters that are forgotten. To me, this is a discipline as important as cash flow management.

In a way, these two tasks push you to perform for the rest of the week. If you are doing well, the numbers show and you want to do better. If not, you know what to do because the indicators are clear: customers not paying you on time or you are lacking sales.

I use Google Task for my to-do list. These two tasks are on the next Monday as the first two items. Nothing gets done before them, and I have avoided having any meetings on Monday mornings. Once done, the items are not checked, but shifted to the following Monday.

Just like writing this article. It was in the to-do list for me as "Monday - Update website (write a SBR article)".
 

Oh Yong Hwee, CEO, Patroids Creative Works Pte Ltd.