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All Work and No Play Make Jack A Very Dull Boy....
Have you got the whole work thing sussed? Are you in the driving seat or being whipped mercilessly? If your job is the boss and you're struggling to cope with its demands, here's 13 common sense ways to make your working life easier.
- Take your natural rhythms into account. If you're an early bird, start early and you'll get a whole load of stuff polished off before your phone starts ringing and you get distracted. If you're more of a night owl, start later and enjoy some invaluable 'quiet time' after five when things are much less manic
- Work eight hours max... then pack up and go home. [more....]
Love to Libya: Freedom is priceless for life and business
The business climate is the most challenging for decades and bad economic news breaks by the day. In some ways we have every reason to moan about how unfortunate we are to be stuck in this mess. But on the other hand we've got a lot to be thankful for.
Imagine trying to launch a small business in a country at war. Could you run your current business in an African dictatorship where women are discouraged from working, forced to take a passive role, neither seen nor heard? Could you make a decent profit while famine raged outside? Would you be able to promote your business in a culture where speaking your mind gets your head chopped off and straying from the accepted social or political path can mean imprisonment? [more...]
Fork handles or four candles – How clear are your comms?
How much time do you spend ironing out misunderstandings?
If you're wasting precious hours patting down huffy clients' feathers or clarifying delivery details, quotes and proposals, your communications might be letting you down. And now might be a good time to take a dispassionate look at the way you communicate with the people you come across in your line of business, whether it's suppliers or investors, prospects, customers or partners.
What is clear communication?
- Plain English. Human speak, not corporate speak [more...]
How’s your work-life balance?
The days of being paid overtime are long gone and many employed people find themselves working long extra hours for their employers as a matter of course, with no overtime and rarely even a word of thanks. So I’d be prepared to bet that one of the reasons you left regular employment to go it alone and start your own business was to improve your work-life balance.
How’s it going?
Sadly, if you’re like many self-employed people or small business owners, you’ll be working every available hour. In reality too many of us end up working much longer and harder than we did when employed by someone else. And as a result we lose [more...]
Play to your business strengths… or focus on your weaknesses?
None of us are brilliant at absolutely everything. There are always areas where we feel less than comfortable.
You might detest the telephone because you can’t see who you’re talking to. You might have a thing about spreadsheets, putting off anything and everything to do with your tax accounts until the last minute. You might be extremely talented as far as your products and services are concerned but chronically disorganised, completely unable to keep your business records tidy. You might hate credit control but love selling face to face. Or despair at your crap marketing skills but swell with pride because you know your target market inside out.
It’s an ongoing argument in training, personal development [more...]
