businessbuildingstrategies

5 Goals You Can Set For Your Small Business

It is never too late to set some new goals for your small business! Here are five things you can do once or continuously to better improve your small business.

  1. SWOT analysis: S- Strengths, W- Weaknesses, O- Opportunities, and T- Threats. This is a great way to figure out/analyze the current state of your company. Also, this helps target those areas you may need to improve on before setting goals.
  1. Take Advantage of Social Media
    1. Social media is one of the absolute best tools to use when it comes to not only growing your small business but also establishing a key identity that is attached to your business’ name. Try creating a profile on Instagram or Facebook and just putting your logo and company message, and then add consistent content focused on your products and/or services.
  1. Revise Your Customer Service Process
    1. Having a fantastic customer service process is especially important. People like to feel like they are cared about personally when it comes to assisting their needs. If you sell products, maybe start offering an easier method of contact. For example, if you only offer a customer service email, think about opening a business phone line or live chat for people to get a faster response.
  1. Hire Someone to Help
    1. If you find that your business is starting to grow, adding an additional person may be your best bet to maximize productivity. Virtual Assistants are the perfect option to start off with. They have a lower cost vs regular employee and need little to no benefits. It would be great to talk with you and see if our VA’s are the right fit for your business.
  1. Reduce Business Expenses
    1. This is dependent on the type of small business you are running, but there is always some way to cut a few costs here and there. For example: unneeded materials or subscriptions.

Here at Life by Design Virtual Assistant Services, we wish your small business nothing but the best. Feel free to check out the FREE 15-minute consultation we offer on our contact page to see if our services would be of benefit to you.

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Time Management Tips for Your Business

Do you have a hard time keeping a schedule for your business and don’t really manage your time well? If so, you are not alone! Last month was a bad time management month for me, and it showed in my business. So today I want to talk for just a minute about what I am doing differently in hopes that it might help someone else.

Time Management and Doing Income Producing Activities

I have been super busy trying to learn new skills, write an eBook and email course, and implement everything as I learn new marketing techniques, and my time management has been terrible because of it. And it shows.

When you do not practice good time management skills, time gets away from you. You end up wasting more time instead of doing income producing activities that grow your business. And you stall your business growth. Because you cannot be laser focused and do a great job when you are trying to do 50 different things. I was trying to do way too much instead of focusing on a couple things, which made me inconsistent and lack diligence in my business.

I was trying to learn and do too many things and it seriously hindered my success last month. If that is you too, I have good news. This is a new day and a new month to start over and do better.

So here 3 main things I am going to focus on for this new month and I think it might be helpful for you as well.

  1. Focus on talking to people about your business. That’s where the money is. Focus on people. Everything else can be extra after you’ve talked to people each day. Set a goal. My goal is to call, message, or in some way talk to 20 people a day about my business. Yours does not have to be that many or it may be more. But just set a goal of how many you are going to talk to and stay consistent.
  2. Set a schedule for the hours you will work. This is so important. All businesses need to have scheduled work hours. If not, you will either not do anything, or you will be like I was last month, feeling like I was working constantly. Set a schedule. You may not be able to stick to it completely, but set it and get as close to that schedule as possible each day. My red personality type tends to be a workaholic and I really have to reign it in sometimes and cut back or it gets out of control.
  3. An important thing to remember is that God gave you the desire to succeed. Maybe you are in a home business and you have tried multiple businesses, been in for years with no real success, or maybe you are brand new but have a strong desire to do this. Either way, God gave you that desire. You have a desire to succeed. All humans have a desire to succeed in something, but we get so bogged down with “reality” that we lose hope in those dreams, whatever they may be. I am here to tell you today that if you are in a business and have a burning desire to make it work, God placed that desire there and has a plan and purpose for that desire in you. He can use it to reach so many people. He wants to see you succeed, but you have to do the work, follow directions and walk in that calling. It took me many years to see that, but I now know God has a plan and purpose for me and for my business. He does for you too. Rise up and walk in it starting today! He will not let you fall if you keep your eyes on Him.

To your success,

Genean Roberts

businessbuildingstrategies

How to Avoid Distractions in Your Business

Do you get distracted easily in your business and not get everything done that you intended to?

There are income producing activities and then there are distractions. Sometimes, you think you are running your business, but in reality you are letting distractions keep you from making money.

Most people, especially when they are new, have a job and have to work their business on the side in their spare time. So if that’s you, you need to make sure that the time you have to run your business is laser focused.

You need to be doing income producing activities and sometimes you have to ask yourself if the activity you are doing is going to grow your business and make sales for your business. If the answer is no, or I’m not sure, then most likely it is just a distraction.

Things such as scrolling Facebook constantly, that’s a distraction. Now, can you grow your business using Facebook? Yes. But scrolling and watching cute videos and reading how someone’s day went is not going to grow your business.

Something else we do is let other things get in the way of running our business, which are excuses. We say things like, “well I just don’t have the time because I have to get home and make dinner and bath the kids and feed the dogs and put up laundry“. Whatever the excuse may be. We all have made them. I’m not saying neglect those things. I’m saying that if you want your business to succeed you have to not let those things take away from your business time.

So if you can only work your business one hour a day, that hour needs to be laser focused on your business, with a plan of action and a schedule for each thing. Your family needs to know your schedule so they can work around it as well, and you need to stop letting distractions keep you from making money.

My advice is to get a planner and schedule your time. Schedule activities within that time frame that are income producing activities, and use that scheduled time to be laser focused on your business. You will thank yourself later when you are able to leave that full time job like I did. It’s a very freeing feeling.

To your success,

Genean Roberts