StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | How We Prioritize at Sticker Mule

How We Prioritize at Sticker Mule

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article | How We Prioritize at Sticker MuleOrganizations are the sum of their decisions. Those that prioritize well prosper and those that don’t falter. At Sticker Mule, prioritization is the most important thing we do. Our growth accelerates as we prioritized better, but there’s always room to improve.

What prioritization is not

Most literature on prioritization is terrible. It leads you to believe prioritization is about time management or how to use to-do lists. This way of thinking neglects that priorities are what make or break businesses.

Consider that Amazon started as a bookstore in 1994 and grew to $147 million within 3 years. Today they employ 500,000 people who handle $200 billion in revenue. They picked the right projects and grew at an extraordinary pace.

Other retailers had different priorities and either failed or are much smaller. Walmart could be Amazon, but they did not prioritize the Internet and now they are worth half as much.

What prioritization is

Prioritization is picking the right tasks to maximize impact. That means finding high impact tasks and avoiding low impact ones. Usually the highest impact tasks are elusive. We don’t know the highest impact projects we could pursue right now.

Prioritization might sound stressful, but it’s not. Most tasks won’t affect us. Consequently, we shouldn’t stress about the backlog of tasks we “need” to do. We need to keep our minds free to pursue high impact ideas, when they present themselves, by neglecting low impact ones.

Prioritization categories

It’s unproductive to precisely categorize every task, but it’s useful to roughly classify them in your mind. Prioritization improves with practice and thinking about these categories helps us improve.

  • Growth vs. costs – It’s generally better to use our time to grow revenue than reduce costs. Time is finite. Cash isn’t.
  • High vs. low impact – High impact is better, but completing lots of low impact tasks can be worthwhile if we complete them quickly.
  • Enduring vs. temporary – Tasks that provide enduring value are preferable to those that deliver value temporarily.
  • Definite vs. potential – It’s better to pursue improvements with definite benefits than those with potential.
  • Short vs. long term results – Quick wins are preferable, but you can build competitive advantage pursuing ideas that yield results in the long term since others tend to neglect them.
  • Related vs. unrelated tasks – Sometimes related tasks are completed more efficiently when grouped together. For this reason, we often do low impact tasks that pair well with high impact ones.
  • Estimated time to complete – All else equal, tasks that can be completed faster are preferable.

Questions

Ask yourself these questions periodically to improve your ability to prioritize:

  1. What’s the most impactful thing you can work on?
  2. Did you correctly identify the problems you are facing?
  3. Do you know the most important problem to solve next?
  4. Can you replace any planned tasks with better ones?
  5. Can you delete any especially low impact tasks entirely?

Conclusion

We aim to embed a passion for prioritization into our culture. If you think similarly and want to join our global team, we are hiring.


About the Author

Anthony Constantino is the cofounder and CEO of Sticker Mule. A factory guy at heart, Anthony oversees an operation that spans 16 countries in 4 continents with customers including Google, Facebook, Twitter and many of the world’s best brands. He’s determined to make Sticker Mule, already the Internet’s favorite printing company, the absolute best place to work and shop.

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | Who Benefits Most From Workplace Safety Regulations?

Who Benefits Most From Workplace Safety Regulations?

StrategyDriven Risk Management Article | Who Benefits Most From Workplace Safety Regulations?There were nearly 3 million workplace injuries and illnesses reported in 2018. Workplace safety has never been more important.

But who benefits most from workplace safety regulations? Although they’re implemented to keep employees safe, they offer major benefits for employers too.

But are they as comprehensive enough?

Keep reading to learn more about which workplace safety regulations matter most and who they protect.

How Workplace Safety Regulations Benefit Employers

Safety regulations are created by government agencies to ensure that organizations meet minimum safety requirements to reduce risk on the job. By creating workplace safety regulations, employers protect themselves from penalties for noncompliance.

Although you should go above and beyond when it comes to protecting your staff, you’re only required to meet the minimum standards.

These safety regulations also provide guidelines for creating your own policies and best practices. You can also reference these regulations to identify holes in your current plan.

It’s important to keep in mind that some safety issues, such as worker fatigue, aren’t often addressed in workplace regulations. There’s no concrete way to measure employee fatigue, which can put that employee, other staff members, and your business at risk.

All you can do to prevent worker fatigue is to educate your staff on managing risk fatigue and offer time off, breaks, and other support and resources.

It’s your legal obligation to create a safe, healthy work environment for employees. Failing to do could result in major financial and legal trouble.

How Workplace Safety Regulations Benefit Staff Members

Workplace safety regulations protect employers from incurring penalties and fines. For employees, the benefits are more personal.

Having safety regulations in place means you’re receiving at least a minimum level of protection against workplace hazards and dangers. Regulations ensure that your health and wellbeing are valued. You can also fall back on these regulations if your employer is treating you unfairly or you’re working under unauthorized conditions.

Employees shouldn’t rely too heavily on the regulations that are put in place. Just because an organization is compliant with the standards doesn’t mean there are zero risks. Avoid getting complacent in your role.

This could lead to a serious accident or injury. If you’ve already incurred a work-related injury, the doctors at https://workerscompdoctor.com/ can help evaluate your condition and explain your rights.

Holes in the Plan

One of the biggest problems with workplace safety regulations is that they’re sometimes unrealistic and only cover the basic needs of staff. Most people agree that the scenarios outlined in the regulations don’t accurately depict day-to-day working conditions. Some of the information and standards may not even apply to your position.

Most regulations leave a lot to be desired. Just because an organization is compliant, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s safe.

Some people argue that the answer to who benefits most from workplace safety regulations is the government agencies who hand them down. The regulations are often vague and created in a more generalized manner, leaving gaps in the specific needs of both employees and employers.

The Answer to Who Benefits Most from Workplace Safety Regulations Might Not Be Who You Think

You might think that the answer to who benefits most from workplace safety regulations is the employees. While these guidelines do protect their basic safety, they don’t address everything.

Companies should use these workplace regulations as guidelines for creating more comprehensive and industry-specific safety practices. Workplace safety is a major concern for both leaders and workers and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Want more tips on boosting your job performance? Check out our blog for tips, videos, and advice on succeeding in business.

StrategyDriven Professional Development Article | Why is Education So Important?

Why is Education So Important?

StrategyDriven Professional Development Article | Why is Education So Important?We are told throughout our lives that education is important. We are told that it is something we need to take seriously, and something we need to think carefully about. It is a privilege to be able to even have an education, so we should be glad about the one we have. Of course, at a young age when we have to go to school every day, we might not necessarily agree with all of this. But the older we get, the more we realize that it’s completely true. So just what is it that education can give us that makes it so important? Read on to discover just a few examples.

You’ll Have Choices

When you have a good education, you will be able to enjoy many more choices in life. Rather than go down a certain route because that is all your qualifications will allow, a fuller and more well-rounded education will open up many more opportunities to you.

This means you can always find something to do that you will enjoy and having satisfaction in your job and building a career is hugely important — it can also make the rest of your life happier too, which in turn, helps with the work-life balance.

If you find that the route you need to go down requires additional qualifications you can also take an MPath option because of the education you already have. In the end, the more you learn, the better options you have in life, and the happier you will be.

You’ll Be Confident

Being confident in life is a vital part of being successful and moving forward. At the very least, it will ensure you are happy with yourself (which is actually a big thing). Self-confidence will give you the courage to ask for a raise, to apply for a job you might otherwise have thought twice about, to stand up in front of people and give talks and workshops, and to generally be happy to go out and be among others.

When you lack confidence, you can find that you get left behind and that you feel bad about yourself, none of which will help with your mental health.

Having a good education behind you will boost your self-confidence in a number of ways:

  • You will know what you can achieve
  • You will have knowledge of specific sectors and niches
  • You will be more willing to try new things because of past successes

Your Dreams Can Come True

Life can be full of regrets — there are so many people who wish that they had done certain things or been more adventurous, and they regret not having taken the leap. As the saying goes, ‘it is better to try and fail than never to try at all’.

When you have a good education that you can draw from, you are more likely to be able to live your dreams, whatever they might be. This makes life more fun and enjoyable, happier, and worthwhile.

 

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business Automation|Tips For Introducing Automation To Your Business

Tips For Introducing Automation To Your Business

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business Automation|Tips For Introducing Automation To Your BusinessAutomation is all over the place in business these days. From things like programming software to help you to complete different tasks that are based on some conditions, you can really increase the speed and efficiency of things. It can massively increase the accuracy of the processes, especially for things like marketing and recruiting. That will then free up some time so you can better focus on some bigger, and more important work to boost and grow the business.

It can seem a little tempting to then dive in and start looking to automate everything. But it can be a good idea to have a plan in place that will help you to make the most of the time and resources that you need, in order to actually automate. It can take some time to set things up, but once it is up and running, it will make it all much simpler.

Test and Implement Solutions

One thing that you can do to find the best automation tools that you need, is to give each team in the business, an area to be in charge over. They can be in charge of testing and implementing it, to make sure that they know what they need to work. You’ll be able to see that the amount of resources that you will be saving will be quite astonishing, and that your members of the team will soon feel comfortable in adopting the new ways of doing things. In my opinion on of the most comprehensive solutions is this simple software named Frevvo.

Calculate the ROI of Automation

Automation isn’t something that is always going to be simple and easy. You need to make sure to then estimate the time and the money that automating a process will be able to give to you, and then compare it to the time and the cost that it will all take to automate those processes. If you take some time and money now to get it all sorted, then you can look at recouping that investment and seeing if it is going to be worth it in the end for you. Think about making sure to prioritize automating the processes that will save you the most time and that in the end, will have the biggest return on your investment.

Think Long Term

When you are automating, it is important to think about what will make the most sense in the long term of it all. You should make sure that whatever solution you have has the ability to grow and adapt to changes in the future of your development. One of the worst things that you can do is to start becoming dependent on a solution that you don’t actually have limited control (or no control over). For example, an issue could be something like cloud-based storage and systems. These are the kinds of things that third-party apps are known for, that can make the difference.

Day to Day Items

Automation for some of the bigger things that your business has to deal with will save you a lot of money and a lot of time. But it is important to remember that there are plenty of smaller day to day things that you should deal with and automate as well. It can help to save you a lot of money as well, and it will mean that your day to day work isn’t taken up with daily small things that can be time consuming to organize and arrange. You could arrange for laundry and towel deliveries, for example, if you have a hotel or other similar business. Then you don’t have to even think about it; it will just be collected and then you can go from there. The same thing goes for things like refuse collections. You could look into some cheap bin hire and then go from there with arranging someone to take it away each week, for instance. There are large things to automate, for sure, from payroll to marketing. But there are a lot of things that are smaller, and that aren’t necessarily going to grow the business. If they are automated, then it can save you time each day, leaving you time to do the bigger things that are going to make a difference to the growth of your business.

Go Slow and Prioritize

Automating workflow can take up a lot of time and resources. Both of these things you’ll be able to recover in leaps and bounds, especially if things are done well. There is also a large learning curve that is involved with automation, so make sure that you don’t rush into things, and that can make a large difference. You could start by creating a list of some measures that will have the biggest impact on the company, and then you can prioritize how much work or effort, and even risk, is involved with each element.

Keep High Quality Control Standards

Automation, like with any computer system, will start off with issues, and could even get some bugs over time. Sometimes these things will become pretty obvious, and could just be seen as oversights. But other times, there are some things that will result from some unlikely boundary conditions. You need to subject some of your automation procedures to the same degree of quality and quality control that you would do for any product development, or other areas of your business. Once this kind of automation is deployed, then it is very important to monitor it closely, as well as being able to measure its effectiveness, in order to make sure that it works as expected.

Start Off Simple

Automation is a little like digging a tunnel. You know what you want it to look like, but you’re not sure what you will uncover along the way. It is best to begin with some areas that are useful, but still something that is simple. When you are learning, keep things simple. Then you will avoid a lot of wasted time, resources, and start to learn about your organization and the infrastructure that it has. If you’re able to do those things, then it will help you to maximize your productivity gains, while you prepare for some bigger things.

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business Goals|3 Changes To Implement In Your Business This Year

3 Changes To Implement In Your Business This Year

StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Business Goals|3 Changes To Implement In Your Business This YearIt is that time of year when we set new goals, revisit our expectations and make fresh plans for our businesses. You have probably already been thinking about revisions that you might need to make and pinpointing your strengths in a bid to build on them and further develop them. We are keen to help you to have a successful start to the year, which is why today we are sharing with you 3 changes to implement in your business this year.

Assess your business’ productivity

You are always going to want your business to be more productive, so take some time to fully assess it this month with a view to implementing any essential changes going forward.

Try to view your business critically, so that you can break down each element of your operation to enable you to decide whether it is working as efficiently as it could be. You might find that you need to get another pair of eyes on it for you, as you might be too close to everything.

When you spot areas that you feel could be improved, start looking into ways that you might be able to work differently. For example, you might find that it would be wise to invest in the latest technology like this field service dispatch software to give you a boost or you could move to using manufacturing companies such as TSMC to give you an edge.

Improve the working conditions

Your business will run more smoothly with happy, engaged and loyal staff, so it can serve you well to look at improving the working conditions for everyone.

You will want to ensure that you have all of the basics covered first, so make sure that the office has the supplies that it needs and give it a good deep clean.

After you have catered to the key areas, get your team involved in helping you to improve all common areas. You might choose to alter the premises through redecorating, adding accessories, rearranging the furniture or adding in new items.

Additionally, you might introduce dress down Fridays, music playing in the office, new reward systems or fresh flowers every week. Do not guess at what you think will work best here, do involve your staff. That way you know you are investing in the right places and they will appreciate having been heard.

Develop your marketing strategy

How is your current marketing strategy working for you? Do you feel that it is reaching the audience that you are striving to connect with? Do you feel that your business and brand is being promoted enough?

A coherent and positive marketing strategy is essential for any business looking to grow and flourish this year.

There are hundreds of possibilities available to you, such as direct mail, digital content marketing, business networking, hosting events, running promotions and utilising social media.

Take the time to think about the people that you are looking to connect with, and then you can start devising the best ways to reach out to them.