Growing up, my dad was an entrepreneur and I always had a feeling I wanted to run my own business like he did. It felt freeing. No need to put on a tie, race to the office and answer to a boss.
When I started my business I knew I needed to #1 validate my business to see if it was a viable business and #2 I needed a third party’s perspective to give me the right approach to getting clients and making a big picture marketing plan.
Being the CEO/solopreneur it’s both scary and exciting at the same time.
The scary part is the sacrifice – money and time. The exciting part is to watch it come together from nothing and see it flourish.
When the ball starts rolling in your business and you’ve got interest you might not know what to do next.
Sometimes when you think about your business you aren’t aware of your blinders. You don’t know what you don’t know, right?!
As your business grows, you have to add people to help you. You can’t manage everything all alone.
You understand your business in theory but don’t know what it takes to pull it all together.
Let’s take a look at five productivity hacks to keep you on task:
Stay Organized
How organized is your business?
What systems do you have currently to get you started? Think larger. Your systems should be able to grow with you.
This looks like having an operating system. How many projects can your operating system be able to handle at one time?
Use Technology
Technology can make many business tasks faster, easier, and more efficient.
Here are just some ideas – Canva, Quickbooks, Google Drive, WAVE, SketchUp, Rendering softwares, Design Files, HOUZZ Pro, CAD, ConvertKit or Mailchimp
The purpose of using these are to streamline your time and overall efficiency. There might be a learning curve but it will save you time in the overall scheme of things.
And definitely use a task manager software like Trello or Asana which helps you work with a team
Delegate Tasks
You will have more work than you can possibly do… they don’t need to be on payroll, they can be a contractor employee.
You might be thinking, what would this other person do all day?
If you’ve never hired someone before, you need to list out the types of tasks that need to be done. Create a job description. Which helps them know what they are responsible for
List out the things that need to be done and from those, what is it you DON’T want to be doing but is important to keep your business running.
That would be what you delegate to this person.
Create Goals
Your business plan!
Not only do you need a 3 year financial business plan, you need a marketing plan to get the business plan to be successful!
For example, how many customers can you actually handle and what type of projects will these consist of?
- A ground up house is very time consuming. So how many ground-ups can you be working on at the same time?
- What other types of projects can you be working on while doing a ground-up?
- Do you know where your leads come from?
- Are you connected with GC’s to get referrals?
- Are you attending industry events to network?
Goals give you the direction to strive for!
Set deadlines
Instead of avoiding your least favorite tasks, set a deadline in your task management software that is manageable and do-able.
It feels rewarding to get these done.
This includes follow up on all areas of your business, most of all your incoming leads.
Deadlines keep you accountable, especially to yourself because when running your own business you are pulled in so many directions you need to be able to prioritize what comes next which might mean putting some of the fun stuff on the back burner
Bonus! Remember, it costs money to run a business. If you’re not prepared financially (both personally and professionally) you’re not ready… yet!
On the personal side, how much money do you need monthly to sustain your lifestyle? Do you have that in your savings or do you need to be working?
On the professional side, how much is in your savings to keep the business afloat? It will take some time to generate income, are you prepared?
It’s a balancing act running a business, but you got this!
Steal one of my productivity hacks to move the needle in your business this week.