As a small business owner there is a time in your business development that you will be begin to ask this question. Do you deserve a Personal Assistant? The factors of cost and time and staffing hassle cross your mind and you may not be sure of trust issues and the ability to keep them busy all the time. So to make it easy for you, this week we have included an easy to use formula to assist you in deciding if the time is right to bring in help.

E = Average amount of emails you receive each day

I = Average amount of phone calls you receive each day

F = Total floor space in square meters

D = Total desk space you have in square centimeters

S = Total surface area of your desk covered in stuff in square centimeters

Number the following from 1 – 5 (least to most importance) in relationship to your job.

• C = Correspondence
• M – Meetings
• P = Projects
• T = Travel
• O = Organizing/Bookkeeping

Substitute the values and solve the formula. If assistant is greater than zero, then get on the phone to the employment agent and order another desk and chair.

The news is full of swine flu and health issues. I even have my own custom design mask on hand to wear if I meet up with anyone from Central America or just a client with really bad breath. But enough about that, what criteria do you need to consider if you want to call in sick, without raising suspicion of swine flu and being replaced by 10 am or being accused of playing hooky.

 Here is a handy formula to use to determine if it is ok to call in sick. My answer to this is that if you are well enough to work this one out then get up and go to work.

D = Do you have a doctors note (No = 1, Yes = 10, I wrote my own = 5)

S = How sick are you? (1 – 10, 10 being last stage of Swine Flu)

M = How many other days have you already missed this month

R = Degree of responsibility of your job (1 – 10, 10 being lead surgeon at children’s hospital)

Fh = How much fun can you have at home (1 – 10, 10 being I have an Nintendo Wii with all the games)

Fj = How much fun will you have at work (1 – 10, 10 being I work for Nintendo as a game tester)

$ = Your daily wage

N = How much you need the money (1 – 10, 10 being the bank manager is on hold on the other line)

C = the chance of being fired for staying at home (1 – 10, 10 being almost certain)

 Substitute the values and solve the formula. If Call in Sick is greater than 1 phone the office and fire up the Wii.

The staff at the Entrepreneur Incubator does not assume any responsibility of any person in any position in any company in any country being absent from any job at any time. (My lawyer made me add the last sentence)

With the financial economy at its worst and the buying power of businesses and individuals at an all time low, we need something other than the ‘gut feel’ to judge our buying decisions for those new business items. Here is a simple yet effective formula to help you make those purchase decisions.

W = How much do you WANT this item (1 – 10) 10 being new sports car

N = How much do you NEED this item (1 – 10) 10 being a new liver

I – How good an idea is this to have (1 – 10) 10 being will open up a new untapped market

M = How many months have you taken to select and research this product

S = Your monthly income into your business

B = Your monthly bills and expenses

R = Your monthly rental or bond payment

$1 = Your current balance in your business account

$2 = The cost of the item

 Substitute the values and compute the equation working from within the brackets outwards. If Buy is greater than 1 then go shopping. If you fudged the values just to justify your expenses then do not give your business partner my email address, this one is on you. Enjoy.

Monday morning alarm goes off and you realize that this is the day that you are presenting your new business proposal to the board and appointed VC team. You future hangs in the balance with each word and PowerPoint slide detail. How prepared are you?

This simple formula will help guide you to a logical conclusion to either give you a boost of self-confidence or give you the option to go straight to the airport and book a flight to Harare were you chances of survival will be better.

I = The importance of the event (1 – 10) 10 being the speech at your wedding

S = Hours of sleep you had last night

C = Cups of coffee of caffeine drink consumed today

P1 = Hours of required preparation for this event. Research shows that for every 10 minutes of speaking at least 30 – 60 minutes of prep are required

P2 = Actual hours spent in preparation, not including playing with graphics and clip art

D = Difficulty of your subject (1 – 10) 10 being particle acceleration in a vacuum

N = The level of nervousness you feel right now (1 – 10) 10 being just changed pants again 

Substitute the figures for numbers, complete the equation. If Prepared is greater than 1, relax you will be fine, if not go back to your desk and do some more work. Good Luck.

After the long weekend we are all feeling a little too well fed and maybe have overdosed in chocolate and decedent puddings. So now the guilt begins to set in and we wonder if we should get to the point of joining the gym and crossing the divide between fat and happy to fit and healthy. Use this week’s formula to help determine if your gym quest is sustainable and reasonable. After all you do not want to join and then just become another statistic of non-attendance.

F = the amount of kg you need to loose to reach your ideal weight

 S = Marital status: 1 = married or repressed, 5 for dating, 10 for swinging single

 T = How tired are you: 1 – 10, 10 being almost dead most of the day

 M = Minutes it would take to get from home to the gym

 C = How important non gym activities are to you: 1 – 10, 10 being on your way to give birth

 D = How many days you have worked out in the last week

 If Gym is greater than 1 you need to join a gym and get involved in a training programme now, or email Robin from Fitness Boot Camp today.

We continue on our Monday, Formula for Life theme with an interesting assessment of when to quit your job. We have all had times when we have urges to storm into the boss’s office and stab him in the neck with your clutch pencil and quit. Ok, maybe it is only me. But what if you could calculate the best possible time to leave your current job. Try this one:

H = hours per normal day that you are unhappy at work

A = Your current age

G = How good your current job is (1 – 10) 10 being taster for Lindt

K = How many kids you have, that you know of

P = Chances for finding another job (1 – 10) 10 being already signed a contract

F = Your current level of financial commitment (1 – 10) 10 being mortgaged for the next 40 years

S1 = Monthly salary you could expect from a new job (ZAR)

S2 = Current monthly salary (ZAR)

 Fill in all the numbers; work from with in the brackets out.

If QUIT is greater than 1, then you have a good reason to speak to the boss today.

Good luck. 

I have started a new category of posts that I will attempt to add to each week. Formula For Life. Under this category I will introduce and discuss the workings of a formula that will help assess and define life within the Entrepreneurial world. Now if you are not one of those who understood or enjoyed algebra at school then please just pass these by and read the next post. If on the other hand you are passionate about analyzing the world through numbers and logic then these are just for you. Please enjoy and use. I cannot claim credit for a lot of these as I have found, copied and maybe even plagiarized, for this I am deeply sorry but as there should never be a copyright on wisdom I will share them with confidence.

 Our first formula is for Prosperity. This is a good one to start with because it helps understand a lot of why most business owners struggle in their quest for wealth. 

 Prosperity is a function of having financial technology that serves as a multiplier on Human Capital, Social Capital and Real Assets. Ok, lets break this down a bit. What this tells us is that to be prosperous we need to firstly have capital in the form of friends and staff with whom we have a good relationship with and are willing to let them use our toys that we own to make money that we can manage and measure. Got it? Good.

Comments welcome, more next week.