Coronavirus has brought about many changes for many people. One of those changes is a switch from working in an office to working from a home office. Many people who are working from home don’t even have a home office – they are lucky to grab a corner of the kitchen table! How to work effectively from home is something many people had to learn the hard way.
How can you be effective if you have to work from home, or are working from home because of the COVID-19 quarantine. When you’re home, there are so many distractions – the pets, the laundry, vacuuming, errands, the television and many others.
How To Work Effectively From Home
If you’re still wondering how to be more effective, or if you’re looking to strike out on your own as an entrepreneur, these tips are for you.
Be reasonable in your expectations. Chances are you won’t get as much done in an eight-hour day at home as you would have if you were in the office cubicle. Yes, you will be saving on the commute time, but you are still faced with home distractions and it’s easy to linger over that cup of coffee until your work hours don’t start until 10 am or later!
Set a routine. Get up. Get dressed. Act as though you were going into the office. Set your office hours, start time, stop time, lunch time and breaks. Stick to them. A routine will help you get more done and be more effective in your day.
Get on track. If you set yourself up for failure by thinking you’d get more done than you could, be more realistic goals. Working from home, no matter if you have a dedicated space, is a challenge for many. Add to the mix, if you have children who are home from school because of the shut-down and you can see how you may not meet all the goals set.
Get up and move around. Set a timer if you have to at the top of every hour to remind yourself to get up and get moving. Don’t eat at your desk. Walk the dog. Do jumping jacks. Move! It will keep the blood flowing, help you stay healthier and keep your ideas moving.
Work in a space that inspires you. If you can get outdoors and sit and work and that is an inspiration, then do it. Your “desk” doesn’t have to be a desk. Find a place in your house that makes you happy and work from there. Your work space will help set the mood for your day.
Enjoy this time at home and embrace the changes in your workday and your routine. This is an unprecedented time and we hope you find a way to make the most of it.
Are you new to working from home? Has the coronavirus pandemic lead to this switch in your workday from the office or your comfortable cubicle to trying to find room at the dining room table to work and take calls? We have tips for how to be productive working from home, especially if this is a new way of life.
Not everyone is accustomed to working from home and not everyone enjoys the freedom that being in their home offers them. If you’ve been forced to change your workday and your work life you also need to change your mindset.
How To Be Productive Working From Home
Working from home brings challenges and benefits and we have put together a list to help you be more productive during this transitional time.
Get dressed as though you were going to the office. It is easy to go from your “bedtime pajamas” to your “daytime pajamas.” Don’t get into the habit of living in sweats. You don’t have to put on a tie or a skirt, but do get up, get dressed, comb your hair, put on socks and greet the day like the professional you are.
Find a place to call your office. If you don’t have a room you can dedicate to an office space, find a corner of the living room, the dining room or even your bedroom (although we don’t recommend working in the bedroom because you need a separation between home and work). Set up a card table or a small desk and use that for work only.
Have work hours. If you’re used to working from 9 am to 5 pm then keep up with that schedule. Your colleagues and your boss or clients have gotten accustomed to you being in the office and available at that time so stick with it. Don’t give into your night owl tendencies and begin work at 9 pm.
Have a ritual for “going to work” and “coming home from work.” Don’t shuffle from the bedroom to the office then from the office to the couch at the end of the day. Set up a ritual that gets you ready to jump into your work day. When the day is over, close the door on the office (even if it is a virtual door), turn off company and work emails and get into a homelife mindset.
Keep in touch with colleagues. It’s easy to hibernate and communicate only through email. Pick up the phone. Send a text. Invite colleagues or clients to a Zoom meeting. Face-to-face can still happen even if you can’t meet for coffee. Have a virtual coffee date or a virtual Friday Happy Hour. It may seem odd, but it is fun!
How are you coping with the new workstyle? Has your workday not been impacted by the switch to more people working from home? If you are looking for more ways to be productive, to stay in touch and even to put together a strategy for a new business way of life, give us a call!
Coronavirus is leading to the shut down of many businesses not deemed “essential.” If you’re now working remotely and if you want to find a way to keep in touch with current clients and perhaps reach a new audience of clientele, why not take to online meetings. We have tips for how to host networking meetings online during coronavirus shut down.
Planning an online meeting isn’t difficult, nor should it be, but you will want to take a few steps and have a strategy in place to get the most out of it. When you’re planning an online meeting or webinar you will need to market it in advance, get sign ups and then follow up after the meeting has ended.
Host Networking Meetings Online During Coronavirus Shut Down
Here are ways to “fill the seats” at your webinar
Prepare a pre-event email campaign. How will people know you’re hosting an event if you don’t do pre-promotion? They won’t! Plan a launch campaign. The first message could be a tease – a “save the date” as it were.
After they have saved the date you will want to reach out again and give them a sample of what they will see, hear or learn during the event.
Offer up some behind the scenes, or teaser handouts. Get them interested and they will sign up.
Let them know what they will learn – in other words what is their ROI for giving you some of their time.
Give them an exclusive offer. This should be in the email invitation. Let them know what they will get: early bird tickets, deeply discounted merchandise, insider information, pre-launch insight, free bonus merch just for being there live
Urge your subscribers to forward your message to colleagues they believe will benefit from your webinar
Invite potential attendees to write and ask you if they have any questions or want clarification.
As the date approaches, send reminder emails to those who still haven’t signed up AND send emails to those who have registered to keep the excitement high.
If you’re having guest speakers, urge them to share the invitation with their list.
Promote the speakers in your email campaign
Finally, send a follow up. If you offered a time sensitive discount, remind them of the ticking time clock and build the sense of urgency.
When you’re striking out on your own and giving your employer your two-week notice to become the boss, it’s a wonderful feeling! Perhaps you’ve retired or been downsized and you think there is no time like the present to become an entrepreneur. Have you ever wondered what the benefits of being the boss are? There are many. Keep in mind, though, there are also drawbacks you may not have considered.
We will share the good and the bad that comes with being the boss and reasons you may want to be your own boss.
The Benefits Of Being The Boss
You’re the boss. What you say is what goes. You have to answer to your clients, but you don’t have someone breathing down your neck making sure you make quota. Keep in mind, though, if you’re not motivated and can’t take the initiative you will likely not succeed in your own business.
What goes right is your success, what goes wrong is your fault. Along with the good comes the bad. You’re on the line for it all. You won’t be riding on the success of your team (unless you already have one) the successes and failures will be because of your efforts. Keep in mind, though, a failure is simply an experiment — if something didn’t work, course correct and try it again.
Your schedule is your own. Want to take Fridays off? Go ahead! Want to go golfing on a Tuesday morning? Why not! When you own a business you don’t have to clock in at a specific time nor are you expected to be at your desk for eight hours. This may also mean you have too much freedom and may miss deadlines or always feel under a crunch because you’ve had too many tee times or coffee dates. You will have flexibility, but remember you also have a business to run, and probably bills to pay.
The sky is the limit on your earnings. If you were working for a salary, what you were paid is what you were paid. When you own your own business, the sky is the limit on your earnings. You can work as hard as you want and see rewards in the growth of your bank account. If you’re planning to grow, though you may need a team behind you and you should plan for growth and have an infrastructure in place to accommodate that growth.
One of the drawbacks or challenges that many new entrepreneurs face is working alone. It can be daunting to realize you’re responsible for it all. You’re the boss. What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in your entrepreneurial journey?
Are you a business owner who’s written a book? Do you think of yourself as an “author-preneur?” Are you using your book as a business card, to get more business, to share your expertise? All of the above and then some? How entrepreneurs should market their books depends, in large part, on the reasons for having written the book.
Some authors want to use their books as giveaways at upcoming talks. Other authors who are entrepreneurs use their books as their business cards — they literally hand out a book instead of a card. Still other entrepreneurs have written books because they know, in a crowded market, a book can help you stand out from the crowd.
How Entrepreneurs Should Market Their Books
Before you put the time and effort or spend the money to hire a book coach or ghost writer you need to know why you’re writing a book and what you hope to gain from it.
Do you hope to make enough money that you can retire? Do you hope your book will bring in a steady stream of passive income — enough to buy a dinner out once a month? Somewhere in between? Know what your goal is before you start.
What role will your book play in your business? Will it be a way to get into more speaking gigs or higher paid speaking gigs?
Do you want a book just as a “bragging right” that you have written one? Nothing wrong with that and it is a major accomplishment.
Are you looking to build an author brand as well as your business brand? Some entrepreneurs transition away from running their business and pursue author-branding endeavors.
Connect with other authors. Building those connections is a great way to enhance your book’s credibility and to expand into other opportunities with your own book.
Writing a book is an ideal way to share your expertise and it truly does set you apart. Many people say they want to write a book, but they have just as many excuses to not write one as you had drive and determination to write yours. Congratulations!
Have you ever opened your inbox and felt yourself cringe when you saw an email from a particular individual? Let’s make sure that individual isn’t you! How to write an effective email is a skill that entrepreneurs need to hone and it’s not usually something anyone talks about.
We’re pulling back the covers and revealing how to write an email that gets results and doesn’t make anyone cringe!
How To Write An Effective Email
Why are you writing the email? Don’t send a “just wanted to say hi” email if you know individuals’ inboxes are deluged — and they are. You can keep in touch, but share information that is worthy of their time to read and your energy to have written. Know your objective before you hit send.
Be brief. If the email has to be long, break it up with bullet points. Highlight what is crucial to the reader. Remember, many people skim emails and if yours is wordy, the point may be lost.
Your subject line needs to be succinct and relevant. The subject line is what will get the email opened, or not — use it wisely and don’t make it overly long.
Keep the acronyms out — unless the recipient knows exactly what they mean. Write in a casual tone.
Remember, there is no body language to back up your words and words maybe taken out of context and feelings could be hurt.
Never use email to berate someone.
Don’t “reply all” if it isn’t necessary — and it usually isn’t. Also, reply all usually means that some of the messages will get lost or buried and crucial information could be lost.
Don’t send emails from your phone unless you’re sure that auto correct won’t change your words to something you definitely didn’t mean.
Email conversations are great and can save time, but emails also mean you and your staff could be faced with them around the clock — and that isn’t an ideal situation. Don’t email your employees at 3 am — they may think you require an immediate answer and unless they are on call 24/7 that isn’t fair to them.
How great is your email etiquette? Does your company have an email policy in place? If not, reach out. We can help.
