Category: Tips and Tools

If there’s one thing a lot of people struggle with at work, it’s keeping productivity levels high all day. Most people either feel extremely groggy in the morning, or experience an afternoon slump that they find too difficult to shake off. If this sounds like you, then you need a few smart ways to keep your productivity levels high all day. Read on to find out how you can do this!

Exercise In The Morning

Start off by exercising in the morning. You don’t have to go to the gym for two hours; simply going for a quick run or HIIT session, anything that will help you to get the blood pumping, is a great way to release some endorphins and stay productive all day.

It also means you get this healthy habit out of the way, before you have time to think about it and make excuses later on.

Use Coffee Strategically

Many people rely on coffee to get them through the day, but using coffee is a bad idea unless you really need it. If you must use coffee, use it strategically. Don’t drink one cup after the other, because sooner or later, the effects will begin to wear off. If you can avoid using it every day, using it when you actually need it will help to make the biggest difference.

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Invest In The Right Equipment To Help You

There are gadgets and things out there that can help you to keep your productivity levels high, depending on what type of job you work in and what you find your struggles are. For example, somebody at a desk job may find that a back brace to help them sit up straight is helpful in keeping them awake and feeling good. Other organizations find that anti-fatigue mats are perfect for employees who are on their feet most of the day. Figure out where your problems lie and then look into different pieces of equipment that could help.

Take Short, Regular Breaks

Taking short, regular breaks actually helps people to stay more productive throughout the day than simply working through – which can mean a steady decline in productivity. Plan out your work and breaks in blocks!

Set Yourself Deadlines And Track How Long Tasks Take You

Set yourself personal deadlines to get things finished. Apps like Rescuetime can help you to track how long things take you, which is helpful since many people struggle to estimate how long things actually take, and can’t work out where all of their time is going. Tasks like social media and email probably take up more of your time than you think.

Stop Multitasking

Multitasking actually slows you down. Pick one task and commit to it!

Look At Pretty Things

Studies have shown that looking at pretty things, like plants, candles, or flowers, can increase productivity up to 15%!

Minimize Your Interruptions

Finally, minimize your interruptions. Turn off notifications, avoid emails (especially early on in the day), and get as much real work done as possible before letting these things slow you down.

Run the day or the day will run you!

Moving into a consultancy career can seem a little daunting, and that’s especially the case when you’ll be juggling your budding career alongside family life around the home. As with any career, figuring out the best ways to strike a delicate balance between work obligations and your personal life is vital.

So what sort of things can you do to ensure that your new journey into consultancy is a smooth one? The Consultant Hub looks to provide you with some helpful advice that can benefit you in your new career.

Take stock and plan from early on

If you’re thinking about going into consultancy work, a good first step is to get a general plan of action in place so you’re ready to hit the ground running.

Things you should think about in the planning stage include:

• What skills my background gives me and why they’re useful in consultancy
• What unique service, benefit, or feature can I provide to clients
• What are possible distractions in my home and life that may affect my work
• How much should I charge to provide a good income

Once you’ve put some preparatory information together like this, you’ll be able to take your first well-prepared leap into consultancy work. It might even be worth writing a new CV that you put together specifically to emphasise your consultancy skillset. You can find out a little about how to do this by reading this article on how to tailor your CV for a consultancy role.

Good planning at the start will help make sure the start of your career isn’t as rocky as you might worry, which lets you push on to even greater success quicker while also causing less stress and impact on the home life.

Starting slow

That said, even with an extremely thorough plan in place, you don’t want to move too quickly and risk burning yourself out as you take on too large a workload too early.

Don’t worry if you start with just one or two clients to begin with. As time passes, more clients with materialise. The main thing to keep in mind, though, is effectively managing several workloads over a certain period.

That’s why it can be beneficial to start with only a few clients and build up over time. You can gradually increase the amount of clients you take on until you feel like you’ve struck the perfect balance between work and home life, and that you’re able to work as efficiently as possible for each of the clients alongside that.

To help you figure out the perfect workload for you, consider doing research on all possible clients, such as by checking their LinkedIn profile, to gauge business size and potential amount of work to be done. This will help you make informed decisions on how much work you’ll be doing at any one time.

A learning process

Your skills and experiences as a consultant aren’t set in stone either. Whatever industry you’re coming from, your background will give you a great starting point. However, what you learn and adapt to through the course of your consultancy career will help push you to new heights and be an even more effective consultant going forward.

As you spend more and more time as a consultant, perhaps you could consider revisiting the plan you made at the start of your career. You might realise that you’ve learned some new and very useful skills to use in your career, or that you’ve got enough of a reputation in the industry that you could push for additional high-profile clients within an industry which can take you to even greater successes as a consultant.

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Starting a new business is an exciting time. There’s a lot to look forward to and equally as much to prepare. To start up a business takes a special kind of person, someone passionate, prepared and hard working. It’s no walk in the park and there are some things that you will need to think about.

It may seem daunting, but once you’re up and running, selling your product or service and earning money it will all seem worth it.

1. Business name and product

If you’re thinking of starting a business, you will already have a product or service in mind. The name should reflect your product and should be different, catchy and easy to remember. There are millions of businesses in the world and you will need to express through your brand name what it is you do, as well as your unique selling point.

Think about who you will be targeting, if its alcohol you wouldn’t want to target children. Make sure that your target market is aware that your product or service is for them.

2. Business plan

You will need to make a business plan; it will be easier to explain your business to possible investors if you have a plan laid out. It will simplify each aspect of your business from the product to who you will be hiring to help with your start up.

You should lay out a five-year plan, taking into consideration the worst and best case scenarios. You will also need to write a pitch, this will be the first thing you say to people about your product – make sure to include your unique selling point in this. No one said being an entrepreneur would be easy.

3. Office and meeting space

Your product or service might mean that you need office space; you will need to look at a space that would be of benefit to you. However, your business might only be small, you may be able to just work from home.

This could save you money, but if you’re supplying to other businesses or have other investors, you may need to meet with them from time to time. In this instance, you might need to look at venue hiring in Nottingham, London or other places to ensure that your meetings are professional and not just in your living room.

4. Advertising

The world is full of advertising and this is the way that many businesses not only make money, but also make themselves known. You can’t expect to get any business if you don’t advertise it in some way.

For new and small business, one of the most popular methods is advertising through social media, as it won’t break the bank. If your product is, for example, a piece of cooking equipment, you might find that advertising through cooking magazines and websites will enhance your business. You need to ensure that your business is being seen by your target audience.

5. Making money

You might have an amazing product, but you need to show why you are the person to run this business. It might be your idea, but if you have little to no market knowledge, people won’t trust you or your product unless you have something to offer. You will need to express to your customers, and investors, that you’re the right person to make sure that your business succeeds.

A business can take a long time to fully form, you will need to be patient and persevere through all the difficult times that your business may face. You will be offering a product or service that no one else offers so it may be difficult, but it will be worth it.

Keeping on top of technology has been a wild ride for small business owners in the last few years. It’s not stopping anytime soon, either! But here at Business Plus Baby I want to help small business owners embrace the changes rather than being afraid, overwhelmed or just left behind by them.

So today, let’s look at the the Internet of Things (IoT).

So what is the Internet of Things?

The Internet of Things is connecting any device to the Internet, and to each other.  This could include the types of device we’ve had around our homes for decades such as washing machines, lamps and even coffee makers right up to wearable devices, smart phones and the components of industrial machines. And if you think this is some way off in the future you’d be wrong, according to analysts Gartner there will be over 26 billion connected devices by 2020.

In fact the IoT is already here. Last year Amazon launched its Dash service in the UK where you press a button on your washing machine to order replacement detergent. The button uses your wi-fi and a smartphone app to place an order at Amazon. It’s not just washing powder either, you can get buttons to order replacement supplies from printer ink to dog food, deodorant and mouthwash.

Here’s another example; if you need to get somewhere by car, your car could work out the best route to take based on your calendar. If you run into traffic your car could text the person you’re meeting to let them know you’ll be late.

How would this work for you as a small business owner?

It’s not too hard to visualise how this would work for a huge company like Amazon, but how would it work for a small business? It’s tempting to feel overwhelmed by how complex this seems, so first let’s consider the benefits. You could use IoT to reduce operating costs, for example if you start to automate tasks that you’ve previously done manually. That, in turn, could increase productivity. It could even help you expand into new markets or launch new product offerings.

A good way to get started is to use tools like Trello, Slack, OneNote and Google Drive to automate workflows for you. This will save you time on repetitive tasks and mean you spend less time digging around in your inbox because the information you need has already been sent to where you need to action it. You could also consider a digital personal assistant such as Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.

For more complex business systems you’re going to need a platform to handle your IoT business activities including your ad-hoc reporting and self-service reporting. As automation increases it becomes more important to monitor the status of your orders and other activities. Giving your customers or uses access to their own reports will cut down on the time you spend on customer service, too.

If you haven’t already explored the potential for using the Internet of Things for your business, why not give it a try now? Start by automating a simple but repetitive task and then you can develop from there.

Image: Free-photos

There will always be a point during your business that you decide on getting some extra things for the office or home. It could be an extra desk for a new employee, a new piece of furniture, or even some equipment such as a printer or machine. Whatever it is that you need to add to your existing space; it will most likely mean that you have to shuffle your home or office around to accommodate for it.

To make that job a little less stressful, here are some great tips you can take on board when looking to make room for new things.

Keep Things Minimalist

If you have a limited amount of space to work with in the first place, it can seem even more difficult to move things around and even consider buying anything new. However sometimes the best solution is to have a bit of a clear-out before you decide to buy an item and then you know exactly where it should go in your office. Use a storage unit from a company like Safestore to keep your items safe while you strip the room and paint the walls. Once you have a blank canvas you can measure a space for your equipment and then decide what items you will bring back into the remaining space. It could be that a few items are left in storage ready for you to sell or give to charity.

Shelves

If you want a place to store your items without having to buy a whole cabinet for it; stick to shelves in the wall instead. You can install shelves as high up as you like so they won’t get in the way while you are working, and it means that they will take up much less room in the office. You can use them to keep your folders with paperwork in, stationery and other small items.

Multi-purpose

If you only have a small space to work with, then the best thing you can possibly do is to find items which can have two purposes. This can be seating which has storage underneath, a chest which you can also use as a coffee table and loads more.There are tonnes of clever ideas and choosing something like this will save you so much space. An ottoman is the perfect addition to any room because it offers storage as well as the opportunity to sit down or hold things on top.

Get Hanging

Have you ever seen people hanging their pans up in the kitchen? Well, believe it or not you can do the same thing in your office to make room for new tools and equipment. Hanging baskets on the walls can provide the perfect place for small items which would otherwise make your office look cluttered and chaotic. They can even be made into a lovely feature of the office and add colour to the room. You could even hang items on the wall such as fabrics or tools which you need for your business.

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