We all get by with a little help from our friends, but when it comes to hiring guidance for our businesses, we want to make sure that help is worth the investment. There are a lot of options out there and if you aren’t careful, you may not get what you’re actually looking for, especially if you confuse a coach with a consultant (or vice versa.)
So let’s start there.
Continue reading “Business Coach vs Consultant: Which is right for you?”
Okay – raise of hands… how many of you have been told that the way to get ahead in your business is to automate as much as possible?
I can’t tell you how many people are shocked to hear that, as a systems expert, I still do quite a bit of work manually. Sound like a contradiction? Not if you zoom out a little.
Automation is a great way to share the burden of your workload with tools and apps. However, unless done thoughtfully, too much automation can cause some serious problems for you. There’s a sneaky little trap hiding in automation and if you aren’t looking for it, you’ll end up in a pretty big hole.
Continue reading “3 Ways Automation Can Hurt Your Business”
One of the biggest mistakes a business owner can make is believing they can do it all. While entrepreneurs can (and often do) wear a lot of hats, there are great risks in believing and attempting to run your business by yourself.
Sure, you could do research on all the tax codes and piece together something that sounds like a good contract. You could build automations through multiple apps and grind yourself into the ground executing all your day-to-day tasks and business development.
Or…
You could hire an expert to help you. And trust me, the experts are far more affordable than you think.
If you’re ready to offload some work or fill knowledge gaps in your business, here are the top three contractors I recommend you start with.
Continue reading “3 Services to Contract for Your Business”
Whether you’re just getting started or you’ve been at it for a while, running a business can be overwhelming. There’s a lot to consider – legal concerns, tracking financials, and getting all the work done.
In the beginning, we all start out doing the best we can. We go from day-to-day fielding emails, doing our best to stay on top of our task list, and hoping we’re piecing everything together correctly.
But then it happens. We start to grow. We have more than we can handle and we start drowning. We know there’s a better way to do things and the idea of bringing in some help is more stressful than we could have imagined.
There is a way to do it better – no matter where you are in your entrepreneurial journey.
Continue reading “Essential Systems for Entrepreneurs”
Keeping our inboxes organized can be a bit of a nightmare. If you’re like me, your inbox is an extension of your task list, which makes everything a bit harder to keep straight. With the constant flood of messages, it’s hard to have insight into what you need to do, what you’ve responded to, and what’s important.
The key to optimizing an inbox is using the tools at your disposal to making it work for you – and therefore, eliminating some work!
If your inbox is a little out of control, I recommend starting with using these three labels/categories to give you visibility into what’s in store for you.
Continue reading “3 Inbox Labels You Need to Use”
Daylight Saving is upon us once again – causing great confusion across the nation. Time change trips up even the most experienced world-traveler and international business professional. This crash course will give you the basics of getting your bearings as the time changes and never mess up scheduling a meeting again.
This post focuses on time change in the United States.
Would you rather watch a video on this instead? Great! Click here to catch the video on YouTube.
First and foremost, it’s important to understand the difference between standard and daylight time – and it’s completely counterintuitive.
Continue reading “Your Time Change Crash Course”
When we think about task management tools, we consider all the ways they can help us work better, faster, more efficiently. But have you ever looked at your favorite tool and considered how you could use it to improve your life?
I’ve been using the task/project management tool Trello for almost ten years and have gotten creative with how I organize not only my work but my personal life using their flexible boards. Any time I feel like I need to create a special notebook or folder for information, I ask myself if what I’m looking to organize would be better set up in Trello. More often than not, the answer is yes!
Now, admittedly, I could go on and on about all the amazing ways you can use Trello, but below are my top 5 favorite personal board ideas.
Continue reading “5 Personal Board Ideas for Trello”
One of the biggest pain points with organization that has a significant impact on our productivity is the existence of piles. And when I say piles, I mean both physical and digital piles. For example, stacks of mail, unpacked boxes, unread email, a full but clean dishwasher. Things pile up and suddenly getting through the pile is no longer a task – it’s a project.
I offer a number of tools to help you work through the piles (have you checked out Detox Your Inbox?!) but let’s talk about how you stop piles from starting in the first place.
All you need to know is three little words…
Continue reading “Staying Organized with the One-Touch Rule”
Whether you’re running your business solo or have hired help, doing too much manual work can feel like a grind. I mean, how many times have you thought, “Ugh, this again?” Manual work is just that… work. The tasks never go away or get easier if we continue to do them from scratch every time.
Another unfortunate byproduct of manual work is the increased possibility of making errors – especially if we’re working too fast or are buried in work.
Utilizing automations can save you time, headaches, and mistakes when you used thoughtfully. But where do you start? I suggest starting with these five simple automations.
Continue reading “5 Ways to Build Automation into Your Business”
There comes a point in every business owner’s journey where they think, “Why is this so frustrating?”
Running our own businesses isn’t quite as enjoyable as we had hoped, and putting financial stress aside, we seem to be struggling day in and day out. We’re buried in emails. We can’t seem to stay on top of things. We’re constantly doing sales and marketing.
So our knee-jerk response follows one of two paths. Either we think “I’m simply not good at [insert skill here]” or “This is just what the hustle is all about.”
Regardless of which camp you fall in, you may be wrong.
Take a closer look at where you’re struggling with your business. How many of your struggles, in one way or another, link back to your customers? I’m willing to bet more than you would initially think and this means it’s time to address issues in your client experience.
There are three clear signs that it’s time to redesign your client experience, so you have happier customers, and doing business actually gets easier.
Continue reading “Top 3 Signs You Need to Redesign Your Client Experience”