Finding Balance as a Small Business Owner

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |work-life balance|Finding Balance as a Small Business OwnerIn the early days, you probably don’t mind working all of the available hours to get your business up and running. But as you go on, you might be looking for more of a balance in what you do and when. Smaller businesses are very reliant on their owners to get things going, but over time you will find there are many options and tools to help you create a better work-life balance.

Goals

If you head to your office or open your laptop day after day without setting yourself some goals, you can spend hours ‘pottering about’ on a range of activities but not really moving forward. Take some time to set goals on everything that you need to do each day. This will mean you are less likely to start to procrastinate or do other tasks. Goals help us stay on track.

The critical thing to making it work is that you set a range of goals that are attainable over your day, week, month, and long term too.

Set goals in both your working life and personal life too. Like a date night once a week, or going to the woods or for breakfast with the children.

Tools

If you have social media campaigns running, are managing projects, and have an It network to manage, then you should consider the tools that can make this easier for you. For social media, there is a range of online tools that will help you prepare and automate your social media efforts.

Project management software like Monday.com or Asana are really popular and make a big difference in staying on track and closing your laptop at a specific time of day. And the right IT security solution will mean you don’t have to have that in the forefront of your mind – it’s all handled for you.

Lifestyle

Make your lifestyle the priority and shape your work around it. Many people let their life come second to work. It’s the default mode for millions. However, you can choose to put your lifestyle first. If you want to do yoga mid-morning and take a nap in the afternoon – then great, fit your work around your life.

Turn Off

When you close the door on your office for the day, make sure that you aren’t having a range of notifications coming through to your phone instead. This will keep you plugged into work. Meaning you never truly get a break at all. It would be best if you also considered building some time into each day that you don’t pick up your phone at all.

At least an hour can combat some of the negative effects that too much screen time can cause.

After all, part of the reason that you wanted to own and run your business was so that you had more time in your life for the things you love and the people you want to spend time with. So look for places to automate, learn to switch off, and set attainable goals.

Entrepreneurs: Try These Productive (And / Or Lucrative) Ways To Spend Your Coffee Break

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The life of an entrepreneur is many things, but relaxed and leisurely it is not. Rarely do entrepreneurs get to enjoy downtime in the same way that their salaried peers do. The entrepreneurial mind is never at rest and is constantly striving for new challenges and new ways in which to hone its skills while developing new ones. Entrepreneurs exist in a constant state of self-improvement and self-development. So even when they take a few minutes for a coffee break, it’s not uncommon to see them restlessly tapping their fingers, twitching their legs and scrolling through their phones.

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | Entrepreneurs: Try These Productive (And / Or Lucrative) Ways To Spend Your Coffee Break

If you find yourself restless, try these productivity boosting and / or potentially lucrative ways to spend your coffee break.

Take a trading break

In the digital age, trading is no longer the sole preserve of high flying Wall Street types. In fact, virtually anyone can become a trader in their free time. Using trading apps like Metatrader 4 can help to demystify the world of trading and allow you to trade all kinds of commodities with reasonable commissions and very little financial commitment on your part. Instead of spending your downtime on mobile games, why not try your hand at something that could become a potential revenue stream?

Compose some thought leadership articles on LinkedIn

Entrepreneurship is all about building your own personal brand to supplement the brand you’ve created for your business. The more people like and trust you, the more likely they are to see value in your business. Take the time to write thoughtful blog posts on LinkedIn which demonstrate your knowledge, experience and expertise to your target audience and other business leaders. Of course, you can use the same content to post on the blog section of your own business’ website. However you choose to present it, commiting your insights, reflections and musings on your industry to writing can be an extremely useful and potentially profitable way to spend your downtime.

Learn a new language

The world is getting smaller every day, and even if your business doesn’t yet have its sights set on an international market that’s no reason not to be prepared. Learning a language isn’t just a great way to help your business on its way to international domination it’s also a great way to keep your brain healthy and feeling young (just like learning a musical instrument). You’[d be surprised how quickly you can learn the fundamentals of a new language in just 15 minutes a day.

Listen to business audio books and podcasts

We all know what a prolific reader Warren Buffet is, but if you don’t have the time to consume his massive reading list in your downtime, listening to business audiobooks and podcasts may be a more readily digestible alternative.

Try mindfulness meditation

Finally, the busy mind of the entrepreneur is like any other highly efficient machine. It needs to be well rested and maintained to remain at peak efficiency. As such, it may be worth taking a few minutes in your downtime to practice mindfulness meditation. It can not only help you to manage stress and quiet your mind, it can also help you to work more efficiently and prevent the rush of entrepreneurial life from feeling too much.

Negotiating With A Much Larger Business – Simple Advice For You

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Negotiations |Negotiating With A Much Larger Business - Simple Advice For YouAs a small operation or even individual, it can be that the corporate weight behind larger businesses you are competing with can seem extremely intimidating. This goes double if you’re not even involved in an industry but have something of worth to a particular business, and thus negotiations or offers are thrust upon you. It can sometimes be that larger businesses seek to completely override smaller operations or individuals via accumulated experts and monetary might.

We often see this in the tech industry, as giants like Google may undeniably valuable offers to innovative tech startups, not only to ingratiate them as part of their own services but also to help stifle competition outside of their own bounds. If having a deal such as this thrust upon you, it can be worth knowing how to hold your own and participate in the conversation to the degree that you both have something to say, offer and understand. This can allow both parties to move forward towards a competent and reliable result, and you’d be surprised just how effective this can be in the long term.

As far as this is concerned, we would recommend the following advice:

Hold Your Ground

Holding your ground in negotiations is an important part of seeing just how valuable these discussions can become. Many times people are obligated to suggest they cannot dip further, or that this is their final offer. Provided you are firm to a reliable point, and do not over-ask or over-emphasize, you can often find wriggle room either side of this provided you are also willing to compromise. It’s a delicate art, but with extended conversation and a belief in yourself, you can get this right.

Use Allied Services

Utilizing services that help to negotiate on your behalf, or are willing to help you understand the value of that you’re sitting on can be absolutely vital to going into the discussions with care and consideration. For instance, selling a cell tower lease on land you own can be quite a complex discussion and you may not be well versed with all of the particulars, but with a company that understands how to negotiate and a company willing to provide you with an esteemed assessment of your potential, you may come through successfully.

Commit To Your Research

Commit to your research, looking for any angle that can help you establish a more comprehensive offering in order to gain what you may want. For instance, you may be at the potential mercy of an intensively attractive acquisition deal, something that you find hard to take given your family history in the company. It could be that you find this innovation is only truly understood by you, or you have value to this company, as do some of you team, that would be hard to artificially replicate elsewhere. This may help you stay on the team while also taking said deal, provided you can back this up with careful figures.

With this advice, we hope you can confidently negotiate with a much larger business going forward.

4 Ways to Maximise Real Estate Investing

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article | 4 Ways to Maximise Real Estate InvestingWhat do your investor friends talk about all the time? What investment vehicles do they discuss, and what sectors dominate the conversations? Chances are that real estate investments are a major part of every conversation. People are drawn to real estate investments for a number of reasons: Having a real-life asset that you can touch, or amicable tax incentives are among many reasons why real estate is a popular investment niche. If this is something that you’re interested in, be sure to check out Brooklyn, NY property management.

But beyond the water-cooler conversation, how can you get the most out of your real estate investments? What do you need to do to maximize their potential, and what tips or tricks should you keep in the back of your mind for future deals? In this article, we’ll look at four possible ways to maximize your real estate investments.

Look Global

Global real estate investments have never been more accessible for investors large and small. New investment vehicles, accessible online, allow a small investor in Florida, USA and a large investor from Saudi Arabia to invest in the same properties. One of the most common vehicles is the US-based Real Estate Investment Trusts or REITs. A REIT is a company that owns, operates, or invests in revenue-producing real estate. REITs function as intermediaries, allowing investors to see profits and revenue without direct ownership or property management.

REITs began in the United States, but have now spread around the world; in the US, various kinds of REITs account for nearly $3 trillion in gross assets. There’s a wide range of flexibility within the world of REITs; a REIT can invest in any form of real estate, although most specialize in a particular niche. Hotels, multifamily, offices, senior housing – all are legitimate sectors for REIT investments.

Go Mobile

It’s the age of apps, and real estate investment is definitely in on the trend. There are apps to help locate investment opportunities like Property Fixer, apps that provide networking and education resources like BiggerPockets, and even apps that allow direct investment into REITs. In the last category, known as eREITs, you can find highly successful apps like Fundrise, which have taken the expanded reach of REITs and put them onto everyone’s phone. The world of real estate investment has even produced entire suites of software designed to streamline communications between investors and operators. These suites, known as Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software like the one from Groundbreaker.co, are all aimed to boost your real estate investments to their maximum potential while giving you more access to your portfolio from anywhere at anytime.

Get Expansive

Today is not the day to think small. Whatever your budget, there are more opportunities than ever before, from traditional house-flipping to building a portfolio of REITs that focuses on specific niches you find attractive. There are new investment niches, such as green real estate or the growing student housing market, and new ways to research those areas. Think big, look beyond local markets only, and network with other investors to find and fund new real estate opportunities.

Shrink Your Vision

Now for the opposite advice: don’t forget the small-scale stuff either! There are lots of opportunities still available close to home. Some long-standing investment models are receiving fresh attention and interest. Delaware Statutory Trusts fall into this category, an older, well-established model of investment trust which has recently emerged as an attractive vehicle that facilitates participation in tax-deferment programs for real estate investments. While you are pursuing and researching the latest and best eREITs and investment apps, don’t forget to perform due diligence on some of the tried-and-true methods right in front of you.

Conclusion

From new apps with a global reach to long-standing legal entities designed to protect your investments, these are four ways to maximize your real estate investing and give your portfolio new life.

Revealed: The Secrets To Successful Products

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Product Marketing|Revealed: The Secrets To Successful ProductsWhat makes a product successful? Well, the bottom line is that products that sell lots of units are bound to be successful. But how do you ensure that this happens in your business? If you want to grow your company, then you need to keep increasing sales and reeling in new customers. All of this relates back to the products themselves.

If you’re in the middle of starting a company – or releasing a new product – then you’re in luck. Today, you will see the secrets to successful products. Below, there are a few key points that must be paid attention to:

Attention To Detail

The best products have received exceptional attention to detail. This means that you take extra care to ensure that all of the tiniest aspects of the product are perfect. If you’re making clothes, then you use attention to detail to make sure that even the clothing labels are up to scratch and gorgeous. If you’re making a car, then you ensure that the small trims on the inside are all made to the highest standards. You’ll find that by doing this, all the little things start to add up. A product that’s had no attention to detail put into it will ultimately fail as people start to recognize the flaws.

Unique Selling Points

What makes your product better than similar ones out there? How can you guarantee that people will pick you over a more established business? It all boils down to your unique selling point. With a USP, you provide customers with a specific reason (or two) to pick your products. The way you do this is by researching your rivals. Look at the existing products in the same category as yours, then think about what’s missing. Develop your product to tackle this missing thing and give customers something new. If no-one else offers what you do, then you’re bound to find a lot of customers calling.

Exceptional Marketing

Yep, the secret to successful products is excellent marketing campaigns. Think about some of the businesses out there that release new products all the time. Companies like Samsung and Apple will make new smartphones every year. Most of the time, there’s hardly any difference between the new models and the old ones. So, why do they sell so successfully? It all comes down to how the products are marketed before and during release. They create hype around the products, releasing teasers here and there. Then, they do a big reveal, detailing all the main points.

By the time the products are released, everyone’s keen to have them because they feel like they absolutely need this new phone over their old one. Sometimes, a killer marketing campaign can take an average product to a phenomenal one.

Those of you that are developing products should pay close attention to these three things. Think of them as a mini checklist. Tick each one off, and you’ve got yourself a successful product. Now, go ahead and make lots of sales!