For those of you who are operating your own small business, I may be preaching to the converted when I say the best way to create your own stimulus package is by using every ounce of creativity you and your small staff can tap into to rethink ways of doing business.

Possibly you have tried new ideas already that may not have garnered the results you anticipated.

The success of your own stimulus package should be measured by doing well in your business, having a balanced budget and a balanced life with an increased emphasis on energy consumption. How you might start your own stimulus package process could be a number of ways. I would like to address some basics at a time when we are seeing increasing numbers of small business owners and startups feeling overwhelmed by the daily challenges.

A few of the basics you may want to review and measure for starters are; cash flow, sales figures for the last three years, customer retention, the technologies you adopt and how you use them, what you are doing for the environment today and how you really spend your time. If we look carefully at how we might unknowingly allow time to slip away or be robbed from us, we can find chunks of time, our most precious commodity, being wasted away, a common issue for small businesses.

Poor time management is an operational issue which can be brought on by the increasing numbers of distractions we face daily, but often cannot be avoided. The good news is that poor time management is quantifiable. Once you take the time to analyze this area of your business, you can see better where it erodes productivity, creativity and getting the results you need. Left undetected and unaddressed, poor time management will take you away from what is critical and what is important to your business and overall well being.

Work with your accountant to examine your cash flow and sales. Keep in mind that it is less expensive to keep a customer than find a new one, so work on customer retention. Let's briefly think about technology and how you use it; for example, e-mail is a technology tool that, if used correctly, can increase communications.

However, if we think carefully about the time and energy we expend just managing spam and new devices this can become not only brain drain for the average business owner but also a disturbing environmental issue.

You may be surprised to learn, as I did recently, that according to a groundbreaking report released by McAfee in April 2009, the energy consumption and massive carbon footprint of spam is enormous and affects us all.

Apparently, the cumulative carbon footprint of the worthless and unwanted e-mails equates to the equivalent energy consumption of operating 3.1 million cars for a year. And I thought old-fashioned junk mail was a nuisance and a threat to the environment.

There is really no better time to design your own stimulus package, you can't afford not to. Focus on what is critical and what is important. Your financials, your customers, your technologies, your time and your energy, in every sense of that word.

Some believe there is a paradigm shift happening that is essential to sustainability and prosperity. Well, if they believe it, then it is true. Should your business reflect your attention to some of these issues relating to the environment and energy? Think globally. act locally. We have heard this before but maybe now is the time to start your action plan and stimulus package.