Category Archives: Working Smart

Working smart is working with an edge. A good business owner always makes it a point to work at tip-top shape. Working smart is working with a safety net; it does not hurt to have your workplace insured. The feeling of security makes us more eager to work diligently and even take some risks along the way because we know that we have something to fall back on to.

Working smart is about being well informed of the current market trends, what is hot and what is not. A good entrepreneur keeps himself or herself well-informed. More so that when he or she makes a decision he or she can take into consider as many factors as possible that can affect the business both in the short run and in the long run. So never forget to work smart!

Give yourself a pat on the back!

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Being a soloist doesn’t entitle you for a performance appraisal unlike being a part of a whole company. No, you are also not entitled to get an award, a promotion or even a raise. We all know that recognition of your performance can impact your self-esteem and confidence and this can even drive you to be more productive and appreciative of yourself. For soloists out there, there is no need to worry because you can have your own performance evaluation. So, how do you do it?

Call in sick

Many soloists don’t find this applicable because there is no HR department to call them and ask why they didn’t go to work. A lot of soloists, even if they feel sick don’t take the day off because they don’t want the deadlines to mount up. However, this won’t allow you to work more productively. If you’re feeling under the weather, you have every right to take a day off. Health is wealth!

“Celebrate good times, come on!”

Being a soloist doesn’t entitle you to office parties but you can still celebrate! Why don’t you gather some of other soloists you know and grab a drink? You can also take your partner out for a dinner for two and just have fun and not think about work or even talk about it for a couple of hours! You will need this. There are many ways to celebrate.

Create your network

Isn’t it nice to interact people who have the same business as you do? It’s really nice to talk to something who you can relate to and where you can feel very relevant. Surely, you know some people who are managing their own businesses and why don’t you pick-up the phone and schedule a regular meet-up? This will definitely do you good!

No HR department? Then do it on your own!

HR department keeps an eye on the personal development of employees and you can do this too. Grab a piece of paper and list the things that you don’t enjoy doing, or things that you want to do. This will give you a clear vision of how you want your business to work and how you want to improve as your own boss.

Long leave

Everyone deserves to take a break for a couple of days or even weeks. It is very important that you schedule a long break. Go on a vacation and just experience not working even for a couple of weeks or even months! The fresh air can do you some good. There is no need to stay locked up in your office, give yourself time to have fun and nurture the things you’ve worked hard for. You will be very refreshed, inspired and motivated once you get back on your desk.

Monitor and Improve Productivity

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Are you loaded with work yet you still don’t know why you can’t finish everything on time? If this keeps on happening, there are ways to improve your productivity which will impact your work performance and you will be happy with the results.

Know your rhythm

What time of the day do you feel very energized and what time of the day do you feel very lazy and just want to take a nap? Determine your rhythm as this is very important. You have to know the reasons why you feel energized at a particular time while some other times you feel very lazy to move. This is one step for you to improve your productivity.

Rate your activities

Every single day, there comes in new work to be done while there is work that you do regularly. Now think about how much brainpower these activities consume. See, when new activities or tasks comes in, you will need to think harder about how you’ll start and how you’ll finish it while the activities or tasks that you do regularly don’t require you anymore to think too much because you’re used to it. What is being said here is the activities that require higher brainpower will need you to provide a different approach and solution because this will require more involvement from you. It is better to work during the early hours of the morning on activities or tasks that require higher brainpower.

Have an alloted day/week/month to improve on high brainpower activities

Since some activities or tasks require high brainpower, it is very important that you do these things when you feel most effective. Allot a day or week or even a month for this when you can just concentrate on work that needs your robust attention and focus.

List down at least three things that can help improve business

Grab a piece of paer and think about three things that can make your business improve more and then do these three things. It is much better if you also allot a day, week, or month to achieve these things and to just concentrate in fulfilling these.

Being busy doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll be successful

Being busy can kill your buzz which means that this can affect the productivity that you wish to achieve. Instead, don’t contemplate on unimportant things such as social networking sites, re-reading your e-mail over and over again or making lists of the things you plan to do. As much as possible, when you’re in front of your computer, remove the things that can also interrupt you such as your mobile phone.

Time organization

Assign a time for business and time for other activities. Fulfill this time and make sure that you be disciplined in meeting these boundaries that you set.

No need to work too much, allow yourself a break or two!

Every business owner should learn how to accept low-energy days or just spend a day without doing business activities. If there is really no way out of your commitments or you just can’t slack all day, just give yourself an hour to finish the necesasary things and lay down on your sofa, pop a DVD and just relax. Working too much can cause you stress and pressure which can alter your focus and make you grumpy. Allow yourself to breathe and relax.

Do you know your billable hours?

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It is very important that you record your billable hours and even the non-billable hours. If you haven’t, then you should definitely do it and find out the results. Business owners and even employees who tracked their hours were surprised with the results.

In order to record your hours, you must set a daily and weekly targets and you might as well list your goals and your long-term ones. There is a time-billing program that you can find online which can help you to keep track of your billable hours and non-billable hours. Be aware that this is a software and most of the good ones require a premium payment. However, you will find that having a program like this installed in your computer will be very helpful and useful.

Recording your hours at the office will really surprise you. For example, that 15 minutes you spend on admin and e-mail time daily will let you realize that you’re spending too much time on it instead of focusing on other things. Once you realized this, whether you are an employee or not, you will realize how much time you are wasting rather than focusing all your energy and time on more important work that needs most of your attention.

The good news is that there are people who actually went through the whole thing and this urged them to create ideas to manage your working hours. You might have heard of the 8-billable-hours-a-day-bootcamp which is very similar to a fitness bootcamp. How is it similar?

When you sign yourself up for a fitness bootcamp, you will realize how hard it is to go through all the pain and aches that it will bring you but at the end, you will realize that through those exercises, you develop endurance and strength and you might even be surprised of what you are capable of achieving.

Every fitness bootcamp has an assigned period when you should focus on intensive training and after this, you will be able to develop a new level of fitness that you are not doubting in the first place. You see, these principles were applied to the 8-billable-hours-a-day bootcamp. It is clearly observed that halfway through the whole bootcamp. Your endurance and focus are stronger than they were a month ago or a couple of months ago.

This program or “bootcamp” is still on-going. There are no definite results yet but so far, the bootcamp is successful. Going through this will definitely help employees and business owners when it comes to managing their time and this will also boost the performance and the efficient of an individual or a business.

The truth about energy equation

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To mine a source of energy you have to use energy. This is how it works. When money works, it produces money. Take time to read the facts I learned about the equation of energy.

We are in a world where every single thing produced requires a proportionate amount of energy expenditure. It seems we are exhausting all the available energy, but proven facts show that there are things that leave us energized rather than exhausted. Here are a few examples of the stated fact:

When you exercise you are poised for a good and relaxing vibes. While you exercise you expend an amount of energy to perform the physical activities associated in exercise. But instead of exhausting us, it does exactly the opposite, it energizes our body. All you need to do is for you to find out which activity fits you and then you just start doing it.
When you spend time with people that stimulate your being, you feel way better than when you are around people who talks only about misery. These people are the ones that make you feel stronger even in your dire circumstance.
When you show kindness, it could open up a well spring of energy within us. No matter how small or trivial in your eyes at the moment, kindness will always have a great and noble impact on both the giver and the recipient.
When you treat yourself, you feel energised for all the relaxing effect it gives. You can go have a relaxing vacation, buy yourself your dream watch or shoe or anything to make you feel anything good, you just do it. You need to spend time for yourself. The more satisfied you are within yourself, the more capable you are of showing kindness to others.
When you communicate, communication is very powerful. It gives us a feeling of security knowing that someone out there cares for you.
When you go for entertainments you help yourself get refreshed after a long hard day’s work. An uplifting movie, a walk in the park or anything that entertains, the effect is still the same; it energises you to no end.
When you read a book, it is one of the most relaxing things you can do. You stimulate your mind, and at the same time you get to relax.

Life is too short; you cannot live it without an attempt to preserve it. Take time to reenergize, and all the while you will find out how fulfilling it is indeed.

Split testing and its advantages

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It is imperative that you employ testing process with any of your procedures especially in business. This is so you could legitimately tell the actual results of your employed methods, which is definitely impossible to do with just mere guessing. The following are the few advantages of split testing:

It helps to learn about your average conversion rate from time to time, but it is way better to know exactly which of the particular methods or techniques led the most of your conversions. I had been devising several ways of measuring my conversion for a time already and the most I could do is to track my sign up rate. I automatically thought it’s the best way of doing things. However, on the course of doing this, I discovered one particular method to double my productivity within a short amount of time. I was sent an invitation for a free webcast. And I noticed that the company who sent me the mail was using an entirely different format and structure with the one I had been sending with my webcast sign up. Their structure follows an order and they chose not to personalise their mails. Mine was the complete opposite of what they practise. I thought I was doing it the right way because it was supposed to be the standard and the best, but this time I really want to find it for sure if indeed it is true.

I employed the technique called split testing, which entails and prompts me to split my subscribers roll into two select teams. I sent my original email structure to the first team, and to the second team the new structure. And all I needed to do is just wait for the number of sign up for each of the 2 groups. The result shocked me, the new structure got more sign up than the old one and what really shocked me is that it got more than double the number of sign up. The effect was really convincing that I readily switched my strategy. I’m not saying that you pattern your email after a generic style, nor would I say that my new style now will work with your own business. Everything else is still heavily dependent upon the involved factors such your type of business and your target audience. Whenever you have any new ideas, you do split testing and find out for yourself if that certain idea works. And then do not cease from collecting new methods and keep testing them until you acquire your most desired results.

You may start now by thinking of your own business and its particular details, which one you want to see some improvements and which one needed change. Then apply split testing method to help you track which of the ideas work for your benefit.

Getting to know Innovation and Renovation; its significance and uses

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I was basically amazed just how two talented artists, whom I just met recently, use discarded objects to come up with an entirely genuine and creative artwork. It made me think about the wonderful creativity it projects and under what category does it fall, is it innovation or renovation?

I know one designer who uses as her medium the second hand ordinary jackets and then literally transform them into a fashion creation covered with intricate silk designs. While I also happened to know one other artist who rather uses old watches and uses them to create beautiful accessories and jewellery. These two people really evoked something inside of me a feeling of amazement and inspiration that I have not felt for a long a time. I do not even care if they use existing discarded objects to create their masterpieces. In my own line of work, I often see creative pieces come out from junks. They have created an exemplification of true genius. But will it make a huge difference if creativity sprouts from an idea that already exists? How about all the other things that come out beautifully from something ordinary that presently exist. Things like articles, marketing strategies and techniques that have its starting point from other people’s work. Not all people will agree that it is an example of creativity; they do not believe that it deserves recognition as a work of originality and arts. The idea of using the strategies and techniques of others and improve on it I believe is a creativity in itself. I believe it is an example of how creative people are that they even make things greater that are already great. I guess this is a law of nature, evolution. What we see in front of us are basically a result of constant improvement. Nothing comes out from nothing; it must start from something that already exists. I am honestly amazed by the kind of transformation that it produces and the feeling it evokes that witness it. Businesses are no different, strategies and techniques come out from something that already exists. I myself felt that I am constantly recycling the works of others. I used other people’s work to launch my new ideas and continually improve what others have already formed. Now I see that I have not actually made something out of nothing. Like all the others, I had been recycling.

How about you, have you had this moment as well when you start doing things trying to improve on others’ work and ideas? Let me hear your part of the story. Share your experience with us.

5 ways of gauging the success of micro business

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There may be no clear standards in how to gauge business success, but there are simple ways to track tangible measure of progress within a business. The following are my 5 ways of measuring the success of micro business.

It’s not easy to come up with criteria to define business success. We all know too well that success is fairly dependent on the level of happiness the owner feels regarding the performance of his business, and happiness does not necessarily mean huge income. Therefore I carefully outlined the criteria so as to include contentment as well as the financial performance of a business.

Continuous lead generation

Some business owners gauge their success not simply by the amount of volume of people patronizing their business but by the number of new leads they are about to generate every single day. By keeping your vision to generating more leads no matter how many are already patronizing your business, you will keep your focus on the continuing improvement of the quality of the services you offer.

Conversion rate of leads to customers

The very reason why we make extended efforts of generating leads is for us to ensure that a continuous stream of customers will be realized. It takes a very good management and marketing approach to achieve a high conversion rate from a mere prospect into a loyal customer. By measuring your conversion rate, you should be able to understand the trend and will aid you in crafting and improving your methods for the benefit of your business.

Productivity

The next gauge for success is productivity. It talks not on how many tasks you were able to perform but it is more on the number of tasks done that really matter. In business you do not necessarily have to do everything to succeed. You only have to define the things that are important or are instrumental to your core values and then perform those tasks with utmost quality. Identify the 20% of the most important to you and then focus your energy and resources on those 20% and then slash out the rest.

Health cash flow

A healthy cash flow is a determinant of a healthy business, and a healthy business is an image of success. Your business is basically ran by cash, so you need to pay a detailed attention to your cash flow and make sure it is in its right order otherwise your business is headed to its demise. So to avoid complications, prioritize your cash flow

Return on time invested

Best of all, for a business to be truly successful, you should be able to tell that you are getting more from it than your original investment. For having a business, you should also have time to reward yourself and the people you love with the blessings that you got from running the business successfully. I believe these sums up the entire measurement of running a successful micro business.

Improvise and never cease searching what works for you and your business, in the long run you might just find out the true measure of success.

Improve the chances of your small business by using financial benchmarking

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Financial benchmarks can have a dramatic impact on the performance of your business. You may use it to broaden your competitive edge, thus, giving you better opportunities. Let me help you by giving you a few pointers about financial benchmarking.

Definition of benchmarking

If you have a business, and you are actively employing strategic methods and techniques for its improvement, you will really find it helpful to track how things are fairing against the business trends in the community. You may need to evaluate your business performance having other businesses as a backdrop for comparison from time to time. Financial benchmarking will do exactly just that.

Advantages

It helps you craft better strategies to make your business come out as better equipped and prepared to meet the challenges ahead. It will aid you in enhancing your methods of placing your business in a position poised for greater opportunities. Moreover, it is also a big help in budget preparation.

Resources

Nowadays, information is readily available for the benefit of the researchers. In fact, benchmarking data most of the time is available for free in all the major government and private institutions. Moreover you could ask for any more additional information from your accountant to help you out. But you need to remember that financial benchmarking only works out on businesses that are considered equal in capacities and size. Otherwise, there might be distortions in its data results.

Data measurement

You have to know and identify the specific data that you wish to make comparisons with; this is so that you could easily extract the measured data available. Without the proper identification, there is no way of ensuring the accuracy for benchmarking. To do this, you must also be able to name the data that are essential in your business to aid you which particular data to be measured.

Practical uses

If your benchmark data says you are renting way higher than the average rent within your community, then you might have to address it by resorting to certain methods that are called for in this kind of situation.
If the data provides that your shipment cost is considerably higher than the rest, then you might ask the forwarder company for a discount or look for a forwarder that costs cheaper.
Or if you find out that you are lagging in sales, you might just need to reinvent your marketing efforts to augment your revenues generated by your sales.

How to think with an entrepreneurial mindset

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Excellent entrepreneurs stay ahead of the game all the time. They tend to outthink their closest competitors with such class. They do this with ease and calm, and it is definitely worthy to learn their ways.

I knew a savvy entrepreneur, David, who was in the business of making bricks, who happened to found a fierce competitor in the person of Goliath, a big company. Goliath, with an intention of putting David out of business, deluged the local market with his bricks at a ridiculously low price. Imagine their surprise when David’s business flourished instead of being inevitably ruined. What they do not know is David has an entrepreneurial mindset. He has a spirit that does not easily give to a challenge no matter how great it is. Davis all the while has been purchasing the bricks of Goliath under the guise of his other business, and selling the bricks back to Melbourne at a hefty profit.

David exemplified an entrepreneurial mindset in the given scenario; a mindset that could easily craft various innovative ideas to get through a challenging phase. It is an imperative skill to develop so as to ensure the business’ future sustainability. Below are the basic ways that could help anyone develop this precious skill:

A. Conceptual thinking

This is something that cannot readily be counted. It is a fundamental need but one that do not take a tangible form. It means that you must possess certain qualities before you can develop an entrepreneurial mindset, and these are Faith, Self Esteem, Positive Thinking and Vision among other things.

B. Business knowledge

This is more like the tangible requirement of achieving entrepreneurial mindset. This covers the sum of your collective learning about the business. I believe that the reliance of some of the major companies on business thinking constructs an avenue for the soloist with greater opportunities.

C. Creativity

In every great endeavour, creativity is one essential ingredient. Creativity encompasses all and is not limited to artists. It is inherent in every human being to possess this quality, to create great ideas and putting them into great use.

The comfort zone

Everyone is particularly blessed with any of the three qualities. You do not necessarily possess the three but may be comfortable under a single premise of any of the three. There might be instances when moving out to other zone is called for, and soloist I believe are better prepared for it than anyone else.

Zone for entrepreneurs

The best zone so far is when you achieve to have the overlapping qualities of the three, or at least near to it. This may be rare but neither is it improbable. It does not come naturally though; it is a sweet product of consistently racing after it, og continually giving your best shot in anything that you do or perform. This is the zone indeed that is worth aiming for. This could keep you ahead of your competition. To be called the head of the pack. You become the leader, one who out smart and outthink anyone in your league. This is the entrepreneur zone, where only the elite of the elite are found.

If an entrepreneurial mindset helped you in any way, please let us hear your story that may we also hear f your success.

Six simple keys to earning while being creative

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Do you live by the rules of an artist? One who views himself as free from the clutches of commercialization of creativity? You can stay being creative while you make your way to earning big.

Most people with creative inclinations do not subject themselves to the bounds of business intricacies. They refuse to make compromises, and would rather starve than make simple amendments. They are masters of their own craft, unrelenting, and sometimes incredibly stupid. But when you already have mouths to feed, this carefree principle is not going to work for long. I have found out that you can earn as much as you want while maintaining the quality of your creativity. Here are a few steps that worked for me when I pursued to be creative and at the same succeed in earning:

1. Tone down your tendency for perfectionism

It is totally fine to strive for excellence in your work, however there are times that you need to tone down a bit. Creative people sometimes take longer to do one thing done because of the endless revisions. I remember when I first had a few of my assignments, I rewrite things a couple of times before getting satisfied. I have this tendency to make all things work perfectly, without glitch. However, later on I realized that this is taking me nowhere. I cannot keep on making perfect write-ups to please all that read it, because I cannot please everybody no matter how much effort I put into my writing to make it seemingly perfect. Do your works extremely well, but do it according to your own accord and not so much because you want people to perceive it as perfect. This way, you could have more freedom with your creativity less the pressure.

2. Get some fresh air outside, meet people

The downside of extremely creative people is they tend to be a loner, an artist living in an island kind of persona. They have no regards to show their works of art. Association is one of their least priorities. However, if you wish that you make money out of your creativity, you must put off this tendency. You have to meet people that could throw a favourable influence to make you gain some sales over your work. Make and build relevant relationships. Connect with an audience, and not very long from now, you will find it gratifying to be creative and at the same time being able to socialize at a certain level.

3. Be motivated

You have to identify your own motivating factor. You have to transcend your creative juices by utilizing it for a greater good. Keep your motivations on the run. Focus on something that has meaning as to why you do what you do.

4. Make plans

Every endeavour needs a plan. A predetermined goal will keep you in check why you are doing what you do now. With your plans, craft some achievable yet challenging goal that could get bigger once broken and reached.

5. Have a discipline

A good measure of discipline could enhance and encourage creativity rather than foil it. Creativity needs to be developed with some touch of personal discipline so that things are in its right order. Artists wait for their “AHA” moment before they start their work but disciplined ones can start their job anytime which is a lot more productive.

6. Stimulate your creative juices

Discipline helps a creative to put things in its right order, but it may not necessarily stimulate his creative juices. To do this, one can indulge in an activity that can accelerate an artist to achieve creative stimulation. It may differ from one artist to another, but the goal is perfectly the same, keep the creativity coming and at an optimum level.

Share to us your experience of utilizing your creativity while at the same time making generous pay out.