Monthly Archives: May 2017

People spend a lot of time talking about time management. In addition, people often complain that they don’t have enough time to get everything done. But, the truth, as we all know, is that all of us have exactly the same number of hours in every day. It’s not about how much time you have, it’s how you manage your priorities.

Many people would benefit by handling time management exactly backwards of how they currently handle it. Instead of trying to fit in all the things you want to do, try prioritizing those things and allotting time to them. For example, you know what your work hours are, so use that time frame to prioritize what you want to get done in those hours.

This is a fundamentally different approach than making a “to do” list for the day and then working as many hours as needed to complete it or leaving for home at the end of the day with things unfinished. Plan how many hours you want to work for the day, and then prioritize your tasks. Some tasks will be things that must get done that day, while others will have some time flexibility. Prioritize your “must do” tasks into time slots on your calendar, along with appointments for the day. Then, fit your other tasks into the available time with the highest priority tasks scheduled first.

Putting your tasks on your calendar with specific time allotted to completing these helps prevent time wasting and gives you a sense of urgency in getting  your most tasks completed, if you can be disciplined enough to treat these just as you would an appointment.

By prioritizing this way, you should have all of your most important tasks completed at the end of the day, with some of your next highest priority completed, too. When you make your schedule for the next day, some of your uncompleted tasks will move up in priority.

This system allows you to leave work on time most days, freeing you up for the things you need and want to do in your personal life. Prioritize your off hours in a similar fashion if you’re one of those people who tends to over schedule their personal time, as well.

This system won’t guarantee you’ll never have to work past your preferred work hours to keep everything going. However, it will ensure that you are aware of your time and you most important priorities during that time. This will help you go a long way toward better use of the time you have each day to meet your professional and personal goals.

Spring is the time of year when all things are new. Our minds turn to spring cleaning, swapping out winter clothes for summer ones and renewing the look of the front of our home. As you’re contemplating all these other items, don’t forget to maintain your health, too.

It’s easy to forget little things like yearly physicals, having your teeth cleaned, or getting those recommended tests that come with age, but it’s important not to let these items be forgotten.

Maintaining your health through regular checkups and preventive tests and procedures is no different than maintaining your home or car. If you don’t clean out the gutters and have the oil changed, it will lead to problems that take far more time and cost far more money to repair. Maintenance is a way of protecting your investment, and what bigger investment do you have than your health?

Routine physicals and preventive measures take little time and cost little money. In fact, most preventive measures are fully covered by health or dental insurance because insurance underwriters understand that it’s cheaper to cover the preventive maintenance than to have to pay to fix the health problem later. That’s a lesson we’d all do well to internalize.

Maintaining your health is important for your family. They depend on you and need you to be in top form. You can’t take care of them if you don’t take care of yourself first. In addition, teaching your children that health maintenance is important will help to set them up to be conscious of their own health later in life.

Maintaining your health is a smart business move, too. Your business is an investment, and you are that investment’s most important asset. If you lose time due to sickness, the business suffers. Too much time lost to sickness could ruin the business entirely.

So, as you make your “to do” list for the spring, take a look at your health records. If you’ve neglected having checkups or preventive procedures, get these on the calendar as soon as possible. The time away from work or other activities you’ll have to devote to getting caught up is nothing compared to what it could cost you in time, money and well-being if you choose to neglect yourself and have health issues as a result.

Good customer service is a secret to success in any business. Though the details vary by industry, the basic customer service principles are the same. Providing excellent customer service to your clients helps ensure your business thrives. In most businesses, gaining customers is expensive, so keeping these customers after you’ve won them is critical. Providing good customer service is the single biggest thing you can do to keep those customers. Here are five customer service principles that transcend industries.

1. Know your product or service. You should be able to talk knowledgeably about your products. When customers have questions, you should be able to answer these. When you don’t know the answer, you should be committed to getting the answer quickly for the customer.

2. Provide timely service. Don’t make customers sit on hold or wait in ridiculous lines. Of course, there are times when business is busier than other times, but do your best to keep the customer’s wait short.
   

3. Be friendly. If you’re a customer facing employee, you don’t get to be in a bad mood. Be nice, every time, even when the customer isn’t nice to you.

4. Keep your promises. If you tell a customer you will call them on Thursday with the answer, then call them on Thursday. If you don’t have the answer, at least let them know that you are still working on it and give them a new time when you will call them back.

5. Follow up. Be proactive in following up on customer problems. Rather than assuming a problem is resolved because the customer didn’t call back, take the time to call and ask if the problem is resolved.

6. Be reasonable about rules. It’s imperative that companies have rules. However, do your best not to apply rules arbitrarily, or use these to avoid doing what is right. When the rules just don’t make sense for the customer’s situation, be willing to go to bat for the customer to get an exception approved. Be willing to admit it when a rule shouldn’t apply.

Discuss these six principles within your organization and assess how you’re doing as a group. While these all seem like obvious things to do, they may not be everyday practice. Look for ways to improve your customer service using these ideas. Your customers, and your bottom line, will thank you.

As a business employee, you may believe you have little influence on the decisions that are made about how the business is run. Depending upon your particular situation; this may or may not be true. However, there are reasons you should act like an entrepreneur even when you don’t own the business. Take a look at some of the benefits you can realize by having an entrepreneurial mindset instead of an employee mindset.

1. You’ll make better decisions. When you adopt an attitude as though you own the business, you make decisions based on the best interest of the business, considering far more pieces of the puzzle than when you act like an employee.

2. You’ll share ideas. With an employee mindset, you might be reluctant to share your ideas for improving a process or reducing costs. But, if you’re acting like a business owner, you are eager to share your ideas for improvement, even if some of these don’t pan out.

3. You’ll learn more. With the attitude of an entrepreneur, you’ll take every opportunity afforded to you to learn about the business, the industry and leadership.

4. You’ll be more cost conscious. With an entrepreneur mindset, you won’t be wasteful with money. Instead, you’ll look for the potential return on every investment before making it. However, when you see true return on investment or a significant bottom line improvement that comes from spending a little cash, you’ll be eager to spend it, and able to articulate justification for spending it.

Acting like an entrepreneur even when you aren’t one can offer some very valuable learning experiences, and can entirely change the way you look at your job. It will likely make you a better employee, a more thoughtful manager and a better financial steward. It might also get you promoted, as those in the chain of command notice your efforts.

Even if acting like an entrepreneur doesn’t bring you any rewards in your current job, you can be sure that it will provide a learning experience that will help to prepare you to run your own business one day if that is something you are intending to do.