Women, minorities, and veterans own roughly 2.4M businesses in the United States. And one process and systems expert is on a mission to help them run sustainable, scalable companies. 

Meet Connie S. Falls, the founder and CEO of Entrepreneur Life Global, a Trainual Certified Consultant, and author of “Scrambled Eggs, The Must Have Playbook for Organizing an Entrepreneur's Brain.”

Connie has helped thousands of businesses build better systems. But she’s especially interested in helping women, minority, and veteran entrepreneurs create sustainable SMBs. 

Recently, Connie joined us on the Organized Chaos podcast to talk about the historical challenges these business owners face. And in this episode, she gives tips for each one: 

Women: Stop multitasking — execute one priority task at a time.

Connie believes that since women have always been taught to multitask in their personal lives, they naturally apply the same theory to work. “But [multitasking] doesn’t apply to running a business [because] you have to learn how to prioritize which tasks come first,” she explained. 

To decipher the most critical task, Connie suggests considering each one’s impact and income. Or, in other words, focus on the job that makes the most impact or income first. 

“The easiest way to [focus on one task at a time] is to write down the tasks in order of their impact and income.”
– Connie S. Falls, CEO of Entrepreneur Life Global

For example, let’s say you have three tasks in front of you: sending an email blast, printing business cards, or returning a prospective client’s phone call. According to Connie’s strategy, you should complete the last task first. Because signing up a prospective client has the most potential to make an impact and bring in income. 

Once you commit to one task at a time, the next step is to eliminate other distractions. And this is especially true if you also struggle to stay focused like Connie. “I have extreme ADHD, so time blocking has saved me from myself,” she explained. 

But blocking off time isn’t only for those who get distracted easily. Everyone can benefit from it by sectioning off an hour on their calendar to stay focused on the one task at hand. 

Minorities: Shift from “secret sauce” to sharing systems openly.

According to Connie, there’s a cultural mindset for many minorities that drives them to protect their secret sauce — whether it’s a literal recipe or how to run a business. “We've been taught to keep everything secret, so it’s culturally [ingrained] to keep things private,” she explained. 

For example, a barbecue restaurant owner might not share their best recipes with a spouse — let alone their staff. This makes it challenging to run a thriving business without the owners’ efforts. And that means the company can’t survive unless that owner continues operating. 

“Without documented processes, the company dies with [the owner].”

Instead, Connie encourages a mindset shift, where people go from shielding their secrets to openly sharing their systems. That way, they can pass down what works within their company and equip the next generation with a mindset for building sustainable businesses. 

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Connie also believes there’s no such thing as common sense in business. And the only way to ensure your employees know what they’re supposed to do is through documentation. “There is no such thing as common sense; there's only documentation,” she explained. 

Veterans: Leverage your skills with standard operating procedures.

Despite having no experience or family in the military, Connie appreciates the sacrifices veterans have made and how they can use their acquired skills in business. “A veteran’s understanding of standard operating procedures supersedes everyone because [theirs were based] on life or death,” Connie explained. 

The problem is when veterans come back from service, they might not get the support they need to go into business. But Connie is on a mission to change that — by showing more people how to apply their skills to creating standard operating procedures (SOPs).

“If I can catch [veterans] right when they come out, I can help them create a business based around government contracting,” Connie explained. Then, she says it’s just a matter of setting them up with the right tools.

“[Veterans] already understand SOPs, so I can hand over Trainual passwords and information on how it runs — and they take off and excel.”

But without the initial knowledge and support, veterans may never realize their natural affinity for business. And that’s why Connie is on a mission to share and spread her message.

Above all, Connie believes that “mindset is everything.” And she hopes to spread that advice to all women, minorities, and veteran business owners  So they can shift a long-held (and perhaps ingrained) perspective and take their companies to the next level.