Unit of 1 - Building a Business - Through the Eyes of a Project Manager

Yesterday, I had a moment (ok more than a moment) of what I think is relatively common in the Unit of 1 sector - I totally freaked out thinking about how to best move my business forward.

I thought, "But there's just WAY too much to do."
And I thought, "And is this even the right thing to be spending my time on right now?"
And finally, "What if I fail!"

My poor husband, I called him at lunchtime, and he dutifully listened to me for 5 minutes, and then simply said, "You're doing the right things. Trust yourself." So here's what I did next...

Taking Unit of 1 "to the next level" has been my back-burner dream since I started it back in 2001. Things kept pushing it out of the way, whether it was full-time consulting engagements, raising my baby, or working on other projects, it always seemed like Unit of 1 was not getting the attention it needed to grow up.

I decided when I was completing my goals at the end of 2004, that I would make Unit of 1 a priority in 2005. I would work on a sustainable business model, and then execute the plan for carrying it out.

So, during yesterday's questioning, I decided that I really just needed to sit down and not get up until I had a documented plan that I was comfortable with. I pulled out Microsoft Project, and started organizing, planning, adding new ideas, and ruthlessly prioritizing until I held my breath and looked at the projected completion date.

The good news is that after some further give and take as far as what I could accomplish by when, it was doable. I even factored in my consulting work, and as long as something totally unexpected doesn't come along... It should be a busy couple of months, but will work.

The lesson I learned here is - remember to trust yourself, and use the tools that you use for your clients on your own business.

Small business expert Andrea Michalek is the managing director of Unit of 1. Andrea built this service to support micro-business owners. The Unit of 1 website is equal parts business networking, community blog, and member-contributed, expert articles.

Andrea is a Philadelphia-based technology management consultant. She specializes in building products and services that make complex technology problems as simple as they should be. Examples include, PDF converter Fast PDF, and News / RSS engine Topular.

Andrea Michalek
1062 Kingscote Drive - Harleysville, PA 19438
Phone: (215) 280-1805
email: andrea at unitof1 dot com