Page 56 - The Magic of Tiny Business

Chapter Three  Taking Tiny Steps

lawyer to help you get started. It will cost you less to do it
right the first time. Don’t do it yourself. Trust me.

Need to Do vs. Nice to Do

With any new startup, there’s a lot of juggling involved,
which can create stress. It feels like there’s never enough
time. The next not-so-tiny but important steps in setting
up my business included:

® Talking with (and then retaining) a lawyer
® Getting an accountant
® Choosing the legal structure (we chose an S corp)
® Finding a manufacturer
® Ordering product

Oh yeah—we needed to find more customers too.
The flurry of work landed on my desk and I was soon
overwhelmed. The urgency to take care of everything
quickly was layered on top of our growing financial and
family demands. That’s when I became aware of how
important it is to prioritize tasks and separate “need to do”
from “nice to do.”
Having your own business, especially in the begin-
ning, can certainly be overwhelming—if you let it. But
that’s not the Tiny Business way.
Every day I reviewed my priorities, taking care of
“need to do” first and putting “nice to do” to the side. Sure,
it got uncomfortable when the “nice to do” pile got so big
it began to block the “need to do” pile just by volume.

39