budding entrepreneur

Indian entrepreneurship is currently on a high with a huge number of start-ups cropping up daily. Most start-ups have innovative and unique ideas but some fail, owing to various reasons- time issues, low of monetary funds or other resource crunches.

An entrepreneur plays a key role in determining his venture as a failure or a success. If the captain of the ship is accomplished and tends to be productive all the time, there are better chances of a successful venture.

Here are 5 productivity tips that are bound to help every budding entrepreneur:

1. Don’t attend or organise meetings for the sake of them

In today’s world, we are not in a position to take the traditional route of meeting a team for 5 hours and giving them tips about everything. Time is a precious resource and must be utilised carefully. Because most meetings are a waste of time, it is beneficial for an entrepreneur to cut down on them and organise modern ways of boosting team spirit like stand-up meetings.

Also, try communicating through faster, more efficient and time-saving media like the telephone, e-mail, SMS or shared notes on apps.

2. Take breaks

As an entrepreneur, your work might seem insanely taxing. However, it is crucial to take necessary breaks for your brain to relax and produce newer ideas. Try and take breaks every two hours and it can be something as simple as going out for a brisk stroll. The fresh air will rejuvenate your mind and help you focus and concentrate better on work. You will find yourself more energised after a break because staring at a computer screen for too long can cause massive fatigue.

Also, insist that your employees take breaks too, especially if you’re a creativity-based company as breaks are necessary to break monotony and loss of focus.

3. Use location to an advantage

For start-ups which usually don’t have much monetary funding initially, it is always better to hire a team or people who are locals. Many studies have found that people living with family or near their offices are more motivated to work as they have people to fall back on once they’re home.

Also, once you nurture local talent, you’ll be amazed to find the level of motivation they possess as they know the place and people better. And, once you have a kickass team which comprises of accomplished and happy people, your profits will soar higher.

4. Delegate; but give your employees space to improvise

As an entrepreneur, your job is to delegate tasks to your team but if you make them follow a rigid pattern of doing the task, they’ll soon lose interest. Instead, give them some amount of creative liberty to improvise and come up with newer ways of accomplishing a task. This gives them responsibility and power and helps them to learn the skill of management.

Because empowerment is something we all seek at our job, this will motivate employees to put in more effort into their job and be more productive in future.

5. Rewards and benefits for your employees

It might be something as simple as treating them to a meal at a fast food joint because they’ve worked hard. Rewarding and more importantly recognising the talents of your employees is crucial as it gives a great boost to them as they remain motivated to work harder.

You could also provide some kind of monitor to your employees to jot down creative ideas. This is a great productivity booster as it empowers them and entices them to be more motivated at work.

Try the tips mentioned above and notice a stark change in your company’s productivity levels.

Entrepreneurship is considered as one of the major factors of production. An entrepreneur’s ability is gauged by how well they make decisions, creativity and how well they are good in the management of risks and resources. If you are an entrepreneur and you are not sure about what it takes to boom your business, here are skills every entrepreneur should have.

Money management skills

An ultimate goal of doing business is to make a profit (money).How do you expect to manage a business if you don’t have the skills to manage money? Budgeting for the business will also be a big challenge to any business which is not well handled will result in a loss.

Resource mobilization

The moment an entrepreneur knows how to manage money; the next question should be how he can source for more to pump the business to a greater profit. Have the capacity to identify the sources of funding. This also involves a convincing voice to sell out the business and attract more funding.

Stress management skills

Stress can kill entrepreneurs if not well handled and managed. There will always be a time when all options that you try will hit the wall. Frustration occurs in the process of trying to fix this. Don’t let stress put you down, instead, turn them into an opportunity to grow. Apply useful tactics for business growth.

Networking skills

Before venturing into any business, you must set goals for it. Create the right linkages and fish out resourceful people to acquire business ideas. Out of the entrepreneurs, you spend time with, define your role model and work towards achieving that. Learn more from successful ones and ask them how they manage. Share as many challenges as possible to get solutions to the problems affecting the business.

Management skills

Managing people takes different dimensions. Use different parameters to gauge people’s capabilities. Identify their weakness and work on them. Productivity can only be achieved by having an effective team on board. Motivate and build them every day. Treat employees with equality as it brings respect. Timely feedbacks about the business will be experienced.

Customer relation

In a real sense, business without customer is like dead wood. In business engagements, we either sell services or products. Make sure the ideas you employ, the decision you make and services offered meet customer needs. Do a lot of research where necessary to get a viable solution. Sell the skills acquired into the business so as to attract more customers.

Capacity building skills

Limited skills can affect the growth of a business. Enhance the team performance by training them in key areas. Identify the gaps in each and every team member and plan for capacity building sessions. This will give them the strength to handle complicated issues as commitment levels go high. As an entrepreneur, this will form a basis to handle employee misconduct issues.

Learning ability

The market demands changes and affects business every now and then. Don’t assume you know every detail about your business. A business if strategized well moves very fast. Emerging trends should be monitored and applied with immediate effect to avoid business disruption. Get skills and focus more on what level you want to take the business.

Identify strength and weakness

Nobody is perfect in this world. It is crucial to identify what you are good at (strengths). Identify weaknesses so they don’t overpower the strengths. This will help in making an informed decision about your business.

Problem-solving

In this world, there is no entrepreneurship that will succeed perpendicularly. Problems do arise but we should apply different tactics to handle them. Before winning a battle, failures are guaranteed. Have the skills to predict risks and come up with risk management plans.

Tag: budding entrepreneur

5 productivity tips that will benefit aspiring entrepreneurs