“How do I build a team without creating a stressful environment?” “Now that I have a business up and running, how do I maintain it year by year?”
If you’re a new business these questions and more are probably running through your stressed induced mind. We say stressed induced because let’s face it, running a business is hard.
You shouldn’t have to pull out your hair and grind your teeth though. Here are ten helpful business hacks that you can put into action to help ease your anxiety.
1. Try an Employee-Based Referral Program
You’d be surprised how often your employee’s social media networks overlap yours. This creates a pretty decent promotional opportunity.
Leads that come from social media are actually seven times more likely to pop up than from any other source.
So, you see, creating an employee-focused referral program can’t hurt you. You can boost your profits while increasing employee satisfaction and save money on other marketing techniques.
2. Automate if You Can
Multi-tasking is a habit that will lead to procrastination and incomplete projects. It’s easier for employees to focus when they are concentrating on one task and one task alone.
Instead of forcing your employees to do a bunch of different assignments use automation when you can. Let apps and online tools take over the smaller jobs like social media campaigns, email marketing, and other automated processes.
3. Use Social Media Wisely
Don’t fall into the sad trap of using every social media form available to promote your business. You need to do your research and get to know your target audience so you aren’t wasting valuable marketing opportunities.
This will help you explore the correct social media mediums. For example, if your target audience is women over the age of 60 it’s safe to say they probably don’t have a SnapChat. Use technology to your advantage.
4. Organic Sales Tactics
You will see advertising pretty much everywhere you turn. That doesn’t mean that customers like feeling that they are being forced into a sale though.
People like doing their own research. In fact, user research is the number one factor in web traffic for a site.
This means that as long as you don’t neglect your SEO efforts for your site you will be happy because you’ll get viewers, and your customers will be happy because they won’t feel lured to your site.
5. You Can’t Afford to Not Adapt to Mobile
There is a huge chance that your competition has already optimized their website for mobile use. If you haven’t done this yet you risk falling behind. This is because most web searches happen on a mobile device.
Another way you can take advantage of the smartphone craze is by creating an app that can be downloaded from a mobile store. This makes your services available at the press of an icon rather than the customer opening their browser and searching for you.
6. Product Management Tools are Your Friend
No matter how large your office space is your employees will have to move around to discuss projects with their fellow co-workers. These back and forth discussions can actually take up a lot of valuable time.
There’s an easier way to chitchat amongst each other. Bring these project discussions to project management software like Slack. This will boost efficiency by allowing your employees to split up the work for projects with a fast online discussion.
7. Gamification
Gamification is a great strategy to increase productivity in the workplace. It is the simple act of setting up a reward system for completing tasks. There are several ways that you can go about this.
You can set up an employee-of-the-month board to spur up friendly competition amongst your employees, or offer paid vacation and job promotions.
8. Remote Teams
Many start-ups and online businesses are ditching the office scene and switching over to remote teams.
Americans spend billions of hours commuting to work. That’s not only a lot of hours but a bunch of money thrown away on gas. By offering people an alternative to this and giving them a comfortable place to work, you will reel in more employees and up your productivity.
It’s a win-win for everyone involved.
9. Don’t Waste Time on Unnecessary Meetings
Keeping in touch with your employees and checking up on projects is important to your business sure, but that doesn’t mean you have to hold a meeting every single morning.
These excessive meetings not only waste time and money but also affect team morale.
Taking advantage of product management and managed IT services can help you cut down on the frustrating team meetings. Face to face meetings will always be important but they shouldn’t be a focal point.
10. Take Control of Time Management
Keeping up with your employee’s work hours is important for business growth. This doesn’t end with making sure they get to work on time. You also need to ensure they are making the most of those hours.
You want to motivate them so they don’t slip into bad habits like procrastination. It can be difficult to track this though. An employee can be at their workstation all day but that doesn’t mean they are being productive.
Encourage your employees to take stress-relieving breaks to clear their head. They will most likely be more productive if they take an hour or so away from a project and then come back to it later.
Simple Business Hacks To Try Today
One of the easiest business hacks that you put into action is making your employees happy. Motivate them with stress relieving breaks and rewards. Offer remote jobs to allow them to work comfortably from home. Do this, and implement inexpensive marketing tactics to grow and flourish.
For more ways to see your company expand check out the business advice section of our blog.