Being an entrepreneur is difficult and sometimes hard to manage. It is imperative for the workday to be focused and under control, otherwise chaos is imminent. So here I’ve compiled 6 parts to an entrepreneur’s work day to help keep you on track.
1. Organize
Organization is critical to having an easy-flowing workday. Every entrepreneur needs to set aside some time to organize their desk, email and tasks. Are you one of those people that has and inbox always on full? The is a huge business mistake. A cluttered email inbox is a cluttered mind. Create folders in your inbox and file things away. You can also use labels and flags to keep an eye on important emails. An awesome app to track your daily tasks is Swipes. Be mindful that you do not make organization the first thing you do in the day. The first thing you do in your day should be the large or tedious project / task. In the morning your mind is fresh and should be used to knock out those difficult tasks. I usually end my day by organizing so that when I wake up the next day, my life is easier.
2. Communicate
Communication is key to any great relationship, whether business or personal. If you have a team, maintain constant communication with them and have short yet focused meetings. Put time limits on these meetings, like 15 minutes. The short meetings tend to get more accomplished than long meetings because the time constraint don’t permit time for side talk like longer meetings do. Also, longer meetings drain valuable energy and take up precious time out of your day. Besides, no one’s attention span is one-hour.
Communicate with your clients and customers. Send emails about company news, discounts, content or other offers. Call your loyal customers and speak to them (keep the conversations short 15 minutes or less). Find out what they like and don’t like about your business so you can find ways to improve.
If you’re not communicating on a daily basis, then you’re not doing business.
3. Educate
With technology and business evolving at a rapid pace, be sure to educate yourself and your team with new skills. Many new ideas are being introduced as well as tools are being developed everyday. Stay on top of these trends within your industry and share with your team.
If you have a team, spend time training them. These time periods are separate from communication meetings. In communication meetings you may find areas that your team is weak on, so use training sessions to build their weak skills or add new ones.
4. Evaluate
How well is your business doing compared to last year, last month, last week or even yesterday? Use analytical tools to measure your business’ success like Google Analytics, to track website traffic, e-commerce goals and gain consumer insight. In the evaluation period of the day, you sit back and look at what went well and what didn’t and try to think of ways to improve.
5. Modify
In this stage of the process, culminate findings from your evaluation, education and communication parts of your day and make plans on how you can modify your business to improve growth and overall production. Write them down and try to make the simple. Less is more. When in business or life in general, THINK MINIMALIST.
6. Repeat
Locate the pieces of your business that did well and duplicate them. The pieces that didn’t work so well, either discard or think of ways to improve them.
This article should be helpful for navigating your day by not wasting precious time sitting around wondering, “what should I be doing?”. Whenever you hit that brick wall in your day where you’re not sure what to do, refer to this list (bookmark it). For business and marketing consultation, contact Ali Shakur.