How to Stay on Schedule and Be Uber Productive

“The best way to effectively use time is to schedule it.” —Sunday Adelaja Write All of It Down First of all, don’t underestimate the power of physically writing things down. The greatest benefit of writing down all of your project ideas, reminders, appointments, etc. is that the physical action of writing it forces you to engage with it mentally, making it more likely to stay in the forefront of your mind. It’s not enough to plaster your desk with sticky notes; you really have to plot out your day thoughtfully, especially if you’re not inherently an organized person. It Only Works if You Adhere to It Writing something down is only the first step. Let’s say you’ve got a full schedule laid out for the day in your daily planner or in your calendar software. It might as well be an art piece at this point because if it’s not …

For Business Owners Who Don’t Play Well with Others

  When we think of someone who runs a business, we get a picture in our mind of a person who is always wheeling-and-dealing, shaking hands and putting on a smile during meetings—generally impressing everyone they encounter. It’s easy to forget that there are many business owners who don’t fit the mold and actually have a lot of trouble functioning socially, especially in a professional capacity. The aim of this post is to offer some sound advice for the socially-challenged business owner, to provide some tools that will help with the uncomfortable affectation of interacting with others.   The Responsibility of Introverts to Be Outgoing One thing that is important to remember if you are the type of person who finds it hard to function socially is that other people cannot make you be more assertive. If you are introverted or otherwise, it’s on you to make a conscious effort …

22 Tips for Running an Exceptional Small Business

  No matter what level you are on, this comprehensive list of tips can provide a foundation for running your small business in a growth-minded fashion, as well as help you to avoid many of the pitfalls on the road to success.   1. Get a Premium Domain Name Of course, “.com” is the most recognized, and this is the extension that you need. If it comes down to a face-off between “yourbusiness.net” and “yourbusiness.com”, the first click will almost invariably be the “.com”.   2. Utilize A/B Testing The next time you decide to change the font of your subject line, the color of your landing page background, or the position of your comments section, run an A/B test.   3. Content Marketing is a Powerful Tool You could be drawing huge traffic to your website through content, but none of them are converting because they were not your …

Inside the Mind of Your Customer: Why They Lash Out

The first step to improving relations with your customers is to understand where they are coming from. This article isn’t necessarily about customer service, but at the same time, improved service is a byproduct of knowing what motivates your customer. If you think about it, the majority of the times when you are speaking to a customer or an existing client, they need something from you—and that is a vulnerable position for someone to be in, under any circumstances. That vulnerability can cause people to react unpredictably sometimes. How Much Should You Tolerate? Before we get into the reasons why customers tend to lash out, it’s important the draw a line in the sand. When do you say that it’s enough, and end the conversation? A good rule of thumb is to stop serving them when it becomes abuse; you just need to recognize when that is what’s happening. Here …

What They Don’t Tell You About Running a Home Business

It seems pretty straightforward, right? You start a business, do all the business owner stuff, set up your home office, and run everything just like you would if it were housed in a separate building. Yes, that’s exactly right, but the problem is that the simple change of venue and environment can make it difficult for you to approach it as a normal business. The following points are some invaluable cautionary tips that you may not have considered before starting a home business. It takes a special kind of person. There isn’t really anything that can prepare you for the experience of running a small business from your home; you simply have to dive in and see how it affects you. Everyone thinks it’s a professional dream come true to work from home, but you quickly find that it is, in a way, very emotionally and mentally taxing. It actually …

Top 5 Questions You Should Ask Your Job Applicants

To make your interviews a little more potent and find the right people more quickly, you just have to ask the right questions. You’ll see below that some of these are pretty straightforward, but to gain real insight about an applicant, you have to direct your questions a little left-of-center. 1. Can you describe your level of communication skills? You need to know how well someone communicates because it’s the foundation of working with a team in every capacity. If someone can’t explain themselves clearly and easily understand where coworkers are coming from, then getting any work done will be laborious and ineffective, eating up excessive amounts of time. 2. Why do you want this job? It’s important that someone has the ability to perform in the position for which they are applying, but possibly even more important is why they are doing it. You will get infinitely more output …

What to Do When You Make a Mistake with a Client

  No matter how careful you are, mistakes will be made from time to time. Whether it’s a low-level representative of the company or upper management, someone will eventually make an error that affects a customer, and there should be no reason why you cannot retain their business and make them happy again. All you really need to do is jump on the situation quickly and manage it in a conscientious way.   Contact Them A.S.A.P. The first action you want to take, of course, is to get in touch with the customer. Whether your people catch it first, or the customer brings it to your attention, contact them as soon as possible to make it right. And you should naturally make sure that they get an apology before you begin to deal with the mistake, no matter how minor the problem is.   Don’t Sweep it Under the Rug …

6 Things You Should Never Say to a Customer

  Any professional who works with customers on a regular basis is bound to say something off-putting or not quite appropriate to a customer, sooner or later. The difference between a normal statement and one that is offensive to a customer is subtle, but you can see how clear it is in the examples below.   We’re all out. (without offering alternatives) It won’t be the end of the world if you have to tell a customer that you’re out of something because if you’re out, then well… you’re out. Don’t just leave it at that, though. There is an opportunity in that moment to sell them something else. As a matter of fact, you would be surprised at how many people would be willing to settle for an alternative product from you, rather than going out and getting it from your competitor. It’s just less of a hassle.   …

How to Resolve Customer Issues in One Email

Serving customers by communicating through email is one of the most common channels for customer support today, as well as the generally preferred method of companies. While it is a great way to answer questions and solve issues, the nature of email requires a degree of strategy to be sure that your customers come away satisfied with the experience. Probably the most helpful skill for a CSR to have when utilizing email support is the ability to resolve someone’s issue in a single response. It’s Not Always Practical One-response email solutions can be tough, and sometimes they are just not practical or even possible. For one thing, we all know that the customer sending you the request might not understand what the problem is, how to write the request clearly, or they may not include sufficient information. In addition, solving their problem might require their active interaction to troubleshoot the …

Proactive vs. Reactive: Which Strategy is Better?

There are two kinds of people in this world. There are those who are perpetually motivated to act in real time as things happen to them; and there are those who pay attention to what’s coming and act accordingly. The consequences of this are far-reaching because it touches every aspect of how you do business. People who are not natural planners already know that it’s a disadvantage, so awareness is not the issue. They just might not believe that it’s worth the energy to change their behavior, which is what this post aims to persuade. Acting Only When Forced Generally speaking, people who stay ahead of the game are significantly more successful than those who don’t. Yes, it seems like an obvious point because we all understand that we’re better off if we see things coming than we are if we don’t even pay attention to what’s coming. Apparently though, …