When you are an employee, you do exactly what you are paid to do, and that’s it. However, when you are an entrepreneur, you do what you are paid to do, and then you do everything else.
There’s design, there’s customer support, there’s marketing, there’s bookkeeping. How are you supposed to get work done when you are drowning in all these never-ending tasks? The answer is simple. You need to become more efficient at all those necessary yet unpaid tasks. And for that, you need the right tools.
Creating a business website
Design your logo:
It’s easy to get stuck on this step, as you probably think your very first logo needs to be ideal and perfectly reflect what your business stands for. However, that doesn’t have to be true, as you can start by creating a simple logo in one of the free logo creator tools found online.
Create your own design:
You probably don’t have time to to learn HTML, CSS and Javascript yourself. Luckily, with this drag-and-drop WordPress Theme Builder you can build beautiful WordPress websites from scratch, all by yourself, without having to write a single line of code.
Generate placeholder text:
As you are creating your own WordPress theme, you will need placeholder text, and writing it from scratch every time is incredibly time consuming. Use Lorem Ipsum plugin to add lorem ipsum text with one click.
Add a contact form:
Normally, adding a contact form to your website would require coding, but with Captain Form, you can add a simple wordpress form without it. Having a contact form will let you sift through incoming emails faster and reduce time spent on email back-and-forth.
Find perfect fonts:
Want to make your website really stand out from the competition? Adding custom fonts can help. Check out these design bundles from Fundle Bundle.
Optimizing payments
Manage your invoices:
Bookkeeping can be really boring, but you still need to do it, otherwise your business will turn into a complete mess! So make sure that you track time spent on client work and manage your invoices. You can easily do that with Invoice Ninja, an open source platform that has all the tools that you need.
Add a shopping cart to your website:
Having a shopping cart on your website will allow clients to purchase your products and services immediately without having to contact you. This will save you quite a bit of time on email back-and-forth. Use this Simple Shopping Cart.
Managing appointments
Organize data
Managing customer support
Add a chatbot. Tired of handling all the customer support on your own, but hesitant about outsourcing it? Have you tried using a chatbot that can answer the basic questions about your business? It could save you quite a bit of time! And don’t worry, you don’t need to build it yourself, because Botsify can show you how to create a chatbot without any programming skills.
Add an FAQ section. Are you dealing with a lot of repetitive questions? That means that it’s time to add a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section to your website. That way, when people have a question about your products or services, they’ll go there first, instead of contacting you. It’s very easy to do with this WordPress FAQ Plugin and it will save you tons of time on customer support.
Tired of running your own business?
Let’s keep it real. Running your own business is not all unicorns and rainbows. Sure, in theory, you are your own boss… But in reality, instead of having one boss, now you have many, because every customer is effectively your boss with their own expectations and their own demands. And there’s just so much work to do! You need to keep the business going, you need to get client work done, you need to hunt new clients… It can be too much to handle sometimes. No wonder that a lot of business owners end up being burnt out and sick and tired of all of it. But what to do if that’s the case?
The answer is simple: get a job. It may not sound very exciting, but honestly, after running a business, a job with a steady paycheck will probably feel relaxing. So dust off your resume and make sure it’s up to date and presentable (these resume templates can help). Who knows, maybe you’ll be happier being back in the workplace!
Conclusion
You need to understand that your time is valuable. Take a good look at how you are spending it. Are you getting work done… Or are you constantly putting out fires and dealing with pesky little tasks? Try to minimize the latter as much as you can by using the right tools and outsourcing whenever you can afford it. That way, you’ll have more time left for the things that matter, such as growing your business.
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