Outlining business costs

• Regular expenses: Think about what you'll pay to keep the doors open on a regular basis, including the cost of your goods, your employee salaries, office costs, insurance costs and daily expenses you'll need to stay in operation.
• Irregular expenses: You should also factor in non-daily expenses, including startup costs like down payments, new equipment and semi-regular expenses like travel.
• A margin of error: No matter how good you think you are at estimating your business costs, you're probably missing at least a few important items. Make sure your budget includes a margin of error in it so those unanticipated costs won't disrupt your potential for success. Always save more than you think you'll need.

Budgeting and saving

• Rely on tools. There are many online tools and resources to consult when planning your budget, including interactive budgeting calculators, so take advantage of them when working toward your goals. There's no reason you should have to do all the manual calculations by yourself.
• Start with your income. Everything starts with your income; it's your biggest limiting factor. Try to increase your income however you can – by getting a raise, seeking a different job opportunity, or pursuing side gigs and passive income streams.
• Cut unnecessary expenses. Next, work on cutting any unnecessary expenses that chip away at that income. Take a look at how much you spend on subscription services, and how much you spend at restaurants each month. These are easy cuts that can usually free up at least a couple hundred dollars a month.
• Reduce your necessary expenses. Once you've trimmed the unnecessary portion of your budget, look at your necessary expenses and see if they can be reduced. For example, can you save money on groceries by shopping at a different store? Can you downsize your home and reduce your rent?
• Make savings the goal, and build around them. There are many little ways to trim costs or make extra income, but the fastest way to become successful is to make saving your first priority. Set a savings goal each month and treat it like an expense; make everything fit around that vision of your budget.

Other options

• Cheaper options: First, see if there are other, less expensive ways to start your business. Opting for online-only or fully remote business models could shave thousands off your monthly operating expenses.
• Friends and family: Contact friends and family members who may be interested in backing your venture; they may be able to put you over the finish line.
• Venture capital: Consider attracting capital from venture capitalists; the only catch here is that you'll usually need to forfeit a percentage of ownership in your company.
• Angel investments: Similar to venture capitalists, angel investors are more independent agents and may be more flexible on terms.
• Crowdfunding: If you're producing something tangible, you could always try crowdfunding to raise the extra capital you need for your first production run.

A Compromise: One Hour of Extra Sleep

• Set a firm cutoff. For example, you could commit to stop working after 10 p.m., instead of letting your work bleed into your sleeping hours.
• Squeeze in a nap. Studies show that naps can count toward your overall sleep for the day, so if you can't squeeze an extra hour into your existing sleep patterns, consider using a midday lull as an opportunity for the extra bit of sleep you need.
• Wake up later. Provided you have flexibility with punctuality, you could try to sleep in an extra hour; that way, you'll miss the worst of the traffic, and you'll end up with just as many working hours as you did before.
• Split the time. Instead of wedging an hour into your day or night, you could go to bed 30 minutes earlier and wake up 30 minutes later.

The benefits

• Higher alertness and faster reaction times. One hour of extra sleep can be enough to take you from feeling fatigued and lacking energy to being alert and ready to perform. Once you start getting an hour of extra sleep each night on a regular basis, you'll have quicker reaction times and be able to think more clearly and alertly. You'll find yourself able to make better decisions as well. Try keeping track of your subjective feelings with a journal so you can demonstrate the effects.
• Reduced risk of illness. Getting more sleep reduces your risk of developing an illness that can seriously interfere with your work. Sleeping in healthy patterns leads to a healthier, more active immune system, which will protect you from many physical ailments. You may also be at a lower risk for mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety.
• Better memory. Research shows that an hour of sleep is more than enough to improve your memory. For demanding environments where fast, on-the-go learning is essential, or where you're in charge of managing many moving pieces, this is extremely important. You don't want to forget your client's name in the middle of a meeting just because you didn't get enough sleep.
• Higher productivity. Finally, and perhaps most obviously, when you're better rested, even by just an extra hour, you'll be able to get more done every day. You'll spend an extra hour at rest, but you might be able to squeeze in an hour of extra tasks and responsibilities to make up for it.

The importance of quality

1. Engage your consumers and clients. Getting direct product and brand experience feedback from consumers is increasingly seen as the best way to meet market demands and expectations. Whether it be in-person, on a video conference or through social media, it is critical to respond in real time as consumers' needs have changed. A great example is when Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky asked consumers this question on Twitter: "If @Airbnb could launch anything in 2017, what would it be?" Whether Airbnb moves forward with any of the suggestions is yet to be determined, but the two-way dialogue built tremendous brand loyalty as consumers felt that they were being heard.
   
2. Engage your employees. Despite advances in technology, flatter organizations and open work spaces, many corporations still suffer from a lack of information sharing. Noncritical matters are often shrouded in secrecy and junior members are left without a voice. This lack of engagement lowers morale and adversely affects performance. A Gallup study showed that an alarming 70 percent of American workers are not showing up to work committed to delivering their best performance, which has serious implications for the bottom line of individual companies and the U.S. economy as a whole.
   
   To combat this, consider regular town hall meetings. Give employees access to you in person, by email and through anonymous surveys. Just look at the bold change Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff made to the company's annual executive offsite retreat a few years ago to combat this issue. Benioff invited all 5,000 employees to virtually attend the company's meeting, which had previously been restricted to Salesforce's top 200 executives. The event served as a catalyst for the creation of a more open and empowered culture, which has helped the company become the No. 1 CRM platform in the world.
   
3. Engage the media and specific audiences. Not too long ago, CEOs communicated with media only through carefully crafted press releases, transmitted via fax. Today, we live in a 24-hour news cycle and a 140-character world. There are more mediums than ever to get the message out. Regardless of your politics, Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump used the media masterfully during their campaigns. Obama broke the mold and reached young voters by appearing on non-news shows like "Between Two Ferns" with Zack Galifianakis. President Trump dominated the news cycle and received $5 billion in free advertising. Modern CEOs need to be progressive and master every medium to reach the widest possible audience in the most highly customized way.
   
4. Engage through social media: While nearly all major companies have robust social media programs, the 2016 Social CEO Report conducted by Domo showed that 60 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs are not on social media personally. I understand that there are risks to real-time, two-way communication, and that there are time restrictions. But my counsel to CEOs is to get on the side of history. There are myriad benefits to being on social media. It shows you are forward-thinking and progressive, which is critical to attracting young talent. Apple CEO Tim Cook often uses Twitter as a platform to praise his employees. AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes kept his Twitter followers up to date on the recovery efforts following a crash in addition to expressing the company's concerns for the families of passengers lost in the crash.

Do you have 3-5 years of clean financial records?

• An intelligent buyer is going to be looking for a verifiable history of financial success, not just the artificially spruced-up version the current owner has put together over the last few months.
• They're going to want a solid record from which to determine any seasonal trends or outside economic factors that have a significant impact on the business.
• They’ll want to be able to make some educated projections of profit growth, staff requirements and other important considerations, and their projections will usually include the one-, three- and five-year marks.
• Beyond just the buyer's peace of mind and decision-making process, all of these factors will figure heavily in the amount, type and terms of whatever financing they're able to obtain.

Don't all businesses keep clean financial records?

So what should a business owner do with all that time?

1. Make sure you're regularly (at least annually) normalizing your inventory.

2. Maintain accurate and verifiable accounting records based on actual dates of receipt and/or payment.

1. Use technology to your advantage.

2. Take it one day at a time.

3. Organize an inspiring game plan.

4. Engage with your customers.

5. Give yourself some space.