There is no substitute for hard work. Hard work alone, however, doesn’t necessarily equate to success. Success requires working harder AND working smarter.
To paraphrase an old quote, “productivity is not enough, just look at the ants.” In other words, you want to focus on “doing the right things right.” This means to be both effective and efficient. You can work extremely hard and also be very efficient, but if not efficient on the right and effective things, it won’t lead to substantial progress in the areas where it really counts.
So, what’s the secret? First, you want to know what you working towards. This requires having a clear and focused professional vision. This vision has to be clear and simple so there is no misunderstanding. You don’t want to spend resources and energy on things that don’t align with your professional vision. Here are some other ways that you can “work SMART” to help maximize both your effectiveness and efficiency.
Maintaining Your Infrastructure
Your business infrastructure will help make your more effective and efficient. But it’s also important to recognize that no matter how skilled you are in your tech habits, it’s best to let the professionals structure your IT in a manner in keeping with the best business and security practices.
Top-notch managed services can help you maintain a sound and secure IT infrastructure for your company.
Developing Your Staff Policies
Developing your staff policies to help you better hire and then train your team is important. It essentially helps you spell out what is expected of a new hire and give them clarity on their job description.
It also addresses pertinent issues, such as what constitutes acceptable behavior by employees. It will outline benefits, standardize company policies, and help prevent any misunderstandings.
Building Your Image
Building your image is also an essential component of growing and becoming recognized, but you must also modestly build your image using the best branding specialists, doing so in a cohesive manner with graphic designers and copywriters by your side.
However, it’s also important that you give a clear and reasonable analysis of that which you offer, wrapped in promotional language, as promising too little or too much can either fail to engage or disappoint respectively. When you grow slowly, using word of mouth and social media to aid you, you’ll find yourself in the best possible position.
Use the right business structure
Changing your business structure can make managing your enterprise easier. You can limit your personal liability by forming a company, for example. Alternatively, you can join forces with a business partner and launch a formal partnership.
With various options available, you can find the ideal business structure for your startup. This will minimize organizational issues from the get-go and make it easier to manage your business.
Outsource where you can
Business owners are used to doing everything themselves. However, this can take up an unnecessary amount of your time. You may not be able to finance full-time employees, but you can outsource to other companies and freelancers.
This gives you access to specialist services, without having to pay expensive fees. By using payroll services for small business, for example, you can ensure your staff’s wages are paid, recorded and reported correctly. Similarly, outsourcing to a digital marketing company will ensure your firm’s online presence is properly managed.
With the potential to use outsourced freelancers for a range of processes, you can minimize your costs and free up your time too.
Practice time management
Entrepreneurs and business owners tend to find that their work becomes their life. Instead of working harder, work smarter. By managing your time more effectively, you’ll increase your productivity and efficiency. Essentially, you’ll get more done in less time.
Top tips for increasing productivity include:
- Online checking your inbox at set times
- Ignoring personal social media channels
- Taking regular breaks
- Training staff and freelancers to do more
Identify your core business objectives
As a business owner, it’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day running of your enterprise. However, you need to be focused on your long-term goals and main business objectives. This will enable you to grow your business and generate more profits, so it’s what you need to be focused on.
By modifying your own responsibilities and focusing on the bigger picture, you can increase your commercial success. Whether you hire more staff or use more freelancers, make sure you have time to dedicate to moving the business forward.
Take a break!
Working long hours for weeks on end is bad for your health and your business. Factor in regular breaks to help prevent burnout and to keep your mind active. When you have the opportunity to relax, enjoy your downtime and spend time with friends and family.
Maximize your social media presence
A small office doesn’t mean you can’t build a big business online. On average, brands that engage with customers on social media gain up to 40% more revenue per customer. Retargeting users lets you re-engage visitors who have not committed to purchasing yet.
With over 90% of customers looking for recommendations on social media, influencer marketing can be a game-changer. You can work with local influencers as a form of social proofing to deliver authentic content. Additionally, social media engagement can boost your brand presence and reputation.
Store and ship safely every day
One of the most effective business models for solo entrepreneurs is an e-commerce shop. If your business requires shipping products, you can use Amazon to warehouse your goods or you can hire professional warehouse premises to store your products. Using dedicated pallet rack solutions, you can maximize storage facilities in the smallest spaces. When you work with a limited budget, it’s a good idea to make the most of the available space.
Additionally, professional storage and warehouse planning services can help you to ship orders rapidly. Your order process becomes smoother when items are easy to find. You will need to find the best courier service for quick and effective delivery. Indeed, your e-commerce business competes against brands such as Amazon, which have same-day and next-day delivery options.
Innovate To Solve Problems
As a business, you have two choices: offer s useful product or solve a pain point. It is more important to solve problems. The top brands manufactured their own value propositions by solving problems. They are creative problem solvers. For example, consider Uber’s new carpooling feature, a means for people to share rides, lower costs, and fewer Uber rides to be taken at once.
As a business, employing efforts to ensure that recycling most of your staff waste is essential, as well as implementing potential means of renewable energies to fuel your business. From solar panels feeding directly into the best Fronius inverter to biomass fuel used within wooden briquettes, it could be that powering your manufacturing line or equipment, or your simple office lighting becomes much more economically friendly. Over time, you will actually save money on this approach also, vastly outweighing the surface benefits any false PR approach might have taken.
Hiring Virtual Assistants
Tim Ferriss, one of the pioneers of the modern “work smart” movement – introduced many productivity and “live hacking” concepts in his hit book “The 4-Hour Work Week.”
Ferris places a major emphasis on strategies for generating “passive income.” Instead of the typical work than retire life, he advocates living a life of “semi-retirement” by enjoying life now, rather than at some vaguely-defined point in the distant future.
Ferriss advocates the use of and benefits of using virtual assistant services. He has essentially outsourced many of his tasks, everything from planning his vacations, to compiling complex presentation documents.
Virtual assistants are, in essence, part-time workers who you can hire remotely. They can handle various administrative tasks personally or for your business that might be time-consuming. The premise is that the most valuable resource is time and the best use of your time is to focus on only things you can do.
Leveraging today’s technology, you can find many different types of virtual assistants, ranging from general-purpose virtual “secretaries,” to virtual receptionists, and more. You can also hire companies that will have a set of skillsets in a variety of fields. When it comes to making things easier to manage, you’ll want to ensure that you start delegating with people that can really help you. And these days, there are so many options with virtual assistants online, that you don’t have to bring someone in-house.
Using a virtual assistant who is already trained can save you time and also save overhead costs. A major part of “working smart” is freeing up some of your mental and physical energy, and more importantly your time.
Using the attorney example, if you as a lawyer charge $300 an hour for your time, you don’t want to waste any time doing work that you can outsource to a virtual assistant for $25 dollars an hour. Let’s say you work 8-hours a day, 4-hours doing attorney work, and the other 4-hours doing administrative work.
Outsourcing your admin work would cost you $100 ($25 x 4 hours). You can use that extra time to do more work at your $300 hourly rate. You can work just 5-hours a day and even though you are paying a virtual assistant, you would still make more money than doing everything yourself! Let’s look at the math:
- Scenario 1 (no outsourcing) = 4 hours x $300 = $1,200
- Scenario 2 (outsourcing admin work and work one extra hour at your rate) = $300 x 5 hours = $1,500 – $100 virtual assistant costs = $1,400
So in this example, you are working 3 fewer hours a day and making $200 more! Even though you may not be in a situation to make $300 an hour, if you can outsource tasks at a lower cost than what you can earn in that hour, then it makes sense to use someone like a virtual assistant!
Leverage Technology
In today’s economy, many software programs can save you from having to hire an employee or a consultant. Technology can help you streamline your operations, help you avoid mistakes, and help you focus on the high impact tasks.
Have lots of customers? It can be difficult to keep track of all of them. There are not customer relationship management tools, like netsuite crm software, to help you keep track of them, accelerate your sales with live quotes, email integrations, and get a 360-view of your customers.
Turn Off Your Phone!
Cal Newport is a writer and academic who has written an impressive portfolio of productivity-boosting books and blog posts over the last decade or so.
His most recent book, “Digital Minimalism” builds on some powerful observations from his earlier book, “Deep Work.” According to Newport, working “smart” essentially comes down to eliminating as many distractions as you can from your professional life.
He states that during certain periods of the workday “dumbing down” your smart devices so you can better enter a hyper-productive state of “flow” and laser-like focus. You don’t want to multi-task but focus on completing one task at a time.
Newport cites research that suggests that checking your phone casually for a few seconds can ruin your ability to get into that “flow” state for the next 20 minutes.
Find it difficult to “dumb down” your mobile device? Then consider installing apps that monitor your usage, and prevent you from using certain applications that distract you. Some have taken the drastic step of deactivating or outright deleting their social media profiles to focus on being productive.
Set a Schedule – Put Money on the Line to Enforce Self-Set Deadlines
One of the problems of being self-employed or working remotely is maintaining structure and discipline in your professional life. You don’t have external pressures like a boss, co-workers, or a regular work environment forcing you to “toe the line” and stay on point.
To hold yourself accountable, you can use websites like StickK and Beeminder to act as “accountability-enhancing mechanisms” to help you stick to self-set deadlines. These sites are both highly popular web-based services (with accompanying apps) that work by getting you to put your money on the line.
If you don’t meet the deadline, your money will be donated to charity or other organizations. StickK tends to focus more specifically on achieving particular results by specific dates, whereas Beeminder is more about maintaining consistent habits on a day-to-day basis. Studies show that when money is on the line, you are more likely to hold yourself accountable.