CEOs, 24% of your time is lost to emails - that's a shocking 1.2 hours every 5 hours!

It takes 25 mins to return to productivity after checking an email

Imagine regaining that time, boosting productivity, and reclaiming your schedule.

The answer isn't more assistants or VAs👇🏻

Enter @Superhuman AI Beta - an email tool used by CEOs like:

• Daniel Ek from @Spotify
• Dharmesh Shah from @HubSpot
• Max Levchin from @Affirm

And many more are on board.

Here's why it's a game-changer:

• It learns my tone and writes emails for me
• I give it instructions, it writes
• I can choose to accept, retry, shorten or lengthen the output

My experience so far:

• It reduced my email time by 77.78%
• It broke the chain of unnecessary communication
• No late night or weekend emails

Emails, once a time sink, can now be a productivity tool. Imagine slashing hours of your email time. That's what Superhuman did for me.

Let's break it down:

• Superhuman AI learns from my previous emails and writes in my voice
• I hit CMD + J, give it brief notes, and voila! It drafts an email
• It gives me options: Accept, Retry, Shorten, Lengthen

For instance, I could give it these notes:

• congratulate the team on the new website
• call out Brittany for great design
• acknowledge Laurel and Carlton for timely launch

And it drafts a professional email in my voice.

Before AI, it saved me hours with its innovative shortcuts, e.g.,

• CMD + U to instantly unsubscribe.

• CMD + H to have your emails resurface on your product or people's day.

• CMD + L to send an email later; avoid your international client's weekend.

And  ";" for snippets. Real time savers! especially for gentle "no" emails.

All done in seconds.

I dream of a day where Superhuman supports NLP, just like @todoist and @flexibits. Imagine typing 'Let's meet tom at 3pm' and having your meeting scheduled with the email audience immediately.

 Right now you can do this via 3 keyboard shortcuts.

Mobile support for AI is a must-have. Productivity shouldn't be chained to the desktop.

And I know how difficult is this right now, the mobile app of @OpenAI itself lacks many features like browsing and plugins currently.

Shared mailboxes for Office 365 like info@...... , urgently needed in Superhuman. I have at least 5 of them on Outlook, a needlessly complex experience.

Had an issue with the 'StopTheMadness 39.2' Chrome plugin blocking Superhuman AI. Once removed, things smoothed out. PSA for fellow users!

Also had to delete a default shortcut from Arc Browser to get Superhuman AI working properly. 'Jump to Selection CMD + J' was the culprit. Problem solved.



Now let's address the elephant in the room: 🐘

Pondering $30/mo for Superhuman? If your time is worth $200/hr and you save 3 hrs/week, that's $600 weekly, $2400 monthly vs a $30 subscription. Plus, you might cut assistant costs. ROI? Clear.

CEOs, it's time to reclaim your time. It's time to stop working for your emails, and let your emails work for you. It's time to go Superhuman.

Superhuman AI Beta is currently in early access. I got access through a Twitter DM with the CEO of Superhuman.

Want to save time like I did?

Download it here to get 1 Month for free: https://superhuman.com/refer/5ztfl49i

Follow @Superhuman for updates on official launch.

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Superhuman AI Beta: Revolutionizing CEO Email Productivity

Business building often interferes with body building?

Don't let guilt drive you to quit.

Don't let a few missed workouts derail your journey.

Don't throw in the towel just yet.

Dive in👇

Option 1: Work Out On A "Rest Day" Instead

• If your schedule allows, you can move a missed workout to a rest day.

• No recovery or overlap issue if missed workouts are rare.

• Use this strategy sparingly to ensure no compromise on overall progress.

Option 2: Make It Up On Your Next Scheduled Workout Day.

• Consider shifting your workouts after a missed session.

• This way, no infringement on rest days.

• This alters the workout sequence though

Option 3: Just Miss It And Move On

• Rarely miss a workout? Occasionally skipping one isn't a disaster.

• Key is consistency, both in workouts and business routines.

• But if missing workouts becomes habitual, it affects your results.


• Understand that sometimes, things don't go as planned, but don't make it a norm, So, fix the underlying cause.

• And adapt your workout schedule to fit your business lifestyle, creating a more sustainable routine.

🔔 Subscribe to my newsletter for more insights on aligning business building and physical health. Join the community here: https://businessbuilder.beehiiv.com/subscribe

You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: https://typefully.com/luqmanshantal/XpXGNkn

Maintaining Fitness While Building a Business

A wise man once said “Hindsight is 2023”.

What would I do differently if I could turn back the clock to when I was 38?

I asked my 70 year old coach and here's what he said:

1.  Invest in relationships:

 Focus on building strong, genuine connections with family, friends, and colleagues. They'll offer invaluable support and joy in the long run.

2.  Prioritize health:

Implement a balanced diet, regular exercise, and stress management techniques. Your future self will thank you for taking care of your body and mind.

3.  Take risks & embrace change:

Embrace opportunities and face challenges head-on. Growth and success come from stepping out of your comfort zone.

4.  Cultivate financial literacy:

 Educate yourself on personal finance and investment strategies. Plan for the future and build a secure foundation.

5.  Pursue lifelong learning:

Stay curious and continuously develop your skills. Knowledge and self-improvement are key to personal and professional growth.

6.  Set clear goals:

Define your objectives, both short and long-term. Align your actions with your values and purpose for a fulfilling life.

7.  Practice gratitude & empathy:

Foster a positive outlook and care for others. Embrace the power of kindness and compassion to create a better world.

If you like this thread, check my weekly newsletter and subscribe for deeper insights.   https://businessbuilder.beehiiv.com/subscribe


Advice for Looking Back on Life with Clarity

What is a benchmark for good profitability?

It's a question every business owner asks, yet it can be hard to define.

What is Good Profitability?

Good profitability depends on various factors, such as the industry, business model, and stage of growth Generally speaking.

A good level of profitability means that your revenue covers all operating costs (including salaries) with some margin left over to reinvest in future growth.

For early-stage startups or SaaS companies, investing heavily in R&D or customer acquisition strategies for long-term succesacrificing short term profits - which are essential at later stages.

If you run a mature company where sales have stabilized, being profitable will be more important than chasing high-growth rates.

In summary, sustainable profit margins vary between industries, so it's difficult to provide general rules, but one thing must remain constant: never accumulate indefinitely without reassessing and adjusting accordingly.

Here some some general rules of thumb from scaling up by Verne Harnish:

At 5% pretax profit, your business is on life support.

At 10% pretax profit, the business is doing well, but has some untapped potential.

At 15% pretax profit, the business is in great shape.


Anything above 15% indicates that you should earn it while you can.

The market will figure out what’s going on, competition will show up, and you will eventually get pushed back.

I wrote 32 issues on business models to sustain this privilege in my newsletter, The Business Builder. Check it out here: https://businessbuilder.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Defining Good Profitability for Your Business

Life isn't always easy.

We all face challenges.

But what if I told you there's a path – a secret – to achieving anything you want in life?"

Let's unravel the mystery together:


Have you ever felt stuck or unfulfilled in your life?

One potential reason could be that your actions and decisions are not aligned with your values.

When you live your life in accordance with your values, you'll find that everything falls into place more easily.

Finding your values can be a life-changing process that helps you get clear on what's most important to you.

From there, you can start to make choices that align with those values and move towards a more fulfilling life.

One way to explore your values is through self-reflection and brainstorming.

Ask yourself what's most important to you, what motivates you, and what you believe in.

You can also try using values assessments like the Free PVA or the Barrett Values Assessment to help identify your values and gain more insights into what drives you.

https://personalvalu.es/

https://www.valuescentre.com/tools-assessments/pva/

It's important to note that your values may shift over time as you grow and change.

Embrace this process and be open to re-evaluating your values periodically to ensure that they continue to serve as a guiding force in your life.

When you live your life according to your values, you probably feel less stressed, more fulfilled, and like you have a purpose.

So take the time to explore your values and start living the life you truly want to live!

Unlock your potential by aligning your actions with your values. Join the community now: https://businessbuilder.beehiiv.com/subscribe

Your values

Putting off your small business budgeting process?

Then you need these 5 Budget Benchmarks:

1/ Payroll shouldn't be less than 7% of revenue.
In some service sectors, it can go up to 80%.

2/ Training costs shouldn't be less than 2% of total payroll.

2%-3% are a good benchmark.

3/ Indirect costs: not more than 35% of revenue.

4/ Transformation and R&amp;D budget up to 10% of revenue.

5/ Marketing budgets should range between 2-5%.

And up to 8% if your revenue is less than $5 million.

All of those benchmarks are based on a healthy SMB that makes at least  10-12% net profit.

What about you? Do you have different benchmarks?

If you want to learn more about business building, subscribe to my newsletter.

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The Budget

It takes expertise in 5 areas to make it as an entrepreneur.

I've chosen 5 representative threads to illustrate each:

1/ Leadership

@dklineii - Setting expectations.

I learned this skill the hard way. https://twitter.com/dklineii/status/1549005091092430848

@dklineii 2/ Finance

@AliTheCFO - The number 1 reason companies fail is Cashflow. 

I use many of these techniques. https://twitter.com/1888560680/status/1548634878618599425

@dklineii @AliTheCFO 3/ Sales

@barrettjoneill - This thread will teach you more than any Sales Class.

Always Be closing (ABC). https://twitter.com/barrettjoneill/status/1558071712415158272

@dklineii @AliTheCFO @barrettjoneill 4/ Marketing

@KateBour - The Buy-in Burger.

&gt; 300% impact in your marketing using this Burger! https://twitter.com/KateBour/status/1557704792696397824

@dklineii @AliTheCFO @barrettjoneill @KateBour 5/ Operations

@polak_jasper - Oil your machine with 7 Principles.

Tried and tested, and worked for me and clients every time! https://twitter.com/1484620841191100426/status/1555163393555824642

@dklineii @AliTheCFO @barrettjoneill @KateBour @polak_jasper TL;DR

1/ Leadership: Set expectations 
2/ Finance: Preserve your cashflow 
3/ Sales: Always be closing 
4/ Marketing: The Buy-In Burger
5/ Operations: Oil your machine with 7 Principles

@dklineii @AliTheCFO @barrettjoneill @KateBour @polak_jasper If you're interested in learning more about the 12 systems that fall under these 5 areas, sign up for my newsletter.

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@dklineii @AliTheCFO @barrettjoneill @KateBour @polak_jasper That's a wrap!

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The Expertise 

Businesses use 110 apps on average worldwide!

One app to replace them all, saving us $1000s/month: 

No, the app isn't called Notion. :)

Yes, Notion is a "notes database" app that can run most of your startup.

But it's missing a lot! 

The app is called: ClickUp.

A  "to-do list database"  app that was made from the start to help you run your whole business.

What does Clickup have that others don't? 

1/ ClickUp's 16 views allow endless opportunties.

I like mindmaps and tables. 

2/ Mindmaps can link tasks and projects! 

3/ Table view can do the same, and you can have excel-like formulas on your existing cards.

This is how we built our CRM to save $1000s per month. 

4/ Built-in dashboard calculates KPIs and metrics from ClickUp cards. 

5/ ClickUp's Goals module lets teams set goals.

It's an OKR tool that uses existing cards and projects. 

I plan to write more about the features I like, there are more! 

And I will share out my experience on the implementation. 

Reach-out if you have any questions!

And a very important note:

You must first make a system for running your business and hire good people.

Otherwise, garbage in, Garbage out!

After we did this, most of our twelve different systems were moved to this app. https://twitter.com/luqmanshantal/status/1547219339274862592

Follow these 5 accounts to build the systems for your business:

1. Leadership: @barrettjoneill 
2. Team: @dklineii
3. Operations: @polak_jasper 
4. Sales &amp; Marketing: @KateBour 
5. Finance: @AliTheCFO

@barrettjoneill @dklineii @polak_jasper @KateBour @AliTheCFO Want more on building startup and SMB systems?

Subscribe here to receive in-depth coverage in my newsletter and the upcoming Cohort I'm building on MavenHQ.

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@barrettjoneill @dklineii @polak_jasper @KateBour @AliTheCFO That's a wrap!

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The One App

Poor project management wastes $122 million for every $1 billion spent globally.

I've taught 100s, advised 10s of firms, helped develop worldwide project management standards, and led multimillion-dollar projects on three continents.

1 secret strategy I always used 👇 

The secret is:

Choosing the best project approach.

Which could be one of these:

1.  Heavy (Traditional, Plan-driven, Waterfall)
2. Light (Agile, Adaptive).
3. Blend (Hybrid of the two.)

Construction should be heavy and software light, but what about other projects? 

Use these 5 guidelines to figure out which approach to use:

1.  Requirements Stability

2. Organization Culture

3. Team Size

4. Failure Consequences

5. Workers skills level 

1/  Requirements Stability

Choose a heavy approach if few requirements are changing.

Light approach is better when there are many changes.

Hybrid is the best option if you're in the middle. 

Indicator: 

% of requirement change requests per month:

1% to 5% requirements change, go heavy.

5% to 30% requirements change: Hybrid.

30% to 50% requirements change: light approach. 

2/ Organization Culture

If self-managed employees say they require a boss because they thrive in a command-and-control setting, then a project with a plan is best (heavy).

Do they like autonomy? Then choose a light approach. 

Indicator: 

% of employees who thrive on chaos vs order 

10% to 30% = Heavy
30% to 50% = Hybrid
50% to 90% = Light 

3/ Team Size

If you have a big team, you should follow a plan.

If you have a small team, it's better to be flexible and light. 

Indicator: 

# of personnel

200 to 500 = Heavy
10 to 200 = Hybrid
0 to 9 = Light 

4/ Failure Consequences

If lives are at stake, then, a heavy plan driven approach is needed.

Comfortable failing forward and fast? Then light approach is better. 

Measure:

Losses due to impact of defects 

Many lives to single lives = Plan-driven 

Essential funds = Hybrid

Discretionary to Comfort funds = light. 

5/ Workers skills level

If low skill workers are more than high skill workers, then, plan driven approach is better.

A team of smarts? Then adaptive approach is better. 

Indicator:

% of people with low skills versus % of people with high skills

30 Low and 20 High to 40 Low and 15 High = Heavy

20 Low and 25 High = Hybrid

From Zero Low and 35 High to 10 Low and 30 High = Light 

What if you have a large team, but all other 4 guidelines say go light? 

Answer: Break the large team into smaller teams. 

Tools: Scaled Agile, Scrum of Scrums, etc.

And you do the same thing with other measurements, when most guidelines point towards the opposite approach.

We either act on adjusting the remaining few guidelines, or we go hybrid. 

TL;DR

You go heavy on projects when:

1/ It's a large team 
2/ Lives are at stake
3/ Few requirements are changing
4/ Low skill workers are more than high skill workers
5/ Self-managed employees fail; they need a manager.

If not, choose the light approach! 

This thread is based on the papers and body of knowledge from the Project Management Institute (PMI's PMBOK).

To which I've contributed to the last two releases, as well as the work break down structure practice standards. 

Want More?

 My favorite project management accounts are:

Niche: @polak_jasper
Startup:  @bbourque @barrettjoneill
Financials: @IAmClintMurphy @AliTheCFO
Human factor: @dklineii @HarrisFanaroff
Solopreneur projects: @thejustinwelsh

@polak_jasper @bbourque @barrettjoneill @IAmClintMurphy @AliTheCFO @dklineii @HarrisFanaroff @thejustinwelsh If you like this thread, subscribe to the Business Builder newsletter, where I share more frameworks and templates.

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@polak_jasper @bbourque @barrettjoneill @IAmClintMurphy @AliTheCFO @dklineii @HarrisFanaroff @thejustinwelsh That's a wrap!

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Execution Approach

Forget about company hierarchy.

3 roles to build a successful company.👇🏻

1/ Accountability

This belongs to the ONLY person who has the "ability to count."

Who is keeping track of progress and speaking up (yelling loudly) when problems come up within a specific task, team, function, or division.

It doesn't mean that he or she makes all the decisions (or even any decisions), which is why people often talk about "self-managed teams."

But someone still needs to be held accountable. The rule is that if more than one person is accountable, no one is, and things fall through the cracks.

2/ Responsibility

This is the job of anyone who is "able to respond" to help the team.
It includes everyone who has something to do with a certain process or issue.

3/ Authority

This belongs to the person with the right to make decisions.

Example

The company CFO is accountable for cash— he "counts" it every day and tells the team.

He is also accountable for telling the team if he thinks there might be a problem now or later in the year.

The CEO, has authority over the money and signs off on big purchases and investments.

And everyone in the company is responsible for making sure that cash is spent wisely and that deals and contracts are set up so that they bring in cash instead of using it.

This thread is inspired by Verne Harnish's "Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It...and Why the Rest Don't (Rockefeller Habits 2.0)" 

It is a great book that you should read.

When you put these three roles together with the 12 systems, magic happens. https://twitter.com/luqmanshantal/status/1547219339274862592

If you want to stay in Twitter and learn more, here are few accounts that will do:

@barrettjoneill
 @polak_jasper
@ChristineCarril
 @IAmClintMurphy
@AliTheCFO
 @KateBour
@BrianFOConnor

@barrettjoneill @polak_jasper @ChristineCarril @IAmClintMurphy @AliTheCFO @KateBour @BrianFOConnor Subscribe to the business builder newsletter as it covers these topics in depth.

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@barrettjoneill @polak_jasper @ChristineCarril @IAmClintMurphy @AliTheCFO @KateBour @BrianFOConnor That's a wrap!

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