Professionalism isn’t just about being good at the services you provide or the support you offer to customers. You can’t ignore the need for professionalism in how you handle your finances, either, especially when interfacing with customers. A lot of new and small business owners don’t approach invoicing like professionals. This means that often they don’t get paid when they expect to and their cash flow is irregular and hard to keep control of. Sometimes this is the customer’s fault, but sometimes it’s the fault of the one doing the invoicing. Whatever the reason, you can’t risk not having the money you’re owed, so here are a few ways to tackle the issues. 

Keep It Consistent, Keep It Professional

If you’re recreating invoices from scratch every time you send one out, then you’re making a mistake. You make room for human error to poke in its head time and time again. You might be getting some of the crucial details that customers need wrong and preventing them from actually being able to make a payment. Similarly, if the format of your invoices doesn’t fit some of the most common design conventions, then customers might actually not recognize them as invoices. With poorly design invoices, it’s easy to think that they might as well just be a document confirming agreed-upon pricing. Nowadays, there are plenty of software packages that make it much easier to use a simple, professional looking template. They can also help you create a record of past invoices sent, which we will highlight the usefulness of in a point further down the article. 

Make Your Policy Clear 

Above, we went into how invoices can occasionally be mistaken for pricing documents. If you’re not sending out documents confirming your pricing details before you do the work and attempt to invoice your client, then you should. You might have had a conversation, phone call, or email chain with the client describing pricing and services offered beforehand. However, it’s a good idea just to put the nail in them by sending a formal list of prices on the services they’ve requested before you start the work. That way, you can ensure that they’re fully aware of the costs that will be appearing on the invoice. It also ensures that they understand your policy on how and when you expect to receive payment for any work done. If things get contentious later on, then this pricing email or letter can create a paper trail that shows your justification for how much you include in the invoice. 

Keep It Transparent 

The relationship between you and your client can obviously change between sending those confirmed prices and sending the invoice, of course. You might very well have provided extra services on request. If that’s the case, then make sure you confirm with the client that any extra services are going to come with extra charges on the invoice. Then when you send the invoice, try to make every cost as transparent as possible. Every service, every piece of equipment or material you need to compensate the cost of, and so on. Otherwise, your numbers might seem nebulous and unjustified to your client. They might not understand where a rise in the price has come from and attempt to argue about it. Again, ensure your pricing method is kept transparent as well. Are they paying for the whole service at once or are they paying on a per hour basis? 

Make Sure You’re Not Missing Any Information

Some people have different requirements for what they consider essential information on an invoice. If its absence shows any potential barrier to you receiving payment as prompt as possible, then include it. Legal information is crucial, including a unique invoice number, VAT considerations, business name, address, and contact details. The date you provided any of services and the date you send the invoice should be kept separate, as well. Even if you’ve already taken the time to inform them of payment details, do it again. If you’re sending electronic invoices, you can even make the step of payment easier for them. For instance, if you’re using a service like PayPal, you can include a link in the invoice itself for clients to click and take them right to the payment method. 

Have As Much As You Should Have

Regardless of how clear you make your invoicing policies, billing details, and so on, you are still likely to have a problem at some point. Not all customers are as reliable as they should be when it comes to payment. If you’re dealing with particularly big orders, this can become a real danger to your business. You might lack the funding to pay for the materials and tools you need to do your next big job. To that end, you should know how to acquire the funding that can help you fill that gap and have as much cash as you expect to have after finishing a job. Spot factoring solutions from teams like Business Factors can ensure that you’re not left in the lurch by a late payment. You don’t have to slow the business right down, you don’t have to consider downsizing your operations temporarily and you can put that money into the supply and growth operations that it should be contributing to. Find the invoice financing option that works best for you and your relationship with clients. 

Know How Much You Need 

Knowing when to rely on those financing options is just as important as knowing that they’re an option. There might be some periods of the business year when you can, indeed, be a little more relaxed and afford your clients some more room to pay what they owe. But a lot of businesses run on a seasonal model and there will just as likely be lean periods where they need to keep hold of every penny that they can. If your business looks like it fits those models, then you have to start figuring out your seasonal cash flow. Top billing software, or as you grow hiring an accountancy firm to act as your finance hub manager, can help you to stay on track and project future expenses more accurately. This can help you find the lean months and know when spot factoring is going to be a solution worth considering more seriously. 

Don’t Be Afraid To Put Your Foot Down

You shouldn’t just rely on financing to cover late payments, either. You care about the relationship with clients and you don’t want to jeopardize it by appearing rude. However, you should consider the fact that unless there’s a simple explanation, they are the ones being rude by neglecting to pay what they owe. If the due date of the invoice is approaching, don’t be afraid to send them a gentle, polite reminder. Then don’t be afraid to send another if they fail to meet the date. Keep things civil and don’t let your tone become accusatory. Some clients may very well have a valid explanation. But that doesn’t mean you should just continue to assume and wonder while waiting for your payment. 

Pick Better Clients To Invoice 

It’s acceptable to tolerate late payments once or twice. However, if you have a lot of repeat business with a client that is continuously late, then you have to consider whether they’re a client worth keeping on. If they’re repeatedly endangering the finances of the business, you have to consider cutting them off. There comes a time when you have to prioritize clients and really consider which are worth the cash that they offer. Late payments are just a factor, so you should create business performance KPIs and see how much they really contribute towards the goals that you’re trying to reach. All these factors can come together and help you really judge a client by how much it’s worth being as flexible as you are to them. Sometimes, you will find that it’s time to walk away and prioritize clients that are more profitable and more reliable.  

Stay Organized 

Your invoices can trip up your finances in more ways than just preventing your cash from coming when you really need them. If you fail to properly organise those invoices, they can get you in trouble when tax season comes as well. Organising your invoices is a huge part of bookkeeping. This is one of the reasons that you create unique and individual number codes for every invoice. It’s also why you should consider making more than one copy of them, just as you should have more than one copy of all applicable financial records. At least one digital copy and one paper copy should be at hand at any moment. That way, if one copy is lost due to fire damage or data corruption, you have the other as a backup. If, like me, you don’t have a natural inclination for bookkeeping and are busy running your business, then a Company like Cosgrove & Cosgrove are a great solution.

Whether it’s ensuring that you’ve provided all the details you need, being more selective of customers, or ensuring you always have the money you should, you need to get on top of your invoicing. Funding methods like spot factoring, organizational tools, and better invoice design are the three cores of an invoicing system you can rely on.

We are delighted to be able to say Pure Events Solutions are going to become a regular patron of Project Ixcanaan.

What is Project Ixcanaan?

Guatemala’s mid to recent history has seen the country torn apart during decades of civil war, ending only one generation ago, and large-scale devastation wrought by natural disasters. Parents and grandparents grew up during times of civil crisis and martial law; families were destroyed through violence, illness and starvation. A great many families – sometimes entire villages – were forced to abandon their homes, fleeing to take up desperately hard nomadic lives in the rainforests or even cross borders for the relative safety of another country. With such difficult lives, children growing up during this time often had no access to education and families no access to healthcare. Since the civil war ended in 1996, the country has become more peaceful and increasingly more stable, giving the beginnings of opportunity for basic education and healthcare to become re-established, but even 20 years on there is still much progress to be made.

The people of Guatemala, recently divided by war, are still divided by culture. Mayan communities, where traditional culture is still strong, are generally rural and often lacking in basic needs. In El Remate, as with elsewhere in Guatemala, the lives of the older generations have been very negatively affected by instability in former years; illiteracy rates are high and knowledge of health, nutrition and human rights is low.

As has been traditional, families in the region are able to make incomes from the rainforests surrounding them. Beyond this, their lives are so intertwined in the rainforests that life would not be possible without them; family businesses, state-funded community farms, communal-living villages, the Mayan temple national parks and wildlife reserves (which provide huge employment opportunities for local people) are all utterly dependant on the jungles. Threats to the rainforests are abundant, from foreign criminal gangs buying up vast swathes of land to cut down the trees and build farms for money-laundering purposes to illegal logging by international companies.

Project Ix-canaan exists to enable and empower the local Mayan community to protect and save their own rainforests. Arriving on the scene in 1995, one year before the end of the civil war, Project Founder Anne Lossing dedicated years to establishing meaningful relationships with everyone in the local community, working in collaboration with regional organizations and with funding from kind and dedicated donors both local and international.

Year by year, Project Ix-canaan develops in new ways, working with everyone in the local community, from young children and doting grandparents to the town mayor and business leaders. The medical clinic is a staple to the village, as are the dental clinic, women’s center and brand new child development center. The women’s center gives local women the chance to work together in their own space, away from the home, socializing and learning new crafts and business skills. The child development center is an integral addition to the project, giving the region’s girls and boys, who often work in the family business from a young age, the much-needed space to just be children; to learn, to study, and to relax and have fun together in a safe and nurturing space. The medical and dental clinics have been providing safe and effective healing for illnesses and minor injuries for over two decades.

We’ll be updating you on our involvement and adding more information in the very near future.

Today is a huge day for Danni and CJ who have been progressing through our Business Development Programme for some time now. Today is their first day running their own company. They have recently graduated to Ownership through Pure Events Solutions and today is their first day trading on their own.

It’s a massive achievement and just goes to show what people can achieve through our Programme. We’ve got quote a few young people hungry for success on our programme at the minute and we’re are more than confident that these two are going to be the first of many. In their time with us they have learnt everything they need to in order to run a successful business but now they have to go and do it for real, it is extremely exciting.

If you want to learn how to build and run a successful business whilst you earn with us then please get in touch today.

The cold weather and dark days of winter, paired with the typical post-holiday slump, can wreak havoc on your Team’s morale and productivity. With some people feeling ill and others feeling down or disengaged, it’s crucial to take immediate steps to liven up their mood if you want to pull through winter and retain or even grow your bottom line.

Below, seven entrepreneurs share their best tips on how to boost employee morale and keep productivity and engagement up during the months of winter.

Create a warm, welcoming office.

A key aspect of keeping your employees’ morale up is making sure your workplace is a warm, welcoming space that provides shelter from the ugly weather outside, especially in a place with harsh winters.

“In my experience, it’s the small touches that count, like providing hot drinks and meals, organizing office socials and generally making the office a warm, pleasant place to be,” says Ismael Wrixen, CEO of NYC-headquartered FE International. “Do it right and you may increase productivity during those cold, dark winter months,” he adds.

Do out-of-office Meetings.

Kristin Kimberly Marquet, founder and creative director of Creative Development Agency, LLC, has experience with the “cold, dark and dreary” New York winters, as her business is also headquartered there. Marquet’s solution to combat workforce winter blues is to take the Team out of the office as much as possible.

“I let everyone work remotely on Fridays to help lift team spirits. We also have a team night every week without fail.” she says.

Prioritize employee health.

“The biggest danger with wintertime is seasonal affective disorder, or SAD for short. To help prevent this from occurring among my team members, I prioritize their health,” explains Bryce Welker, CEO of CPA Exam Guy.

Welker ensures that “the break room is always stocked with vitamin D supplements and fresh fruit” and offers to sponsor team members’ gym memberships if they want to stay active.

Organize parties and giveaways.

Another great way to boost employee morale is to make the winter months fun with team-building office parties and giveaways. Says ABN Circle CEO Fritz Colcol: “I mean, who doesn’t like free food, drinks and money giveaways?”

Business Owners and Organisations can benefit greatly from offering extra cash incentives to their Teams during what seems like an endless dark and cold season. Collective goals are also a great way to stop Team members who may be feeling unmotivated from becoming isolated.

Hold side challenges with team members.

“Every week we have a new challenge that stretches the team to think from a new perspective. This helps give them energy and enthusiasm,” says Sweta Patel, founder of Silicon Valley Startup Marketing.

According to Patel, “it can be tough to want to do anything, but when you are challenged to give back or to do something beyond yourself, your focus changes.” Patel’s team decides on the challenge they want to take, with typically two or three ideas to pick from every week.

At Pure Events we have in the past drawn pairs out of a hat and had them compete against each other for the week with a prize for the winner at the end. This kind of healthy competition really helps an Office get it’s mojo back after the long Winter break.

Organize summer activities.

Michael Hsu, founder and CEO of DeepSky, puts another spin on team activities: “Poke fun at winter with summer activities either in the office or outside of it. For example, have an indoor tiki pool party on a Friday afternoon.”

Also, it’s a good idea to remind employees that their drained spirits might not be imagined and they may actually need more vitamin D in their diet, Hsu underlines. “Have a breakfast party with cereal and milk and boiled eggs. Showing concern will encourage employees to fend off the winter woes,” he says.

Spend more time together than remotely.

The cold, dark months of winter can also have a positive impact on your business, in that they may help strengthen the bonds between your team members, thinks Peter Daisyme, co-founder of Hostt.

“We switch off locations and work together more, setting up shop at one remote employee’s house or finding a co-working space,” he explains. “Having more time together in person helps with the cold and darkness because no one notices the weather when they are interacting with one another.”

What do we mean when we say a salesperson “sells on a different level”? Take sales skills out of the equation, along with a winning mindset, because these are a given to succeed. Without them, you may as well stay in bed. What mechanisms enable someone to do more deals, more quickly? The answer lies in who you know and the ability to find and target the right people to get stuff done.

The best salespeople consciously know this and make it part of their strategy to know the right people.

Let me define my understanding of the “levels”.

Level 1 Ground Level Salesperson

This salesperson views selling with a short-term, closed-minded perspective. They read the script, turn up from 9-5, and contact only the people they are told to contact. These salespeople don’t possess a meaningful network or understand its value, and make no effort to meet well-connected players in their industry. Level 1 are getting replaced by AI in the near future.

Level 2 Strong Salesperson

This person has mastered sales skills, and is focused on building their industry network. They try to think on a bigger scale, contact Heads of Departments and senior players in their niche territories. This helps them to prospect and close business. Level 2s understand the value of expanding their network, yet have no strategy to move beyond mid-level managers to industry influencers.

Level 3 Disruptor Salesperson

The top 1%er. This salesperson has built an impenetrable network and knowledge base, and can influence their industry by leveraging their contacts. They are more interested in the strategy of selling than pitching for business, and have a database of respected industry leaders, whom they can call upon for help. Deals are typically won before or without a pitch, as the right people make the recommendation at the right time.

Importantly, they have ties to level 4s, and perhaps, a level 5 operative. This person is a well-respected industry figure selling “on a level” few understand.

Level 4 The Game Changer Salesperson

One phone call from these guys can open just about any door. They not only have successful businesses and pitch their products, but their networks are deep, vast and continue to rapidly upscale. They influence a global audience and have a direct connection to the most senior leaders across multiple industries.

Level 4s sit at the top of their game and relentlessly strive for level 5. They are in the limelight and inundated with requests from levels 1-3 but are focused on building their empire and leaving a legacy. There are level 4s at the top of every industry, and they are constantly networking with the upper echelons of the business world. Think Gary Vaynerchuk.

Level 5 The Jedi Knights

One phone call or recommendation from these guys can change your life. Richard Branson springs to mind. These people have achieved a financial Zen and make decisions based on whether they like or believe in you as a person. Level 5 is the top of the food chain, and many remain anonymous. However, they encourage others to join them and mentor Level 4s on the final stage of their journey.

Back to being Practical

When building a network, it pays to work on multiple levels with both a short- and long-term strategy. Let me give you some examples:

I know a salesperson whose entire career was built by a single level 4 contact. This person repeatedly earned $million pay cheques and was the sole niche technology supplier to a private equity firm in NYC. From a relationship that grew over the years, his contact, who later became the group president, became his best friend, and he was mandated by default on every deal.

A friend of mine and salesperson in the oil industry spent years building a trusted partnership with clients in the Middle East. Now, he is brokering oil deals with level 4 and level 5 contacts and netting $millions per year.

Another ex-colleague has earnt several $millions in the financial industry, and his best friends are the heads of Investment Banks. He is seen as one of them, and these level 4 contacts make every deal for his company a formality.

These people are “selling on another level”, and they can because they had a strategy from the beginning to build level 4 and 5 trusted relationships.

What is the takeaway?

The best salespeople understand there are different levels of contacts that can help them sell, grow, and achieve their business goals. They actively work towards positioning themselves as someone of value across all levels. This long-term strategy runs alongside their short-term revenue goals, increasing their influence and the pool of opportunities. This is the real ladder to success and should be part of the process for all salespeople.

These thought processes are just my personal view. If you want to jump to the next level, adopt a strategy to surround yourself with people who are already there.

Anyone in a management or supervisory role is a leader, but not everyone in those positions exhibits true leadership. Think of leadership as next level management. The best leaders take their expert management skills and combine them with people skills to become well rounded and highly successful. The difference between being a good leader and a great one is in the relationships you build with your team. These are the four key components of great leadership.

Coaching, not directing.

A great leader is a teacher and a coach, not a dictator. They help their teams develop and grow, and support them by providing training in various forms, including coaching and mentoring. They understand when they need to nurture their teams, and when they need to push them. It’s about finding the balance between giving up too much control and being too controlling. A great leader knows that there is no specific ratio to this, and that it changes depending on the situation.

To be a great coach, you must understand that everyone has different needs and that there isn’t a one size fits all solution. Learn how your team members work best, and tailor your coaching to match their work style. When you’re responsible for very large teams, it’s much more difficult to know which style will work best, so it’s best to experiment with a few styles until you find the one that gets the desired results. That ties in to the next point, being adept.

Being adept.

Great leaders are prepared for change to happen at any time. They’re able to think and make decisions quickly, and more importantly, they know how to rally their teams to make results happen. One day that could mean giving the team free reign to come up with ideas for a project and a deadline that they need to meet. The next day, the deadline could get moved up, and the leader would have to assign tasks and provide more structure.

As a leader, you have to be very aware of everything that’s happening from a process standpoint as well as a people standpoint. Paying equal attention to both is important. By ensuring that your team is performing to the best of their abilities, you’ll be better able to keep the process on track. If you ignore one, the other will suffer.

Respect.

Respect is a two way street, and it must be given to be had in return. Great leaders understand this, and show their team respect through trust. No employee likes to be micromanaged, as it indicates to them that you don’t trust their abilities. In fact, it’s one of the quickest ways to lose respect. Leaders must allow their employees to take risks and accept that they will fail sometimes. If you can’t trust your employees, they won’t trust you. A sure sign of a respected and trusted leader is when employees are comfortable coming to them with questions.

The best leaders have no problem working alongside their employees and aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and jump in to help the team when necessary. Your own personal leadership style will dictate how often you do this, as will the nature of your work. Some leaders need to constantly work with their teams, whereas others are able to be more hands off. The key is to step in and put in that extra work when it’s necessary, and not leave your team struggling.

Being a master communicator.

Great leaders can tailor their communication style to meet the needs of any situation. A leader must be an excellent listener, in order to truly understand the needs of their team. Great leaders understand that different situations call for different communication styles, and are able to switch between them with ease. Without high level communication skills, no leader will truly be successful.

To master the art of communication, you simply need to practice. There are six key communication styles you should be familiar with – listening, advising, directing, motivating, teaching, and coaching. Each one has it’s own place and time to be used, and are most effective when combined. Being adept in your communication methods is absolutely necessary. By becoming a master communicator, you’re able to clearly express yourself, and therefore lead with greater clarity.

No matter what your title is, you can become a leader. Practice these skills, and you’ll be on the path to great leadership.

It’s not likely that you started your journey in business by taking over or inheriting an established business. Businesses often get built from the ground up by someone with a vision and big goals. As you start to build your business, you do the best you can with what you have.

You’re probably not starting out with a team and it may be a while until you can build the business to that level. While you’re building, you’re focused on all the strategy and structures pieces that you need to do daily. You’re the jack of all trades doing everything from admin tasks to marketing to billing to support.

It can be easy to get lost in the busy work as the revenue starts to roll in. While this is a fairly typical path, it’s not the best way to build a business. There’s an important element that’s missed in the beginning, and for some, even years later. If you’re going to build a successful business that’s bigger than a one-person show, you need clarity.

Understanding the Big Picture

In the beginning, or even now, you should understand what the vision and main goals are for your business. Where you are now in your business is fine but that’s not how you should be building. Another approach is to build a business according to where you’re going—not where you are right now.

Let’s say you own a small marketing agency. Right now, you are probably the one doing everything. That, or you have a few virtual assistants who handle one-off tasks. But, that’s not where you see this business going. What you see is having a larger marketing agency that has a full-time team and is working with global companies.

Your branding, messaging, platform and the way you do business should reflect that. You shouldn’t be branded as yourself with all of your messaging and marketing focused on how you can help clients. You should consider branding as an agency. The agency has a name and you are the CEO of it. Your website, marketing and the way you deal with clients should reflect that.

No one knows what’s happening behind the scenes but they do see what you put out to the world. Branding and doing business as an agency would help you stand out and appear more professional. That, in turn, could lead to better clients and your business grows. When you take it that serious, so will others. Everyone on the outside takes their cues from you.

Understanding the vision.

It’s the same principle for any kind of business. You build according to where you’re going. You may not be there yet with all the pieces but that shouldn’t stop you. There are tweaks you can make now that make your business look and feel like where it will be in the future.

We’re so focused on the work right now. That’s a good start but the goal is to not always be where you are now. Get clear on your main goals and what the future business would look like. If you want your business to stay smaller with a few people on staff, that’s okay, but still add that extra level of professionalism. Make it seem larger than a small shop.

If the goal is something bigger than just  your — office, staff, large clients, travel — set up your foundation and structure to achieve that. You have to be clear on what you want for your life and business. You should see where this is going.

if you’re not clear, take some time this week to get clarity. Write down your goals. Talk it through with a partner or your mastermind group. Think about the high-end clients you want to work with — the large corporations that will hire you. Look at those who do what you do but are ahead in the process. Use all of it to create the vision of your future business.

Then, start making the necessary changes to your foundation and structure. Your business name might change from yours to something that encompasses where you’re going.

Only you know what makes sense for where you’re going. Don’t let your current situation get in the way of your growth. Build your future business right now with some tweaks and a clear vision.

Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to work with some incredible leaders. These people have achieved at the very highest levels, in their industries and professions.

Today, I’d like to share 10 habits, which are common to all of them.

Here they are in no particular order:

1. They encourage others. They leave people better than they find them.
2. They show, rather than tell. They know that talk is cheap and that anyone can say anything. So they lead by example, unlike these guys who are total fakes!
3. They don’t compare themselves to their competitors. They compare themselves to the work they did yesterday, and then commit to do better today.
4. They turn up, even when it’s easier not to. This commitment to being reliable is both rare and highly valued.
5. They are self-starters. They don’t seek external motivation. They just do what needs doing.
6. They are eager to take responsibility. They step up, when others step back.
7. They are intentional decision makers. Once they have the information required, they make a decision. Leaders know that there’s nothing to be gained by inaction.
8. They keep their promises. They know that making promises, then delivering on those promises, is a powerful way to develop loyalty and trust.
9. They spend their prime-time with family, friends or learning…not watching TV. Leaders are educated consumers of information. In other words, they are extremely careful about how they feed their mind.
10. They never gossip. Period.

Being an entrepreneur isn’t all about sitting on a beach somewhere in paradise tapping away on a Macbook and filling up your Instagram feed. If you want to find online “entrepreneurs” who put their entire bank account onto their bed and  post it to Instagram before putting it straight back, in order to impulse you into buying an e-book or some sort of course, then there’s no shortage. If you think that entrepreneurship is about working 2-3 hours a day, then you’re a wrong.

Being an entrepreneur isn’t about making money from one particular niche skill set that people value enough to pay you for and then going out on your own into business, either. That is self-employment. Being an entrepreneur is a mindset, a love of seeing ideas become successful and making them profitable. The self-employed person would build an aeroplane then go into business selling that plane, because they would already be good at building aeroplanes.

“An entrepreneur is someone who will jump off a cliff and assemble an aeroplane on the way down.”

An entrepreneur has a lot of responsibilities including marketing, managing teams and hiring employees. This can become stressful; with productivity, efficiency and the growth of the company suffering.

But you can overcome these barriers by using some simple tools. These tools are helpful in making you a productive and efficient entrepreneur.

If you want to stop wasting your valuable time, and instead focus on the important things in your business – these tools will help.

So here are 7 tools every entrepreneur must use.

1. Mention

Mention is a media monitoring app. This tool will inform you whenever your name is mentioned on the web.

You can also set target keywords or other brand names to receive their updates and track your competitors.

Using Mention is simple. Let me show you:

First of all you need to set up an account. You can do this by entering you details and signing up using email or you can just use your social accounts.

Next, create an alert. You can choose the type of alert you want to create.

There are three types:

1. My Company or Product
2. A Competitor
3. Anything Else

Here I have selected My Company or Product.

In the first two steps you need to enter your name, website, Twitter handle and Facebook handle.

Now you have to select the channels and languages.

Once you’re done, you reach your dashboard where you can see your mentions. You can also view your statistics and exports.

So with this tool, you can monitor all your mentions from anywhere and track your competitors.

2. Wunderlist

Wunderlist is a great tool to get things done. It is a very simple task manager that helps you boost your productivity. This is the first app that is on the screen of Satya Nadella’s (CEO of Microsoft) smartphone.

You can create lists, share those lists to your team and group them in a folder to avoid any mess.

This tool has a very clean user interface and you will really enjoy using this tool.

Let us create some tasks and see what wonders you can do with Wunderlist.

I am logged into my account and here is what it looks like.

Now let us create some lists and tasks.

To create a list, click on the button in he bottom left corner. Now give a name to your list. Here I am creating a list named “App development”.

You can add other members to your list. If you work with a team this feature is very helpful.

Once you’re done you can start adding tasks to your list. Then you can give your tasks a due date.

There are many other features that will maximize your productivity with Wunderlist.

There are several alternatives to Wunderlist, but this is the best one I’ve ever used, and that’s why I recommend you use it too.

I was able to boost my productivity and work faster with this app and you can too.

Moving on to the next one.

3. Upwork

Upwork is a marketplace to get tasks done by freelancers. As an entrepreneur, there are many things you have to do and some of these things aren’t your cup of tea.

So with Upwork you can find people who can work for you. There are many freelancers on Upwork that will do specific jobs for you.

The process of hiring someone on Upwork is very simple. Let me show you how:

Now suppose you need a logo to be designed. All you need to do is to search for logo design and find the best designer based on your requirements. Always try to hire freelancers with high job success rate.

After selecting a freelancer, check their overview and their portfolio. Also check their work history and feedback to know whether they can do your job well or not.

Once you feel that the freelancer is perfect for your job, you can move on to the next step and hire him/her.

4. Slack

Slack is basically a chat room for your whole company or team. So if you have a team working for you then slack is a very awesome tool.

This tool looks complex but if you use it, you will find it pretty simple. All the conversations that your team has are divided into channels. Anyone can join the channel and be a part of the conversation.

You can also select which channel you want to be a part of. It also has real-time notifications so you can stay updated.

The best feature of this app is the file sharing. You can share files to any member of your team hassle free.

5. Mint

Time management is a waste if your cash-flow is non existent. You may have heard stories of entrepreneurs being broke. To avoid such a situation yourself, Mint is a powerful tool.

This tool will help you manage your money and budget. You can create budgets and control your money.

Some people think managing money from these tools doesn’t help, but that’s probably because many people don’t create a realistic budget.

You can easily set a budget and manage your transactions. To understand Mint and get the most out of it read this guide.

6. Dropbox

I don’t think this tool needs an introduction. Dropbox will help you manage all your files and access them from anywhere.

There is nothing much to explain about Dropbox. But you can use some productivity hacks to make it work even better.

7. IFTT

This is the ultimate tool. Almost everything can be done using IFTT. You can connect all your apps to this tool and create recipes to get the most out it.

Here are some great recipes for Twitter.

You can find many recipes for different tools and if you don’t find one, you can also create a recipe. Let me show you how:

First click on your profile name and then click on the create button.

Then click on “then” and select your trigger channel. There are many channels to choose from. I have selected Facebook here.

The next step is to choose a trigger for your selected channel. You will find many options to choose from.

I have selected “New status message by you” in this example.

Click on “that” to move forward and select your action channel. I am selecting twitter here.

Now choose an action for twitter. I have selected “Post a tweet”.

Then all you need to do is to click on create action and then create the recipe.

So now whenever I post a status on Facebook it will tweet the same status on Twitter.  Simple isn’t it?

With this you can create thousands of recipes and use this tool to do all kinds of stuff. I never felt the need to create a new recipe because you can find all the recipes you want already created.

If you browse the recipes thoroughly, you will find recipes that you may never have thought of!

Wrap up

So this was a list of the tools every entrepreneur must use. I am sure that by using these tools you will be able to boost your productivity and work faster. If you find any tool missing in this list, let me know in the comments below.

I’m sure you are getting tired of hearing it.

Everyone is telling you to ‘grow your brand’, get out there on social media and grow an audience, develop relationships with your customers and potential customers… The list goes on.

Unfortunately, if you are a new business immersed in the frenzy of just getting your feet on the ground, it is hard to find the time.

But, as Yoda would say, “Find the time you must, or a business no longer will you have.”

Here is your checklist. Don’t do it all at once, but keep these 9 strategies in front of you and set aside a block of time each week to work on them.

1. Choose the proper channels for your presence

You cannot support a presence on all social media channels right now. Later, when you are all grown up, you can. So, focus on 2-3 platforms that you know are most popular with your target audience.

Choosing those platforms is not as hard as you think:

• Develop your customer persona. What this means is that you develop a complete profile of your typical customer. Single Grain has designed a great graphic with all that should be included in your persona. Remember, ‘people buy people’.

• Once you have a complete profile, you are ready to figure out where this person hangs out on social media. Facebook is a given, but beyond that, you will need to dig a bit. Fortunately, there is a lot of research out there that will tell you where Sally is. Choose 2-3 places where Sally hangs out and focus on those.
• Your profile will also tell you the type of content and posts you should create for Sally, and how you go about developing a relationship with her. If, for example, she is a millennial, then she can smell a sales pitch from far off and hates it; she will ask her friends about their experiences with you; she will want you to entertain her and let her interact with your content; and she will want you to be socially responsible – involved in helping others and the planet.

Case Study: Chipotle

Here is why “Sally” will connect with Chipotle.

First, it is a brand that values fresh ingredients and has the option to “build your own” items like tacos, bowls, and burritos. Both ingredients and the experience will be appealing to her, as a millennial.

But Chipotle has gone further. It has as web series titled “Farmed and Dangerous” in which a millennial farmer who believes in sustainable, chemical-free farming is pitted against a large corporate food company. It is a comedy with its own website, and regular episodes are posted, complete with music and show trivia.

Before this series even began, Chipotle had already developed an iPhone game called “The Scarecrow” in which a scarecrow is searching for natural rather than processed food.

Sally loves Chipotle because it values the planet, natural foods and is critical of corporate agriculture. The restaurant experience certainly helps too.

The point to take from this is if you want to grow your business and grow your team people need to be attracted to your ‘personal brand’ and want to follow your leadership and work with you. This is a key element of success in our industry.

2. Be consistent and regular

Once you have identified your platforms, you must set up a schedule of posts and stick to it. If you don’t stick to your schedule then followers will drop you and move on.

Those posts had better be fresh and engaging. If they strike a chord, they will be shared. For example, if Instagram is a selected platform, put together a bunch of images in advance with great quotes which your persona will enjoy. Stack them up and post one a day. When the supply gets low, take the time to create more.

This goes for your website too. Many businesses have fresh new content regularly posted on their home pages, so that visitors are engaged and entertained right away.

Case Study: Dollar Shave Club

This company pretty much revolutionized the razor industry with its subscription-based shaving club. “Members” pay a really reasonable monthly fee and have razors and other grooming products delivered to their doors.

Their website regularly has new videos, some of them interactive, that visitors love to view and then share. An innovative marketing plan but a method to bring customers and potential customers back regularly to see the new content.

3. Start and stay in the conversation

You can start conversations by asking questions or asking your readers to do something. And when you get answers and comments you keep the conversation going.

Every day, check your social media pages for feedback, comments and questions. Respond quickly. Never let a comment go without a response, whether that comment is positive, neutral, or negative. This is how relationships are built.

Case Study: ModCloth

If you check any of ModCloth’s social media platforms, you will not only find new content every day but you will find conversations in which the clothier responds to questions and jumps in with response to customers.

Just looking at its Facebook page, you can also see how strings of conversation just keep on going, with a ModCloth response to each customer.

4. Engage your audience so they want to share your content

There are several things you can do to capture and intrigue your audience.

• Publish quizzes, polls, and surveys. You’ve seen these on Facebook and you know you have participated. You want the results and then you want to share those results with your friends.
• Hold contests and ask questions. This totally engages an audience. Jack Daniels does this all the time. They invite followers to submit their strangest bar stories or to submit pictures of the weirdest bar they have ever visited. ModCloth holds contests to name clothing items it has purchased.
• Always use visuals because they are shared more. And explore some of the newer venues for visuals – real time stuff through Meerkat or Periscope.
• Incorporate humor – this can be done by a “joke of the day” on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Use memes.
• Support a charitable cause – show photos of your team involved and ask followers to get involved and to share your call to action. Headbands of Hope does this well. For every headband purchased, one is donated to a little girl with cancer, along with $1 toward cancer research. The founder may have gotten the idea from Tom’s Shoes. Check them out.
• Feature customers in your posts. Most of ModCloth’s Facebook page is devoted to customers wearing clothing they have bought.

Case Study: Headbands of Hope

And a few shots from the “Giving Gallery”

5. Stay on top of social media changes

Here are just a few recent changes that platforms have implemented in an effort to keep their populations with them.

• Twitter allows media and more characters
• Instagram has implemented the carousel so that more than one image can be posted at a time
• Facebook now has groups
• Most content marketing websites will keep you informed of changes as they occur. Keep up. Our use a Creative Agency to design and manage your social media campaigns and content as we do. It’s not as expensive as you think, and the benefits are un-measurable.

6. Use the 80/20 rule

No one wants a pushy sales pitch – ever. Just don’t do it.

80% of what you post should not be related to your product or service. It should be related to developing trust and relationships and getting your brand known. 20% of what you post can relate to your products or services – advertised sales or discounts, new product launches, free trials, etc.

7. Use amazing headlines

Check out some of the master’s at this. You’ve probably been intrigued or compelled by many yourself. For some headline examples see Upworthy’s Facebook post titles – always a photo and always a headline you cannot resist.

Headlines are tough to create – there are some good headline generator tools available, though, so find one you like and use it, even if you have to pay a bit for their upgrade.

Here are a couple of outrageous titles courtesy of BoostBlogTraffic.com;

How Spending $162,301.42 on Clothes Made Me $692,500 – Neil Patel

Caution: Stop Masturbating With Your Money – Ashley Ambirge

It’s unlikely that many will pass up these posts!

8. Know when to post

Remember that persona you developed in #1?

Well, you know where she is; now you need to know when she is there. Fortunately, others have done this research for you. Not only will you find out when best to post but you will also learn how many times a day, week, or month you should re-post.

You can even set up these re-posts automatically.

9. Have a crisis plan

Figure out in advance what your strategy will be if someone “bashes” you on social media. It may be an angry customer or it may be someone who was offended by something you posted. You have to fix this and fix it immediately. Letting it hang out there with no positive and helpful or contrite response is a “killer.”

Google “complaints about _______(your company name)” often and see if there is anything bad out there. Handle it immediately.

This looks like a lot to do, and you may be pretty tired just reading about it all. Take heart. You don’t have to do everything at once.

Pick a couple of things from this list and see how they work for you (give them some time); then add as you can. Your business isn’t going to grow overnight and neither is your return on social media efforts. Be patient, but be steady.