Can you remember when there was no such thing as Federal Express? Forty years ago it was a baby-sized company—a few planes and not many customers. But FedEx soon thrived, and in doing so it proved a point: Overnight delivery is worth a premium. It helps people get things done a lot quicker, which is another way of saying more competitively. Because time really is worth money. Pretty soon a host of bigger companies, even the U.S. Postal Service itself, jumped into the trend FedEx had started, bringing to bear huge commitments of their considerable resources. And yet FedEx has remained dominant. It’s even become a verb: People will say, “I’ll FedEx this package to you,” even if they’re actually using another courier. I’m a big believer in the notion that consumers, given choices, will naturally eradicate every single source of waste or inefficiency in business: everything from the high cost of telephone service (as in Internet phones) to segments of entire professions. If it’s a middleman/woman, they’re gone —unless they are adding a lot of value to their clients throughout the day. Delay is simply one of the many unnecessary expenses that consumers are now rejecting. Delay is something that you can really do something about on a practical basis, and right away - and as a consequence of eradicating it your company becomes highly desirable in the marketplace. Following are seven ways to get started—immediately.