Easy Time Management Tips for Busy Professionals

If you feel like your life moves faster than a Nascar race, you’re not alone.  We are living in a time where dual income families and single parent homes are the norm, a sharp contrast to the happy sitcom families we grew up watching on TV.

So how do you get everything accomplished when there are only 24 hours in a day?  The first step is to reprioritize.  Does it really matter if you’re house is immaculate?  Does your family really need a 7-course meal on the table every night?  Instead of spending time preparing an elaborate meal, wouldn’t you rather use that time with your family or to catch up on some R&R for yourself?

Regardless of how your priorities are defined, we could all use some extra time in the day.  The following are some time management ideas that can help increase your productivity and improve the quality of your life.  Try incorporating just a few of these ideas and see how it affects your life.  You will be glad you did!

Branding Strategy

Branding your business is one of the most important marketing techniques you will do. Proper branding allows a customer to recognize your company and its products in a matter of seconds. All a customer needs to do is to see a logo or hear your slogan to immediately recognize that it is your company. To ensure that you are branding yourself correctly you may need to seek the help of a professional marketing firm. 

When you are branding your business, you need to first determine what type of message you want to send out to your audience. What are the core values of your company? What is the vision and mission statement of your company? Your branding message is going to represent the ethical values of the company and provide your customers with a well rounded vision of the company.

Think of the brands that are currently out there. What type of impression do you expect your customers to receive from your logo and branding message? Here are some of the commonly recognized brands that you can learn a few things from:

• Apple
• Microsoft
• Nike
• General Electric
• Chevrolet

How to Find The Customers

When seeking your ideal customer, you need to engage in market research and a number of other things that will draw them into your company. Here are some tips that will help you find your ideal customer:

1. Attend conferences. One of the best ways to network with your customers and find out what they are interested in is by going to conferences. These events give you a chance to branch out to a new audience and interact with other businesses that may be able to help expand your business. Depending upon which type of conference it is you may want to rent a booth where you can interact with your customers and show them some of your products and services. Find out who is hosting the conference and try to book a workshop or keynote address if possible in order to reach out to your customers. This is also a great way to set your business apart in the industry and show others you are here to stay. Keep a stack of business cards with you to pass out when you meet with your customers. Business cards are a simple marketing tool that can help your business attract new customers.
2. Change your marketing strategy. If your customers are not responding to the marketing efforts you are doing, it may be time to change them up. Print ads are effective but if you haven't created a new print ad in a few months or years, you are behind the times and it's time to update them. You also need to branch out to your customers by getting online and finding your customers on social media sites, blogs, etc.
3. Do your customers come to you? Do your customers come into the store and meet with you and do they have positive interactions with you? Customer service is one of the best ways to convince your customers to come back for more. Training of your employees is essential to creating strong customer service connections. When you focus on training employees teach them how to handle customer complaints and make the customer feel as if they are right even if they aren't. One way to impress the customer is the way you dress. If your employees are dressed in sloppy clothes, it gives an immediate impress to the customer that you have lazy employees. Dressing your staff in business clothing's like slacks or skirts and professional tops will provide a different image to the customer. What your employees wear really does send a different message and can be the difference you need to show customers you are a professional organization.

Customers appreciate a business that provides them with a personalized message and products. You must be able to find a way to reach out to them in a way that your competition doesn't do. Sending out direct mail pieces can help your existing customers to come back for more. When sending out a direct mail piece you will need to offer your existing customers some type of discount or offer that will entice them to head to your website or contact your company.

Bosses You Wish Doesn't Exist

Most of us spend one-third of our time a day at work. Deducting the average eight-hour sleeping time, we spend at least half of our waking time at work. Majority of our working time are spent with customers, business partners, colleagues, and the topic of the day: The Boss. 

How many of you are swallowing unreasonable and unbearable bosses behaviour to get a pay check? Many self-help and motivation books will tell you to fire your extreme boss: Nobody deserves mental torture and humiliation from a place you spend most of your time at. 

The bosses could be stressed with sales figures, deadlines, customers’ demands, but all that do not give anyone an excuse to continually vent their frustrations on human. What then, are the three types of horrendous boss you wish they don’t exist? 

The Belligerent
You are in a meeting presenting a marketing plan—that you have spent two weeks of sweat—to the management. Everybody nods at what you said and you are confident of your proposal. Mark, a senior executive in the company who was late for the meeting, steps in and you could feel the ground trembling. Suddenly, your heart begins to pound faster and you could hear your voice going lower. You have an unstoppable reason not to continue your speech: Mark is confrontational, pointed, aggressive, and the ultimate pusher. Everyone knows nothing is pleasing to Mark’s ears and every sentence you said will receive a grenade. Does this sound familiar? 

The Belligerents "attack" when they want to get things done; it’s their way of asserting the authority through aggression. Watch your emotions when dealing with The Belligerent: Do not attempt to counterattack, defend, or shut down. 

The Belligerents do not attack at those they respect. Thus, when they throw a grenade, let it blast fully, and acknowledge receipt with an assertive response. 

The Inept 
You were two minutes late for work today and Peter is waiting for you at your workstation, with a stare. He "strolls" the office daily for latecomers in the morning and early boomers in the evening, but Peter takes three-hour "business" lunch every day, and claims for all of them. 

The Inepts are incompetent in their work and are thus uptight with their subordinates’ performances. Their primary role is to secure and keep their job! 

You were in the Pantry when Peter’s boss called. Unfamiliar with a project status, Peter walks to you at the Pantry: You have to prompt him the answers questioned by the boss. 

Mistaken that the tele-conversation has ended, you turn your back to Peter and continue making your coffee. Suddenly, you feel something on your right shoulder and realises that Peter has thrown a table cloth at you! Speechless, you walk away and did not help him with the last answer. 

The Bedevilment
It’s ten in the evening and you are still in the office. Your male boss presented himself with an excuse to pick up some documents and insisted to drive you home. With another excuse to discuss a project, you reluctantly end up at a lounge drinking with him. 

The Bedevilments are high-profiled male executives who abuse their authority on female colleagues and forbid other male colleagues to get close to their "target". 

Soon, rumours spread that you are seducing your boss! 

You wish all these are fictions, but they are not. If you have encountered any of the above examples, update your resume.

Office is Not Important

I had an interesting conversation about my view that management control over employees is a myth. I have believed for some time now that an office is often a total waste of money and completely unnecessary. Most of the time I’m told it’s OK when you work by yourself, but not if you have employees, as they need to be supervised and somehow “controlled”.
I have now been working for almost ten years from home, and most of my staff works from home too. Apart from being an eco-friendly way to work, it saves people time and frustration to travel in and around London to come to an office, where we all sit in cubicles or offices. In the days of broadband internet, Skype and OnlineOffice, there is no need for an office, even to have meetings.
Offices, like cars are are often nothing else but status symbols – what other reason can there be for a small business to have an office? If that is true then how is the office helping with your business, it’s a big expense. Seriously, if you do not have clients coming thru your office doors several times every day, why have the office. Even if you have, do really all your people need to be in the office every day? I guess not!
We are in an economic downturn, what is more important – your ego or your business – ask yourself that every time you walk into your office. I’m sure there a good reasons for some micro businesses to have offices, even so I currently can’t think of any, but I’m convinced in most cases a healthy bootstrapping and outsourcing mentality would be more beneficial for your business.