Successful Blog

4 Key Time Management Tips for Even the Busiest Business Owner

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By Jennifer Dunn

Owning your own business is amazing, but there are times when it’s practically a nightmare. Sometimes it gets so hard you just want to give up and go back to a 9 to 5. This usually comes after you’ve tried and tried to catch up on tasks but can’t seem to find any time to keep your head above water, much less actually get ahead.

It doesn’t have to be like this! With a few simple tips you can turn your frazzled brain into a relaxed center of productivity. Don’t give up on your entrepreneurial dreams just yet – check out the following tips and see if any of them can help you.

Get Organized

This seems like an obvious thing to say, but it’s an important point to make nonetheless. Most business owners waste so much time searching around their office, store, or home for a paper or object that should’ve been properly stored away (think: tax time). Eventually you’ll waste so much time on this that other tasks fall to the wayside as you struggle to keep up.

Get an organizational process in place for whatever’s driving you nuts – for example, receipts should all go into a folder so you can find them easily. Alternatively you can use a service like Shoeboxed to digitize receipts for super easy retrieval. Are you always searching for files on your computer? Create a digital filing system. Do you spend hours resetting your passwords? Check out a password management system like LastPass.

Once you have this organization in place, keep it up! Don’t let it slip or you’ll go right back into your old habits.

Don’t Multitask

If you want to get more things done, common sense tells you should just do more things at once. This way you get done with tasks quicker, right? In fact, the evidence says otherwise – multitasking does more harm than good.

It’s all about spending energy – if you give 33% to three tasks, they may not turn out any better than if you spent 100% on one thing at a time. If something gets messed up, you just have to start over again anyway. Learn how to tackle one thing at a time properly so you don’t spread yourself thin. Welcome to “unitasking.”

Get Apps to Help

Tired of doing everything yourself? You may not be able to hire any help, but you can certainly afford to acquire some robots to aid you. Oh, you don’t have a connection to someone at a robotics factory? Then settle for the next best thing and grab some apps.

Whether you have a smartphone, a tablet, or laptop, there are hundreds of applications (and other software) you can grab to help you do simple tasks that eat up your time. Whether it’s financial tracking, task management, shopping lists, or a thousand other things, there’s a way to streamline it.

Step Away

Another bit of “common sense” that can get you into hot water is attempting to power through a task that’s driving you nuts. Once you get into the habit of doing everything yourself you tend to want to get it all out of the way as quickly as you can. However, like multitasking, this can actually do more harm than good.

Instead, take a nice break once in a while. Go outside, take a walk, play a game, read a book, or just stare at the wall – as long as it’s not about work. This break can not only give you a nice physical stretch it can free up your brain to come up with solutions to your problems quickly.

What are your time management tips for time strapped business owners?

Author’s Bio: Jennifer Escalona Dunn is the owner of Social Street Media where she writes about small business, tech and finance for sites like WePay and Outright. You can find her on Twitter @jennescalona.

How Can Webinars Help My Small Business?

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If webinar is a term that you’re not exactly up to speed on, a webinar is a live seminar or conference that is held over the Internet.

That being said, it is becoming an increasingly preferred marketing tool among small businesses, because it provides many benefits over a traditional seminar.

Here are a number of reasons why you should consider conducting a webinar for your company:

Cost-Effective and Hassle-Free

A webinar is a lot more cost-effective than a traditional seminar, because it does not require you to rent a convention hall and incur traveling expenses.

All you need to do is get web conferencing software and hire speakers, who can choose to speak from their home, office or any other place.

Also, organizing a traditional seminar entails considerable planning and effort. You need to make a lot of practical arrangements, ranging from organizing seating to catering if you are offering refreshments.

A webinar, on the other hand, can be conducted by just setting up a web conferencing system.

Promote Your Products to a Worldwide Audience

A webinar is not only easier to conduct; it is also more convenient to attend.

People from around the world can attend your webinar without having to travel to a specific location. As such, a webinar can potentially reach a much wider audience than a traditional seminar.

You can introduce and demonstrate your products to your viewers via screen sharing and encourage them to ask questions or visit a purchase page at the end of the webinar.

Establish and Maintain a Closer Relationship with Customers

In order to gain the trust of your customers, you need to add a personal touch to the way you communicate with them.

A webinar enables your customers to see and hear you talk about your company and products, giving them the assurance that you are a human being and not just a website.

There are many kinds of webinars that you can hold to build a closer relationship with your customers, including press release updates, online meetings and client training sessions.

Get More Business Contacts

Similar to a traditional seminar, a webinar is a great way to make new business contacts and enhance your brand identity.

The attendees can show their names and headshots, and interact with the speakers and you during or after the webinar. This helps build credibility and establish a more genuine connection between the audience and your company.

Position Your Company as an Authority in Your Niche

Conducting a webinar can also help you stand out from your competitors.

By providing helpful and expert information through a webinar, you will gain a reputation as an authority in your niche. As your reputation spreads, more and more people will come to you when they need information or advice that is related to your field.

A webinar provides an engaging and effective way for you to promote your small business to a large group of people from all over the world.

When it is used correctly, it can be an invaluable tool for ensuring business growth and success.

Photo credit: educationcloset.com

About the author: John McMalcolm is a freelance writer who writes on a wide range of subjects, from online marketing to biographies of entrepreneurs such as Steve Wynn, David Kiger and others.

Tips on Building the Confidence to Grow Your Business

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By Phil Buckley

My first experience with small business owners was in the late 80s. I was an operations manager for Zack’ Famous Frozen Yogurt, a franchise chain experiencing massive growth. My role was to set up new stores and help franchisees manage them successfully.

I was inspired by each owner’s courage, determination and passion to win. They tackled challenges head-on and typically took a glass half-full approach to managing problems.

However, when presented with opportunities to change or expand their businesses, I noticed that many owners lacked the confidence to get to the next level. They were comfortable with what they knew, and uncomfortable with what they didn’t know. Often, they’d forgo opportunities without fully exploring the benefits because their personal uncertainty was stronger than their desire for greater success.

As my career progressed into business training and then change management, I observed that most leaders struggled with change. Their confidence was tested most when their operational experience didn’t help them assess and pursue new opportunities or manage challenges. In those circumstances, what had made them successful had little impact on their ability to manage well.

Over time, it became apparent to me that the key to managing change (offering new products, entering new markets, opening a new location, etc.) is confidence.

Here are three ways that small business owners (and any business leader for that matter) can build their confidence when they uncover big opportunities to grow their businesses:

Make a list of the skills you used when making past successful changes

Small business owners will benefit from taking stock of past accomplishments and the skills they used to achieve them. Listing them in writing will help you build a playbook on how to manage new opportunities – steps to take, advice to get, behaviors to demonstrate, etc. Studying your past successes will help you create a path towards your goal and identify the capabilities you need to get there.

Identify who you can call upon for help

Peer support is a key enabler of evolving a business. Wise small business leaders ask for help, especially when opportunities require a departure from their current business model. Learning about how similar situations were managed, both successfully and unsuccessfully, will provide practical guidance on what you need to do, what to watch out for and how to act.

Write a solid plan

Business plans help small business owners stay focused and manage time and resources productively. They provide a means against which to track progress and a working tool to adjust as new information becomes available. A wise person once said, “Create the plan, work the plan, change the plan.” A growth opportunity business plan provides a map to confidently navigate.

It can be difficult to manage and grow a small business. With the right skills, knowledge, advice and plan, the small business owner can take the next step on their businesses journey and reach the next level of personal success. Have confidence!

Author’s Bio: Phil Buckley is a senior change management professional with nearly twenty-five years of experience helping individuals, teams and organizations deliver change in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Phil writes about managing change at www.changewithconfidence.com. He is also author of Change with Confidence: Answers to the 50 Biggest Questions that keep Change Leaders Up at Night (Jossey-Bass), where he provides complete, actionable answers to the fifty burning questions that leaders routinely ask about how to manage change successfully. Follow him on Twitter @philbuckley01.

Can My Business Survive Negative Press?

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A negative news story or bad review — in print or online — is almost inevitably a cause for alarm in a business owner’s life. Bad PR, whether justified or not, can cut into a company’s sales volume and ultimately tip the balance from profit to loss.

Although it’s hard not to panic when confronted with bad press, business owners should guard against that reaction at all costs.

Panic will do nothing to address the matter and could keep the company from taking timely steps to reverse or undo the damage from the negative publicity.

So, what are the steps to undertake when this situation occurs? Among them:

Evaluate Report

The first step must be a careful evaluation of the news story or online posting that is the cause for concern.

Is the report accurate? Does it make valid points about a product’s failings? A restaurant’s service?

Or is it a malicious — and unfounded — attack on the business? No matter what the report’s origins, steps can be taken to undo the damage. It may take time, however.

Although lashing out in anger may very well be the business owner’s knee-jerk reaction to bad press, this is almost certain to appear defensive and may only exacerbate the public relations nightmare that bad press can cause.

Although it’s essential to cool down before responding to bad press, a timely response is essential. It’s unwise to let too much time elapse before making a reasoned response, preferably in the same medium in which the negative report first appeared.

Own Up to It

Hopefully, a careful analysis of the negative report has determined whether it is justified or not.

If the criticism implicit in the report is valid, then the business owner must take responsibility for the product’s flaw and pledge to correct the problem before the product returns to the market. Owning up to a company’s failings and pledging to make things right tends to humanize the business and create a more favorable impression on the public.

In the event, however, the report is inaccurate, the business’s response should contain a calm and rational defense of the product or service in question.

If a news story is the source of the bad press, an attack on the reporter is senseless and, once again, comes off as uncomfortably defensive.

Reporters are human too and sometimes make mistakes, including failing to solicit comments from the subject of a negative story before the article is printed.

Gray Areas Exist

Not every instance of bad press can be subjected to a definitive analysis of right or wrong.

A restaurant review that suggests bad service or under-cooked food on the night the restaurant critic visited is virtually impossible to refute.

In a case such as that, the restaurant owner is probably best served by acknowledging that lapses in service and quality occasionally occur and by promising to do everything possible to avoid them in the future. Getting into a war of words with a restaurant critic only tends to call greater attention to the original negative review.

To help bolster a business’s ability to withstand negative publicity, business owners should work tirelessly to strengthen the power of their brands.

If the brand of a product or service strikes a strong positive vibe in the minds of consumers, it is better able to survive an instance — or prolonged assault — of bad press.

Solid Brands Weather Storms

Toyota, Ford, Tylenol, and countless others have been subjected to long-running struggles with negative publicity, some of it justified and some not, but so powerful were those brands that they emerged pretty much intact, if a bit battered.

It is, of course, unrealistic to expect small business owners that operate locally or regionally to attain a brand recognition comparable to these multinational giants. But consistent product and service excellence can establish a strong brand, if only in a somewhat smaller marketplace.

And a strong brand helps a company to survive negative publicity with little, if any, lasting damage.

Photo credit: zdnet.com

About the Author: Jay Fremont is a freelance author who has written extensively about personal finance, corporate strategy, and Amerisave.

Am I Missing Any Tax Breaks?

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If you run a small business, you know that every dollar really does count.

Whether you’re just getting off the ground or your business has an established track record, it’s still helpful to save money whenever possible.

Tax deductions are one area where a little knowledge can go a long way. The more breaks you’re aware of, the more opportunities you’ll see for your business to save money.

To give you an idea of what types of savings are available, let’s go over some of the most commonly overlooked small business tax deductions:

Bad Debts

One of the biggest surprises many new business owners have is just how hard it can be to collect money from certain clients or customers. This issue is especially prevalent among service businesses.

Even though it’s very frustrating to have clients who simply won’t pay what they owe you, the silver lining is bad debts can generally be deducted when you file for your business.

Mileage

Whether it’s driving to a meeting, attending a networking event or going to see a client, you’re allowed to deduct mileage that’s used for work purposes.

Just be sure that whenever you want to deduct mileage, you log the date and where you’re going, as well as the mileage at the beginning and end of your trip.

Charitable Donations

You may already be aware that eligible donations you make to charity can be deducted.

But what plenty of business owners don’t realize is it’s often more advantageous to make deductible donations through their business than from their personal money.

Cloud-Based Software

More and more software is moving to the Cloud.

The main advantage for customers is it allows them to access their software from any computer with an Internet connection. And one of the primary advantages for software developers is whenever there’s a bug, they can instantly push out a fix.

Because they provide ongoing service, many cloud software developers charge on a monthly basis. If you have one or more cloud software subscriptions, be sure to deduct all your monthly charges.

Business Trip Incidentals

Landline calls, lodging taxes, cleaning and laundry are all examples of acceptable incidentals from business trips that you can deduct.

And as long as you keep a log, you can also deduct train, subway, bus and taxi fares.

Loan Interest

If you borrow money against a personal loan like your mortgage in order to buy equipment for your business, you can deduct the interest on your loan.

The two most important things to remember about this break are that you need to use the money for your business, and you also need to document exactly how you used it.

As you can see, there are plenty of tax deductions available for small businesses. The key is keeping track of all of them.

By making it a priority to keep current and detailed records throughout the entire year, you’ll be able to maximize your deductions when the time comes to actually file your taxes.

Photo credit: American.com

About the Author: Jesse Galt is a freelancer who writes about a wide range of topics, including mobile credit card processing and small business marketing strategies.

Is It Time for a Business Partner?

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If you are a sole proprietor, there may come a time when you begin to wonder if it is a good idea to take on a business partner.

Getting a business partner can bring many changes, and you have to be prepared to adapt to a whole new way of running your business. It is important to make sure that your new business partner will contribute positively to the growth and success of your company.

So, when is the right time to bring on a small business partner?

You are unable to solely manage business growth

 While a growing business can bring more profits, it also requires you to invest more time and effort.

If you are running your business all by yourself, you probably have to oversee every aspect of your business and do all the decision-making yourself. Even if you are a very capable business person, there may come a point when you will not be able to cope with the growth.

Taking on a business partner is a good way to manage growth, because it enables you to share your management responsibilities with someone who truly wants your business to succeed.

A partner who has extensive knowledge and experience in certain aspects of management can be an invaluable addition to your business. He or she can also help ease your decision-making burden and contribute new business ideas.

You need to team up with another business to compete with the big players

If your ambition is to become one of the major players in your industry, joining forces with another company can help you reach your goal.

Partnering with another company can be beneficial in many ways. It enables you to obtain additional expertise and knowledge of your industry, increase specialization, access valuable assets and funds for new development, reduce costs and expand your market share. With a greater market share, you will have a more significant influence on market trends.

Your business is on the verge of closing

Getting a business partner does not only help you manage and stimulate growth; it can also be an effective defensive business strategy. If your business is in serious trouble, it may be better to form a partnership with a strong company than to close it down.

A business partner can provide the necessary expertise and resources to get your business back on its feet. However, one disadvantage of entering into this kind of partnership is that you will have less control over your business.

If you want to gain back full control of your business later on, you can make an agreement with your partner to end the partnership on a certain date.

Taking on a partner can be a great business move if you do it at the right time.

To ensure that the partnership will be harmonious and successful, it is essential that you select an individual or company that has the same vision and values as you.

Photo credit: kclink.com

About the Author: John McMalcolm is a freelance writer who writes on a wide range of business topics, from small business management to biographies of famous entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson, Mark Cuban and Steve Wynn.