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Leveraging Your Time: The Top 10 Ways Small Business Owners Can Get More Time in a Day

Blog, Efficiency, Time Management, Tips No Responses »

Apr 092014

You glance up at the clock and wonder where the time has gone and then you realise that you did not achieve as much in your day as you would have hoped. This is a common scenario for small business owners. We wish we had more hours in the day to accomplish our workload; however the good news is that we do. Here are our top 10 ways we have found we can get more time in our day.

1. Reduce your hours
You might think this sounds a little odd but in truth, if you shorten your workday you will soon find you accomplish just as much as you did before and more. Reducing your hours will force you to focus more on the work that needs to be done and less on the other non-essential tasks which can chew up your time.

2. Know your strengths
No two people are the same and we all have certain times of the day when we perform at our best. Some people are naturally early birds and work best in the morning, others tend to find they work better later in the day. Work around your own schedule to get the most out of your working day.

3. Plan your phone calls ahead of time
Making telephone calls can be timewasting, particularly when the call can easily go off topic. Before you make a call, take a minute to jot down the main points you want to get across and try not to veer too far off course.

4. Use a VA
You have probably discovered this already but the simple fact of the matter is that you can’t do it all. You try; you drop a ball or two, miss deadlines and get stressed. Using a Virtual Assistant (VA) in certain parts of a business can really save time and money, particularly when that area is not particularly one of your strengths.

5. Centralise your social media
Centralising your social media such as Linked In, Twitter and Facebook through Hootsuite is a great way to avoid time wasting sessions on social media pages while you are at work. There is nothing wrong with browsing pages and socialising but save the non-essential work stuff for your downtime.

6. Get mobile
There is a reason that Smartphones and tablets are so popular – they allow business owners to work from wherever they happen to be. Familiarise yourself with some of the latest gadgets on the market and identify which ones will work for you when you are out and about.

7. Minimise meetings
Similar to phone calls, plan your meetings ahead of time. Know what you are going to say and try to stay on topic. Only schedule meetings that are crucial to your business growth, and limit the number of meetings that you attend.

8. Pick your hour
Determine one hour each day in which you are not to be interrupted. Turn off the phone, switch off the social media and just do it. You will soon find that you achieve more in that one hour than you do in any other hour out of your day helping you to get ahead.

9. Be prepared to take notes
The best ideas really do come when you are not expecting them. For this reason we advise you to jot them down in a notebook (either paper or electronic) so you can pay them the proper attention they deserve when you are in full work mode.

10. Just say no
When you are busy, sometimes it is best to just say no. You don’t have to do something just because someone asks you to. Learn to only accept the tasks which are most beneficial to your business and require your particular core strengths. Being overworked will not do you or your business any favours at all.

Start small. Pick two or three ideas which appeal and try them out. Soon you will start to see that time can really be on your side allowing you to create that work/life balance that all small business owners set out to achieve.

Thanks to Heather Bienefelt of Integrated Consulting Solutions contributing this article for our blog.

“Leveraging Your Time: The Top 10 Ways Small Business Owners Can Get More Time in a Day‘ was first posted on Integrated Consulting Solutions Blog.

Integrated Consulting Solutions (ICS) specialise in taking the pain out of the certification process, reducing the paperwork, and giving you a system that’s guaranteed to get you certification fast and cost effectively, so you can go on and grow your business.

For a free no obligation consultation to assess how compliant your system already is

Visit ICS Website at www.iconsultingsolutions.com.au or CALL on 1300 132 745.

AVAC 2014 – What I Learnt

Administration, AVAC, Blog, Tips 1 Response »

Mar 272014

Recently I attended the 5^th annual Australian Virtual Assistant Conference (AVAC 2014), which was in Brisbane this year, and I’m grateful I did. I have been privileged enough to attend every AVAC, and like previous years it was a jam packed 2-days full of info; the organisers did a great job.

Like every conference/seminar you come away with long lists of ideas and things you should be doing, and want to be doing. Over the years I have discovered that if you try to do everything you learn, or works for others, there is no time for actual business, so you need to determine what works for you, and implement/try one thing at a time.

While I learnt a lot, here are some of the key things I was reminded of or learnt at AVAC that I have/can put into action straight away:

It’s the small things that make a difference – start small and add things as you go, you don’t have to do it all at once – Kaizen Exercise Physiologists
Take time to enjoy your food; and “Do it Now”, don’ keep putting things off until everything is perfect, this will help reduce stress – Happy Healthy Groovy
‘Spend less than you earn, borrow less than you can afford’; and put a some away for an emergency – On Your Own Two Feet
Own your brand/brand colour and communicate your message consistently – Sassy Branding
Remove ‘Yeah but’ and ‘I know’ from your vocabulary; and Write down ‘BIG’ dreams, link personal and business dreams, and then break the BIG dreams down into achievable dreams, i.e. break 10 year dream into 1 year dream – Warwick Bidwell
Make sure every page of your website has a ‘Call to Action’ and if you don’t already, check your Google Analytics regularly and learn how to decipher them – Paul Barrs
Communicate regularly with Facebook, Newsletters & Website and get people off Facebook to your Website/Mailing List – Natalie Alaimo
Take 5-15mins every 1 ½ hours away from your PC to relax and reset, and empty your emotional garbage every day – Creative Evolution
Removing ‘emotional’ clutter unless it can be used, can free up space for better things, click to watch TED Talk – Less is More – Clutter Rescue
Learn your numbers – Do you know your true hourly rate? Bring value to your clients in the packages you offer – Southern Cross Accounting
Turn off all new message alerts, and allocate 4 times a day to check email, this will allow you to focus on the task at hand – Taming the E-mail Tiger
Allow your brand to reflect the real you, not an online version of yourself. Repurpose your content – i.e. social posts become blogs, blogs newsletters etc – Cas McCullough
We learnt about 53 Cool Tech Tools, of the ones I aren’t already using I’m going to investigate: Evernote, Cam Scanner, Prezi and Houzz – Two Cents Group
Most importantly I learnt I need to be aware of what’s going on around me, i.e. stop using my phone while walking the streets – Phil O’Brien

If you ever have the chance to listen to any of these speakers, I recommend you do.

The best part of the conference is networking with other VAs, you have the opportunity to make great friendships, and pick up some great tips on how others handling different things. Networking is important for business whether it be with people in the same industry or other industries.

Already looking forward to AVAC 2015 –bring on March 2015 – if you’re a VA it’s time to start saving now.

Christmas Offer 2013

Blog, Christmas Offers No Responses »

Dec 042013

Give the gift of time to family and friends and save this Christmas.

For all gift certificate you purchase for Christmas we will give you a 20% discount.

Purchase a block of hours or we can tailor a package gift certificate to a particular person this could be for:

Resume overhaul or update
Website Creation
Website updates
Data Entry
Social Media Business Page Set-up
eNewsletter Set up
See our list of services and packages

Terms & Conditions:

Available for purchase from now up until the 20 December 2013
All services or hours must be claimed and used prior to 30 April 2014
No limit to how many vouchers you purchase
Contact paula@wynbs.com

website updates, formatting, or some data entry, or you can purchase a gift certificate for a block of hours, and we will give you a 20% discount on all gift certificates. *Conditions apply – contact us for more details.

Is a VA or a Temp right for me?

Administration, Blog, Virtual Assistance No Responses »

Dec 032013

Your Secretary/Assistant is overloaded or taking leave and you need a solution to ensure administration doesn’t pile up. There are a couple of options for you to consider – a Temp or a Virtual Assistant (VA), but what’s the difference?

Temporary (temp) employees are just that, temporary. You may get a different temp each time you require work done. Whereas, a VA on the other hand, is available on an on-going basis, and can be called upon at short notice.
VAs take a vested interest in the success of their clients and their businesses. VAs believe that the absolute best job will not only help their own reputation but will also help to build the client’s business, with the hope of generating themselves more work. A temp, however, may look at the assignment as just a means of padding their resume or getting paid.
VAs have many years of experience in the workforce, which allows them to provide a wide range of services. Temps may have little or no ‘on the job’ experience.
Although a VAs rate may seem higher, when you take in to consideration that you don’t have to provide office space or equipment, or pay the minimum 4 hours that a temp agency would usually charge, a VA is more cost effective.
VAs charge for actual time worked, whereas a temp is paid for the time worked, and any time they sit idle waiting for more work.
A temp has loyalty to the agency they are contracted through, a VA is usually and entrepreneur and works with and for the client.

Ask yourself these questions:

Do you know if you have enough work to keep a temp busy for the required hours?
Do you have the workspace for a temp?
Do you want to have to train someone new each time you need extra help?

If you answered no to any or all of these questions, then a VA may be a great solution to ensure your administration is kept under control.

It’s a Big Ask

Angela Vithoulkas, Blog, Guest Blog, Tips No Responses »

Dec 032013

Do you know how to ask for help? What about asking a question of others to find a solution to a problem or challenge? It’s actually a learned skill – from my perspective, and it’s all about being brave enough to hear the answers and listen to the lessons that inevitably come from the conversations with others.

If you are lucky enough to get your hands on a wise person, tie them to a chair and record the Q & A to play back as needed!

It’s ironic that we have no problem with asking people for feedback on our personal lives and relationships; we discuss all this openly and frequently and do what our friends say. But imagine when it comes to business questions, we completely go quiet and freeze up, or in my case we just don’t think about it. For so long it never occurred to me to just ask.

Whether you are a start up or an established business owner, you will constantly come up against, or be forced into, situations that will stump you. Clearly there are moments that Google can’t fix, and where no search bar in the world can provide assistance either. It’s either human contact or find out the hard way. Often, in fact far too frequently, the hard way comes in multiples as well… Why would it be easy? Lol

What if you look bad?

Is there an art to asking? Only if you over think it and care how you ‘look’ or ’sound’ when the questions come out. I like to think of asking as part of my investigation and search strategy. Usually that means me investigating what I don’t know, and searching for the right words to ask about thing I have no idea about, to people who know everything about matters I don’t. Make sense?

You may need a simple query answered, or an investor to deal in to your business, or a contra deal considered; the size of the ask isn’t relevant. It’s learning to ask that has the effect and changes the journey. And one answer I know you will get if you don’t ask, is the horrible echo of nothing.

Deep breaths

Take a good look at collaborative business models, people who have really fined tuned the art of asking and surround themselves with like minded individuals, who gather a complementary brains trust to resolve, construct and grow their unique and combined businesses. They can’t always afford specialist advice and consultants, but they know they need one, so they just ask!

When you do take a leap and want to breathe life into your idea and make the vision more than just a mission statement, wouldn’t it be great to find someone who could answer some basic questions at crucial times, and possibly save you the pain of learning very hard and expensive lessons? Especially if you are like me and you need to break something several times before you realise what it’s all about. If only I had asked…

Courage

Growing a business and leaving your very warm and fuzzy comfort zone where you are the all-knowing-and-seeing Queen and to suddenly stand at the edge of the cliff, facing a blank space is a diabolical dilemma. You either assume you know it all and freefall, or you ask … for transition help.

To overponder the simple task of asking is to waste the very time you would gain by just doing it – maybe avoid sounding like you have inhaled a helium balloon, and it will all be fine. And remember to pay it forward. There is someone around you who wants to ask, right now they are trying to get the courage to come forward and peek through the curtain, it doesn’t hurt to answer their ask.

It’s a big ask was published on Angela Vithoulkas’ Blog.

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