Regardless of whether you’re running a small business from home, working in shared office space, or still sitting in a cubicle at a large company, having an organized work space is beneficial for both your mood and your productivity. Creating a focused, inspiring, energizing work space is important if you want to be industrious during the work day and have efficient workflow. A messy, disorganized, distracting work space will draw your attention away from the important tasks at hand, make you more prone to procrastinate, and cause low-level anxiety which is counterproductive to accomplishing your goals each day. [Tweet “Workplace…
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The new year is well underway, and hopefully your business plans for the year are too. If you’ve been running your business for some time now, it’s easy to get comfortable doing things exactly the same way year in and year out. However, this comfort can be what leads to small businesses stagnating and ultimately failing to grow and scale themselves. If you’re worried that you might be taking the easy route and not doing enough to keep your business fresh and relevant to the current market conditions and customer needs, it might be time to consider looking for professional…
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“Do what you love and you will never work a day in your life.”Easy words, but infinitely more difficult in practice. No matter how much you enjoy your job, there will always be stresses, problems, conflicts, and setbacks. At times, you might even find yourself asking the question “Why do I do this again?”. Thankfully, you can have a fresh start whenever you like and with it comes the opportunity to refocus on what you love about your job and make positive changes to minimize unnecessary stresses in the future. [Tweet “Delegation and outsourcing are the key to finding more…
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We all know the feeling: your inbox is overflowing, you have a half dozen separate to-do lists, online, on paper, and on your smartphone or tablet. That doesn’t include the mental one you’re constantly updating. The endless seeming slog begins to creep in and make a job you were once passionate about into something you dread. It’s time you made some changes, don’t you think? For small business owners and entrepreneurs, dealing with the endless stream of tasks required to keep your operation not just afloat but productive, thriving, and successful can be especially difficult. There are only so many…
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What’s your reaction when you hear the world “virtual assistant”? Do you think smart, strategic, cost effective, expertise, efficiency? Of, if you haven’t fully internalized the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant yet, is your gut reaction more along the lines of relinquishing control and even spending (unnecessary) money? If your associations are trusting, I get it. The idea of partnering a virtual assistant definitely requires an archetypal leap, particularly for entrepreneurs and small business owners who are used to doing everything themselves. The concept requires a shift in perspective in order to really understand why and how partnering with…
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For many, the holiday season is a time to relax, be with family, and take a break from the ins and outs of the workplace. However, for small business owners and entrepreneurs, the holidays can be the busiest time of year. It’s an excellent time to reach out to clients, wish them good cheer, and keep them in the loop as to how your business is doing, and what you’re planning for the upcoming year. With all those potential customers and clients opening their wallets for Christmas, the stress of keeping them coming back can be a bit much. This…
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The days of simply reading and liking social media posts are over. The most active and engaged social media users spend time asking questions, starting conversations about topics that are important to them, and sharing content that is meaningful to them. If your business wants to engage in meaningful conversation on social media, you need these top 4 tools. 1. Be Professional But Not StiffThink of social networking as virtual cocktail parties: charm, wit, and jokes are encouraged while maintaining professional boundaries and keeping the conversation relevant to all involved. There is an element to this type of conversation that…
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All entrepreneurs are busy—pretty much all the time. That part is not likely to change. The essence of effective time management is maximize results with the time you put in—in other words, working smarter and not harder. These tips on time management for entrepreneurs will help you do just that. DoRemember the 80/20 principle, which says that, on average, 20% of a business’ clients make up 80% of their sales. While mundane tasks like keeping up the books and ordering office supplies need to get done, the 80/20 rule says it’s smarter and more cost effective to outsource these tasks…
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If you’ve ever started your own business, you know that there are—or at least seem to be—an endless amount of steps to take to get your business up and running. If we listed them all, this blog post would quickly turn into a book! In this post, I am taking for granted that you already know what services or products you want to offer and how to finance your venture, and are ready to get the ball rolling. The following is my small business launch checklist. 1. “Paperwork”All small business owners need to go through the “paperwork” process of starting their…
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If you’re an avid blog-reader or have ever started your own blog, you’ve probably heard of WordPress, the most popular and arguably most practical blogging platform available. What you may not know about WordPress is that it’s not just for bloggers; it’s a popular platform for small business sites and is even the platform behind huge corporate websites like eBay and Forbes. 1. User-Friendly Yet AdvancedWordPress is one of the most popular platforms for beginning bloggers as well as small business owners who want to create a full website. The reason is that WordPress’ tutorials, themes, and multitudes of plug-ins…
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