http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

Running a small company is not much different from running a big company. The difference is you have fewer people to help you get the job done. You are crazy busy and trying to do more than one human should try to do.

Leo Babauta, author of the Zen Habits blog, encourages simple living. Small-business owners can successfully balance work and life with four lessons out of hundreds on the blog.

1. Prioritize tasks

State the three most important things that you want to get done each day. Drop the long list—you probably won’t get it done by the end of the day, anyway. A simple list of three things can be empowering. Pick tasks that will make you feel like you’ve accomplished something when they’re done. Babauta writes more about the list in “Purpose Your Day: Most Important Task.”

2. Keep your e-mail inbox empty

I can hear you saying “Ha!” This can be a huge challenge if you live in your inbox. If the messages just keep piling up, what should you do? Creating folders, filters and labels haven’t worked for me. Babauta’s method is based on the Getting Things Done (GTD) system. To be more efficient and get your e-mail life under control, follow these few simple steps from “Email Zen: Clear Out Your Inbox.”

The biggest tip is to avoid your e-mail first thing in the morning. It is a black hole that will suck you in and consume your most productive time.

3 Single-task

Drop the multi-tasking, do-it-all-at-the-same-time mentality. I know this is counter to what many top gurus say you should do to get more done. This is not just a Zen Habits tip. Recent research shows single-tasking gets more done, more completely and more professionally.

A study reported by the BBC claims that workers addicted to e-mail and phone calls suffer an IQ drop worse than marijuana users do. In “How and Why to Stop Multitasking” in the Harvard Business Review author Peter Bregman cites the study, which showed that “infomania is worse than marijuana.”

4. Limit your media consumption

Limit your media consumption. This last one has helped me the most and I learned it 20 years before Leo suggested it. For some people, they absolutely refuse to do this, but you may have seen the bumper sticker: Kill Your Television. It’s a good idea, but the Internet media stream may have already surpassed it. Reduce or eliminate your media consumption for a week. Leo recommends a Media Fast.

Now, to be fair, not all of Leo’s ideas will work. They don’t for me and they won’t for you. Some will seem insane to try or consider, but many of his ideas are just what a hyper-busy business owner needs to get more done with less stress. I don’t read Leo’s blog regularly, but I’m always thankful when I do. As you head into the New Year, chockfull of lots of new goals, ambitions, and resolutions, his mantra of a simple life might help you get more done, not less.

This is a great interview of John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing and author of the books Duct Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine.

John shares great tips for small businesses to get more out of social media. He also identifies the key social media trends to focus on to make your marketing simple and effective in bringing in more money.

Highlights of the 7 minute video:

• How to more quickly build deeper relationships with prospects
• Why you need to create the expectation of referrals

Tick-tock! The year is winding down, and it’s time to review year-end tax strategies that could save your business a bundle.

We have some smart ideas about how to take advantage of deductions and credits that start phasing out at midnight on Dec. 31. Here are a few:

1. Buy new business equipment. If you are planning to invest in new equipment like computers for the office, rotary saws for your carpentry shop, or trade-show booths for next year, consider making those buys this year. You can expense up to $500,000 of the cost in 2011. (The amount gets reduced dollar for dollar if you spend more than $2 million.) In 2012, the deduction will drop to $125,000, so investing now can yield measurable savings.
2. Hire now and take a tax credit. The current Work Opportunity Tax Credit for hiring people in nine different categories ends this year. Companies that hire unemployed veterans, people in designated low-income groups, high-risk youth, and others are eligible for a tax credit equal to 40 percent of each employee’s first-year wages, limited to $6,000 ($12,000 for certain veterans).
3. Cash in on R&D costs. Let’s say that you want to expand your flourishing flower business to include a line of freeze-dried tulips for delivery to supermarkets. Before you green-light the project, you will need to rent or lease additional equipment, buy special supplies, and hire workers to research and test the plan. Businesses that incur R&D costs are eligible for a dollar-for-dollar tax credit of up to 10 percent of qualified expenditures.
4. Write off depreciable assets. The “Bonus Depreciation” makes it possible to write off 100 percent of your first-year depreciation costs for assets bought and placed in service after Sept. 8, 2010, and before Jan. 1, 2012. This includes computer hardware and software, office furniture, photocopiers, certain improvements to real property, and other property and equipment with a depreciable life of 20 years or less. This 100 percent write-off will not be available next year unless Congress acts to extend it.
5. Incent investors to put cash in your business. If you are a C corporation with assets of less than $50 million and want to issue stock to raise capital, your potential investors should know that 100 percent of any gain from the sale of the stock will be excluded from their income. Certain rules apply: The qualified small-business stock must be issued between Sept. 27, 2010, and Dec. 31, 2011. It must also be acquired by an individual and held for at least five years.
6. Save on solar energy. Buying and using solar energy for your business before the end of the year entitles you to a credit equal to 30 percent of the cost of the property. This applies to solar energy investments made to generate electricity and to heat/cool structures and facilities used for business.
7. Plan ahead. You expect to remain at the helm of your business, but with the $5 million estate and gift tax exclusion set to expire in 2012, now is the time to a consider ways to save on estate taxes in the future. Business owners can transfer non-voting interests to their heirs and keep 100 percent of the voting interest. This allows you to move a large amount out of your estate while keeping control of the business. “For many owners, their business is second only to their family in importance,” Huckabay says, “and how they plan ahead for succession can save their heirs a significant amount of money.”