Increasing Productivity

1.  Team Building- Build your virtual support team
Have you ever heard of the 80/20 rule?  In business, 20% of your business activities yield 80% of the results.  You need to determine which tasks are in your top 20%, and eliminate and/or delegate the rest as a means of increasing productivity and experiencing better time management.  Unfortunately, many small businesses fail or don’t grow to the next level because  they don’t take advantage of small business resources like team building . An excellent way to get started is to work with a Virtual Assistant.

2.  Cultivate marketing relationships
Recruiting affiliates is one of the resources for entrepreneurs to increasing productivity and better time management. Affiliates spend their time promoting your products or services in exchange for a commission on the sale. In addition, find other entrepreneurs with complementary businesses and collaborate on services or developing new products.  You get more breakthroughs and unique perspectives when you are not working on business development alone.

3.  Leverage systems:  Any business can be broken down into two parts — Vision (what do you want) & Systems (how will you get it). Entrepreneurs are usually challenged by the “How will you get it” part and skip this crucial step. Increasing productivity by systemizing your business is one of the critical resources for entrepreneurs.  Systems will save you time, reduce errors, simplify tasks, enhance communication, keep you organized and help remember important things to get done.

4.  Hire a Business Coach or Productivity Expert
A business coach or increasing productivity expert are tremendous resources for entrepreneurs. These professionals will help you make things happen, develop steps to help you reach your goals, and provide you with the necessary support and structure you need to utilize better time management and realize your business goals.

5.   Know your high revenue generating activities
These activities provide valuable payoff in the long run. They are based on your priorities, values and goals, and are the activities you love doing and do best.  In turn, the tasks create immense value for your clients.

Better Time Management
You may have discovered  several ways of increasing productivity, but unless you know the keys to better time management, you may not achieve the results you want. You only have so many hours in a day; so, focus on specific areas consuming your time.

6. Handling Things More Than Once 

Do it, Dump it, or Delegate it! Handle things only once by evaluating every task that comes your way, decide what to do with it, and prioritize your to-do list. Once you’ve started a task, keep at it until it’s done. When you come back to an unfinished task, you need to take extra time to re-familiarize yourself with it and figure out where you left off. Successfully completing a task, no matter how small, gives you a great sense of accomplishment and encourages you to take on other tasks that come your way.

7.  Stop Multi-tasking

Many people try to do more than one task at a time. You kid yourself that you’re getting lots done. But you’re not.  When nothing gets your full attention, errors creep in. In the long run, you end up spending more time undoing those mistakes. Stop trying to do it all at once. By giving your undivided attention to one thing at a time, you’ll be much more productive.

8.  Manage the unexpected
Unexpected or unwanted events occur that demand your time and energy.  Practicing better time management means taking care of disruptions by scheduling time in your day for the unexpected. Give yourself a window of opportunity to face ‘surprise’ issues, and be open-minded about accepting support when needed.

9.  Ruthless time management
Practicing better time management means being ruthless with what you spend your time on and how you spend it. You need to set boundaries; identify the time wasters throughout your workday; schedule blocks of time to work on tasks; make and keep appointments; only do the tasks directly related to your small business goals and spend your time only on what you love and do best.

Ultimately, your goal should be to create work-life balance to ensure you are spending your time and efforts increasing productivity in a way so that you can take time off to rejuvenate and recharge your batteries without compromising your success. Creating a calendar of your ideal workweek is an excellent way to do this.

10.  Slow down to move ahead faster
Take the time needed, by slowing down, to evaluate your options and create a plan for your business goals and lifestyle. Then, design your business accordingly. Not only will this result in increasing productivity, but it is the epitome of better time management.

Now you know some strategies  for increasing productivity, and key aspects of better time management.  I guarantee that if you put this information into practice, you will work smarter and achieve greater success!  

Copyright 2009,  Michele Hanson-O’Reggio. All rights reserved.

Unfortunately, many  entrepreneurs who market their services with articles are making serious mistakes that result in their articles not being published and not getting targeted prospects to their website.  There are 4 factors that determine the success of any article:

*  the preparation you do before you write an article
*  the content of your article
*  the format of your article (”article mechanics”)
*  how you optimize and distribute your article

Let’s take a look at what the most common article marketing mistakes are and how you can avoid them.

Article Marketing Mistake #1 – Not Being Clear on the Reason to Write Articles

The primary reason to write an article is to inform your audience. If your article is not written with this purpose in mind, few people will want to read your article and you will fail to see all the benefits of promoting your article. Generating links by submitting your article to hundreds of sites will help to boost your search engine ranking but if you’d like to get people to read what is in your article, and then click through to your site, the solution is to produce better content.

Article Marketing Mistake #2 – Failure to Plan for Your Audience

Who are you writing for? You want only the people who are interested in reading your article and in the services you have to offer. You’re not writing for every person browsing on the internet. Ask yourself these basic questions about your target audience:

*   What kind of information are they searching for when they go online?
*   Do they have any problems related to what you have to offer?
*   What is their occupation, sex, age, etc.?

Then strategically choose the title and keywords of your article (more about this in Mistake #7). Did you know that the title determines as much as 95% of the success of your article in terms of how much traffic your article will generate back to your website? In fact, the first 3-5 words of your title are the most important. Then begin planning the content to make sure your article provides useful information or addresses a problem with a solution.

Article Marketing Mistake # 3 – Publishing Content That Publishers Don’t Want

If you want article marketing to work for you, write articles that publishers would want to publish. They will not publish your article unless it contains quality content that will give their readers value. You will also have to adhere to publication rules in order to have your article approved and listed. Rules include the use of self-serving links, unique content, the use of HTML, article length, keyword anchor text, resource boxes and affiliate links.

Article Marketing Mistake # 4 – Not Writing with Personality

In delivering your information, make it engaging and entertaining. Use your sense of humor if you have it. Put a little of your personality into your writing so that readers will feel a connection with you. When making a buying decision for professional services, the number one factor prospects consider is how much they know, like and trust you.

Article Marketing Mistake # 5- Too Much Sales Hype

Article marketing isn’t about selling – it’s about pre-selling. No one will publish an article that reads like a sales letter.  You get to promote yourself in your Resource Box at the end of the article where you include your name, brief professional information, your unique selling proposition (USP) and a call to action with links to your website.

Article Marketing Mistake # 6 – Failing to Maximize the Promotional Opportunities of Article Marketing

In order to maximize the benefits of article marketing, it makes good business sense to optimize your articles so the search engines can list the website associated with your article on the search engine results pages.  You will get free and targeted traffic from these listings! Include keywords in the title and content of your article and create metatags for your article pages. You can also include anchor text links in your resource box (the words you click on when you click a link).

Please note: there are best practices concerning these techniques so I recommend that you consult a professional to help you.

Article Marketing Mistake # 7 – Not Distributing Their Articles for Maximum Exposure

Many entrepreneurs don’t know the top sites to target for maximum exposure. They often end up submitting their articles to over-hyped and under-maintained sites. Moreover, article submission is very time consuming and tedious so they do a few submissions but not enough volume to give them the exposure on the internet they need.

So my recommendation is don’t just start writing. Plan ahead and write strategically to increase your article marketing success. The choice is yours – you can get a little exposure from increased link backs, or for a little extra work, enjoy massive exposure. If you have passion for a subject and can explain things like you would to a friend over a cup of coffee, you can write articles people will want to read. Just do a bit of planning first.

To write or not to write?  That isn’t the question. The questions that you must be able to answer are: What’s in it for the reader?  What’s in it for the publisher? Does my article provide value? Savvy entrepreneurs generate thousands of dollars from Article Marketing each year. So can you!

Let’s go back to business basics. Every business needs a business plan. All business plans have two components – the vision and the system. The vision answers the question “What do you want”? The system component answers the question “How will you get it”? Entrepreneurs are notoriously challenged with answering “How will you get it?” The answer to this question is the key to their success – systems!

Systems will allow you to see the details involved to achieve your big picture goals. In each area of your business that you create systems, you will develop clear definitions of success and see a connection between where your business is now and where it is going.

It is critical that you understand and have the mindset that your business is not your life, they are two separate things according to Michael Gerber, the world’s #1 Small Business Guru.” Once you recognize that the primary purpose of your business is to serve your life you can then go to work on your business rather than in it.”

So what exactly is a system? “It is an organization of functionally interactive units for the achievement of a common goal. All systems have inputs, outputs, and feedback, and maintain a basic level of equilibrium. For example, in the human body the heart functions to support the circulatory system, which is vital to the survival of the entire body.” (Dictionary of Business Terms, 3rd edition, by Jack P. Friedman)

Dr. Edwards Deming, an American statistician who was credited with bringing quality control to Japan and revolutionized American business practices, tells us that 97% of all failure is due to the system and not the person.

Ray Kroc was armed with this realization when he went he took over the small scale McDonalds Corporation franchise in 1954 and built it into the most successful fast food operation in the world. He created a systems-dependent business, not a people-dependent business. A business that could work without him. Unlike small most small business owners before him – Ray Kroc went to work on his business, not in it.” (Michael Gerber, The E-Myth)

 Here are 15 great reasons why you need systems:

*   Have freedom to take time off as your business is on autopilot
*   Solve problems before they happen
*   Increase your capacity to get more done with less effort
*   Focus on money making and creative activities knowing that day-to-day details are taken care of
*   Things get done the way you want them to
*  Increase your profits
*   Have peace of mind knowing that important things aren’t falling through the cracks
*  Save thousands of dollars each year by getting the “little things” under control
*  Prepares you for successful delegation
*  Duplicate what you do by teaching others to do it your way
*  Do only the things you love to do
*  Increase productivity by doing the same things, the same way
*  Better time management
*  Better work-life balance 
*  Be consistent in doing business – people are more likely feel comfortable doing business with you if they know what to expect!

One of the things I love about systems is that they can help you recognize some of the attitudes and beliefs you have that at times may cause you to doubt or have less confidence. When you have systems in place they help to shift your energy. A great example of this is the common attitude “I don’t have time for marketing”. This attitude results in the “feast or famine life” that many entrepreneurs experience.

Many entrepreneurs realize they need strategic systems if they want their business to grow and thrive yet I’ve heard so many excuses why they don’t have or want to improve them! Let’s look at the top 3 excuses I’ve heard and some simple steps you can take today to begin systemizing for more profit and freedom.

1. I don’t have the time

2. It’s going to be too much work

Creating systems doesn’t have to be time consuming. You can set aside a block of time in your calendar each week (start small, even 1 hr) where you work on your systems consistently. In fact, having systems will save you tons of time!

3. I don’t know how or where to start

Here are a few simple steps to get you started:

Identify a system that you need – start by identifying repetitive activities and activities that are time consuming (i.e., scheduling, managing emails, following up)

Create an outcome you desire. What is your compelling goal – the finish line? It should be SMART- Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timed.

Determine the steps needed to reach that goal.

Commit to working on your system for three (3) weeks. It takes twenty-one (21) days to form a habit – you can do this! Get the support of a business buddy or a Productivity Expert to get perspective, accountability and advice and to accelerate your success.

As entrepreneurs we have the ability to create the lifestyle of our dreams. We can learn and implement proven success strategies that make small businesses work. It all starts though, with a willingness to change. Are you willing?