T.R.A.F. -What to do with that mountain of paperwork!

A large part of our time is consumed by attention topaperwork of various kinds, in both our business and personal lives. How effectively we deal with all that paper will influence what we can accomplish in terms of ourpersonal growth and development.

You might benefit from a review of the TRAF method,popularized by Stephanie Winston, to manage the constant onslaught of written material that faces you every day.

This method allow for only four things you can do with any paper that ends up on your desk:

• Toss it
• Refer it to someone else
• Act on it
• File it

Notice that the TRAF method does not include putting the paperwork aside to address at another time! Typically, most of us keep more paper around than is advisable. If you have little or nothing to lose by tossing something, by all means, get rid of it.

Business Owners 10 great questions to ask yourself

1. Customer base
Ask yourself: If I just bought this company, how would I sell more/expand what I sell to this customer base?

2. Cash
Ask yourself: If I could invest this cash in any one part of this business/niche/product line for the biggest cumulative return/profit over the next 5 years, where would I invest it all?

3. Market Leadership
Ask yourself: To remain the market leader for the next 25 years, where should I invest my time and company's resources right now?

4. Reputation
Ask yourself: What can I do to double the strength of our current reputation, within the next 6 months?

5. Momentum
Ask yourself: What's working well right now and how can I keep it working well?

6. Key Staff
Ask yourself: Who are the 5 key people in my organization and what game/plan can I create with them so they'll stick around for a long time?

7. Systems
Ask yourself: What systems work so well that we take them for granted? How could we improve them?

8. Responsiveness
Ask yourself: How quickly and completely do we respond to changes in our customers, market, technology, staff needs or economic conditions?

9. Intellectual Property
Ask yourself: What do we have, IP-wise, that just isn't being as leveraged as it could be?

10. The X Factor
Ask yourself: What do we have that's very, very special and that we could really maximize, just for the pleasure of it?