Tag: entrepreneur

Small Business Marketing Agency
Implementation

Why Companies Need an SOP Process

Genean

Picture this: You’ve opened up the business of your dreams. Everything seems to be running smoothly, but as you progress and grow, you will slowly be changing the procedures and guidelines in your workplace. New employees will flow in and out. Through this process, it is important to maintain a formalized process in order to improve efficiency and productivity for your business.

While you may have confidence in your team, it is essential to keep everyone on the same page when taking on daily tasks. So, how can you keep your business running like a well oiled machine? If you don’t already have Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), you may want to consider implementing them. 

What are SOP’s?

They are documented processes that a business puts into place to ensure tasks and daily activities are executed properly and efficiently by all team members. SOPs can be in the form of written out steps that highlight, in depth, the procedures and expectations that are to be delivered consistently. SOPs for all businesses will vary in regulations and operations, but ultimately, the goal is to keep your growing company running smoothly as is undergoes industry changes and development.

So why do you need SOPs and how can you get started? We’ve gathered a few reasons why your company can benefit from Standard Operating Procedures and our favorite app for adapting this business tool. 

Produce Results

To have a successful business it is important to remain consistent. In order to do so, SOPs can help your team members follow standardized procedures that will yield better results and lower risk of error. Considering every person works and learns differently, having the same guidelines and regulations set in place for everyone to learn will increase the chances of tasks being performed correctly. 

Better Employee Training 

When new employees have a detailed guide for success, this will make the training process and management of new hires much smoother. While learning through experience is beneficial, having the knowledge of how to properly deliver results can heighten confidence and improve ability to accomplish tasks with little error. 

Find Flaws 

When testing your procedures through SOPs, you open the door for improvement. As you are always working hard to improve your business, by laying out your procedures for others to follow, you can pin point what adjustments you need to make in order to keep your business running productively. 

Trainual

An amazing tool that can get you and your team started with Standardized Operating Procedures is Trainual. Trainual is an amazing tool for gathering all your SOPs and having them be easily accessible to your team. With a variety of templates and widgets, simplifying your standardized procedures is quick and easy. Here at Life By Design, our team members are skilled in designing SOPs for all business types.

Don’t know where to start or what SOPs you may need? Let us help you get started. Contact us HERE.

Top Digital Marketing Agency
Uncategorized

Time Management Skills To Grow Your Business as a Fitness Instructor

Genean

Time management, for all business owners, is about being productive while simultaneously being proactive. Doing more does not necessarily mean you’re being more productive with your time. Fitness instructors have a lot on their hands. You must be active and efficient with your time on a day-to-day basis. Considering how active you are, you may start to feel burned out from being so busy. Interacting with your community can take up a lot of your time. Whether that time is taken up answering emails, phone calls, or setting up personal sessions, you may want to get some of that time back. We have some great tips for how you can properly manage your time as a fitness instructor. 

As a fitness instructor, you like to live a healthy and balanced lifestyle, but this also includes taking care of yourself and having daily, weekly, and monthly goals set for yourself and what you would like to achieve. So one of the most important things you can do to manage your time wisely is by establishing those goals for yourself.

Make a list of all the tasks you have to do and schedule them out evenly on a calendar throughout the week or month. This will help you visualize all the things you want to achieve without overwhelming yourself each day. 

Next, to get into your new routine, you must stay strict with your time and yourself. It can be easy for us to fall into habits of procrastination. But stay disciplined and focus on using your time wisely and efficiently during the times you have planned for your business. By knowing and planning what you have to do during each time window during your day will help you avoid procrastination. There are also a variety of health and self-awareness apps that can aid you in curbing your procrastination periods. Some of our favorites include Focus@Will, Focus To Do, and Rescue Time. 

Limit technology. Unfortunately, it can oftentimes be very difficult to release ourselves completely from technology. Especially in a business, technology is how we connect with our communities, customers, and potential clients. However, making an active effort to avoid social media, emails, and texts when you are trying to stay focused can be very useful when managing your time. When working on high-priority tasks, you want to avoid all distractions. So switch off those phones and TVs to get things done quickly, so you can get back to doing what you love. 

Prioritize your time. If you’re a fitness instructor, you are constantly active and on the move. At times, this can become very overwhelming. Taking care of yourself, others and your business can be a heavy workload. It is important to prioritize balancing your time throughout the week. Always remember to focus on what works best for you, your work schedule and personal schedule.

Best Digital Marketing Services
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Using Business Psychology as a Marketing Strategy

Genean

As a business owner or business professional, an important question to ask yourself is why certain professionals and businesses are more controlled, productive, enthusiastic and successful than others? The answer is simple, basic business psychology and organizational behavior. Business psychology (also referred to as organizational psychology) is an applied science that uses a focus on human behavior to evaluate how an organization and its employees can implement strategies to increase engagement and drive profits. As business professionals, it is valuable to utilize valuable  team building, leadership, efficiency, innovation, and positive thinking techniques in order to establish a successful business. How can we do this? Here are three useful techniques to improve workplace wellbeing. 

  1. Team building

Collaborating and working together as a team can be the key to fortifying your organization. After all, a business is not a one man job. Encouraging cooperation and group effort will create value in the workplace. Consider implementing monthly group meetings where all team members participate in team building exercises. As team members build stronger relationships, they are able to work more effectively as a team. Additionally, encourage communication amongst your team members. As a leader in an organization, it is important to provide a safe space for team members to be able to communicate any conflict or issues within the organization.  It is useful to embrace an open-door policies to encourage communication and trust

  1. Develop and Implement Workplace Strategies

Once any conflict or issues have been addressed, the next step is to improve engagement, increase teamwork, enhance communication and create a more productive and successful workforce. It is beneficial to implement training programs, HR policies, employee and manager coaching, and performance evaluation. Once implementing new policies and programs, evaluate its effectiveness and continue to monitor how employees respond.

  1. Emotion over Intellect

A valuable tool to utilize in marketing your business is valuing emotional appeals over intellectual ones. By marketing how your product or service can benefit the consumer’s life in a worthwhile way, you will yield more significant results. How the consumer feels about your product or service directly impacts sales and profitability. Linking your service or product with positive feelings will improve brand identity and increase brand loyalty. Most importantly, make sure you are doing extensive research on what associations will generate positive responses from your consumer base and demographic. What positive aspect and reward can your customer receive by investing in your product or service?

Remember, a business is not simply about logistics. “To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace,” according to Doug Conant, former Campbell Soup Company CEO. Be mindful of the workplace environment you create. Your team is your best asset, so ensure they are working well together in order to increase efficiency. Implement workplace strategies that improve organizational behavior. Finally, don’t forget about the customer, analyze what they are looking for from you and execute marketing techniques that speak to their emotions.

Digital Marketing Firms
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How Time Blocking Can Grow Your Business and Cut Your Hours

Genean

As a small business owner and entrepreneur, you are more than likely thinking about how you can maximize your time and still grow your business as much as possible. Time blocking is the answer in many of these instances. With this not-so-new technique, you can successfully plan every hour of your week so that nothing slips through the cracks. There are time blocking apps and weekly planners with time blocking grids. You can use your Outlook calendar or your Google calendar, no time blocking software necessary, or use intricate programs that schedule your tasks automatically. This time management method allows you to keep track of your task management and stay focused.

By setting boundaries, buffering your time, and blocking out time to work on your tasks you can retake control of your day. It’s also good to think about your obstacles so you can plan for them. Does your client always call at the same time during the week? Make a note of it on your calendar and plan for that interruption. Maybe that means you work on items that don’t require much brain power or focus because you know the client will inevitably call during this time. Notice the patterns in your day so you can make a plan.

Here are some interesting statistics on where our time goes:

  • We spend ten minutes every day searching for lost items, from books and phones to car keys and even the cars themselves. 
  • 3,680 hours or 153 days is spent searching for stuff, over our lifetimes.
  • Office workers waste an average of 30% of their workday looking for information

You have a limited supply of energy, focus and will power. And the distractions don’t help. Allowing interruptions and less important tasks to take up your time is a recipe for disaster. It takes on average 25 minutes to get back to a task after a distraction

Where do I begin? Here is a simple way to get started.

Create a new spreadsheet that has the days of the week across the top and the hours, from the time you wake up until you go to bed, down the left hand side. 

Fill in recurring events.

Fill in anything that reoccurs from day to day or week to week. These could be meetings, recurring tasks, networking events, work hours etc.  You can now fill in the blank spots with chores, you time, and hanging out with your family.

One of the easiest ways to make it feel like you have more time in your day is to group like tasks together.  Plan a specific day for errands.  Define a laundry day and a shopping day.  Don’t feel like you have to do this all on the weekends.  Laundry can be done while watching your favorite shows mid-week or you can run errands after work on your way home.

At the end of the day, if you feel stressed and feel like you do not have time for things you enjoy, time blocking may work for you. If this technique does not, a virtual assistant from Life by Design can take on any tasks you just don’t have time to do.

blogging, businessbuildingstrategies

Why You Need A Blog For Your Business

Genean

With the ever-changing styles of marketing methods, it is hard to keep up with what the best techniques are for growing your business.  Blogging can be one of the most effective ways to increase brand awareness while simultaneously providing useful information to your target audience.

Now more than ever it is important for small businesses to have an online presence. Being a consistent blogger can take your business further than you thought possible. Content is still king when it comes to online business building. Consistent content on your social media channels, through email marketing, and through blogging can greatly increase your visibility online. Here are a few reasons why you may want to consider adding a blog to your business’ website.

1. It helps your audience know what is going on in your business: If you want to build customer loyalty and keep happy customers coming back, you’re going to need to keep them updated. Having a blog can work as a great tool to keep your customers in the loop. A blog will help also your customers relate to you on a more personal level, as they are able to give you feedback and have direct communication with you. You’ll keep the old customers coming back and new customers eager to learn more.

2. SEO boost: A great boost to SEO is increasing the outflow of fresh content, relevant topics and engagement. When you write blog posts consistently, this will generate traffic to your business. By utilizing relevant key words and creating new content, you are heightening your chances of appearing more frequently in search engines. Blogging is one of the most inexpensive ways you can increase SEO.

3. Build an email database: Email marketing is still a very important tool you can utilize to keep new and old customers updated. However, many customers are reluctant to sign up because they don’t enjoy spam mail. A blog, however, can build credibility and likability for your brand. If people enjoy your content, they are more likely to sign up for your newsletters. The main goal is to build trust between you and your consumers.

4. Pass Along Effect: If you are releasing valuable information that people enjoy reading, odds are they will want to share this information with others. A blog can highlight valuable information that relates to your niche. Once one person enjoys it, they are more likely to pass it on to others who share the same interests, therefore bringing attention to your business.  

If you haven’t yet, I encourage you to add a blog to your website today and start posting. If you don’t have the time, or the desire to, we can help! That’s one of the services Life By Design Virtual Services offers to business owners. We can write and schedule content as often as you’d like. Reach out and schedule your free consultation today to see if we are a good fit!

blogging

Common Mistakes Business Owners Make

Genean

Running a business, large or small is hard work. You plan and schedule your time to the best of your ability yet find yourself working more than you would at a typical 9-5 job. You ask yourself why you now have less time for the things you love. So many of us put our energy into the wrong things and miss the right opportunities. Here are a few common mistakes business owners make during the first 5 years, and how you can avoid them:

  • You do not set a clear plan and/or vision for your business. While you may have the next million dollar idea, if you do not have a clear, thought out, plan that you can easily relay to your clients it will be hard to find them. This is best done by taking the time necessary and not rushing the process. While there are always exceptions, business longevity requires a lot of nurturing. 
  • Find your target demographic. This will take time as well as trial and error. Initially, you will want to broadly market your products/services. As you go through the paces you will find a specific niche of clients you prefer to work with and can narrow your focus. This will not only help you focus on the things you enjoy doing, you will also be using your resources in the most efficient way.
  • Building a significant Social Media presence. The average length of time a person  spends per day on social media is 2 hours and 24 minutes. In that short window, you are literally competing with millions of influencers and small businesses to make your product or service known. You can expedite this process by reaching out to friends and family, finding influencers to promote your products and/or creating paid ads (not recommended until well established-utilize what is free until you begin bringing in a profit).
  • Have Patience. Finally, whether you are building a million dollar business or a coffee shop on the corner, please remember that everything worthwhile takes time. Setting the building blocks to success and nurturing your business through the growth stages is the most important thing you can do. 

Deciding to start your own business and pursue your passion is a huge, life changing decision and one you should always be proud of. Perfecting these key points will eventually make your business drive itself to success.  Life by Design VA Services can help during those times when you find the need for navigating through your unique business journey. 

A few things our Virtual Assistants can help you with:

  • Social Media – We can create graphics/captions and schedule posts. Consistency is key!
  • Website Management – Updating content, photos and links can take a lot of time that you don’t have. A VA can edit and update your website as needed.
  • Blog Posts and Other Content Creation – Creating eye-catching, aesthetically pleasing, and thought provoking captions, blog posts, articles, newsletter and info on your website is so important. 
  • Online File Organization – Whether you need help with organizing your emails and creating filters, or organizing your Google Drive or OneDrive files, we can help!
  • Email and Calendar Management – Keeping up with your email and calendar can take time you just don’t have. Our VA’s can help by replying to and sending emails, creating and sending calendar invites, schedule meetings, add appointments to your calendar, set reminders, and more. 

These are just a few ways Life By Design Virtual Services can help you grow your business in 2021. If you are to the point of not enough hours in the day, let us help!  Schedule your free 15 minute consultation HERE.

Let’s see if what we do is a good fit for you!

process management, sop creation

It’s a Good Year for Better Time Management

Genean

Happy New Year! Here’s to an amazing and productive 2021!

How do we accomplish that in our business? We manage our time well.

Time management is a key skill in becoming/being successful and it includes setting aside the perfect amount of time for each and every task being thrown at you. Here are some tips to better manage your time, which will result in higher productivity in 2021. 

  1. Set Goals 
    1. A fundamental part of time management is not only setting goals for everything you need to complete, but also prioritizing them. One way would be to rank your goals by importance so you have a better idea of what you need to do first, second, third, etc.
  2. Set A Time Frame For Each Task 
    1. Try to estimate the amount of time you will be spending on each and every task so you know when and where to fit in those tasks. It’s very important to have enough time to complete each one, leaving wiggle room in case it takes longer than expected. I can’t tell you how many times I have underestimated the amount of time a task will take me and I had already waited till the last minute to complete it- that doesn’t result in a good outcome. 
  3. Reward Yourself
    1. No matter how big or small your personal reward is, you should have one. It not only gives you greater motivation to complete the task in a timely manner but also gives you something to enjoy and promotes self care. 
  4. Take Out Unnecessary Tasks
    1. Cleaning up your to-do can have a huge impact on not just your stress levels but also your productivity. Having a bunch of unnecessary and just straight up time consuming tasks on your list will only slow you down. 
  5. Give Yourself A Break 
    1. Taking breaks are known to increase productivity as long as you stick to your set break time. Think of it as a recharging period to re-center and boost motivation. Examples include working for maybe 3 hours then giving yourself a 20 minute rest. 
    2. Delegate. Give tasks that you don’t want to work on to an assistant. Hiring a virtual assistant is one way to get rid of those extra tasks and free up more of your time for the things you want to do.

Productivity and time management are serious factors when it comes to not only your mental health surrounding the areas of stress, but also important factors to putting out quality work- no matter your area of expertise. 

Here at Life by Design our team values time management and quality work. We focus on the busy work while you continue to run the business of your passion. If you want to learn more, schedule your free consultation here.

businessbuildingstrategies

What is a Virtual Assistant and Why Would I Ever Need One?

Genean

Whether your business is a one-man show that’s just begun or an established company with more than one team member, a virtual assistant may be in your best interest. Their purpose is to allow you to focus on what matters most, your passions and running the business you love. 

No matter if your business is completely online, in person, or maybe both- tremendous benefits come along with hiring one. 

Managing a consistent/cohesive brand image across all of your social media platforms, website, local listings, and more can become a serious challenge. Alongside keeping up with all of your clerical/general administration tasks can seem nearly impossible. That’s why Virtual Assistants are there to help you! 

Save Money 

Most brands like to outsource when it comes to hiring someone to handle all of the busy work because it normally results in a profit save. As well as cutting back on things like training costs.  Virtual Assistants are already knowledgeable in everything that comes with the job. 

Save Time

Starting a business can be so exciting and gives you the opportunity to make a profit from something you truly enjoy doing, but will soon be followed by busywork. These amazing assistants truly will take a tremendous amount of pressure off your back so you can stop sweating about the small things and dive deeper into your passion. 

Virtual Assistants are becoming more and more acknowledged today, especially with everything starting to be done remotely. Most assistants work from home allowing a very flexible schedule to fit all of your company’s needs. 

Social Media

  • Content creation 
    • Using your brand colors, the content will be created to match your brand image and engage your following. 
  • Grow Your Following 
    • It’s a proven fact that when business social media accounts post consistent and engaging content- follower counts go up. 

General Admin  

  • Email Marketing / Regular Usage 
    • Including management and cleanup, sorting, scheduling newsletters and general emails, email autoresponders, automations, as well as mailing list setup. 
  • Proofreading 
  • Basic Bookkeeping 
  • Calendar Organization
    • Including management and appointment scheduling, creating daily to-do lists, and creating employee schedules. 
  • Media Creation 
    • Including slides for presentations, word documents, spreadsheets, and more. 
  • Research 
  • Data Entry 
  • Website Management

Life by Design is known for exceptional customer service and guaranteed client satisfaction. Each one of our team members has the same goal in mind – making your life easier while you continue to dive deeper into your passions. Hear from our past clients on our home page where reviews are located. See them here.

2021 can be your best year in business yet, with a little help. 🙂

To your success,

Genean

businessbuildingstrategies

Growing Your Business With a Virtual Assistant into 2021

Genean

As e-commerce platforms are growing in the business world, hiring a virtual assistant is becoming more and more needed. As a virtual assistant myself, I believe that we, as professional VAs, should possess certain qualities to help your business grow.

As the need for virtual assistants is growing, more and more underqualified and inexperienced people are starting a virtual assistant business. When hiring a virtual assistant, it’s imperative that you screen them well, ask many questions about their prior experience, and make sure they have the qualities of the kind of person you are looking for in your business.

I have heard from many business owners who hired a virtual assistant, then soon regretted it because the assistant was not as skilled as they claimed. At that point, it’s a little awkward letting them go, not to mention the business owner is now gun shy on hiring another VA.

There are many quality VA’s out there who will do a fantastic job for your business. Many are looking for work right now! A couple things to ask for is a portfolio of past work, and a referral.  These two things can tell you a lot about the professionalism and quality of a VA.

You also want to ask questions to find out the quality of the person. Integrity and honesty, being punctual, and meeting deadlines are things you need in a VA. Here are 3 more qualities to look for when hiring a virtual assistant.

  • Detail-Oriented. A virtual assistant should always have great attention to detail. A quality virtual assistant is one who does the task promptly, does it correctly, and does it with a positive attitude.
  • Responsiveness. Virtual assistants are just that, virtual. So, it is important to have good communication since they are not in the traditional office setting.  Depending on where your virtual assistant lives, the time difference can be a challenge for both the company and the VA. So, it is important to discuss these issues in the initial consultation, before hire, and set expectations.
  • Effectiveness and Efficiency. Effectiveness and efficiency are critical aspects of making any task successful. When running any business, it is of great importance that all deadlines are met, and all work is completed thoroughly and professionally.

If you are currently in need of a virtual assistant, or maybe you are just window shopping for now, you can see what we at Life by Design VA Services do by scheduling your free consultation here.