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6 Unexpected Cost-Cutting Strategies for Small Businesses

Being a small business owner isn’t always easy. The business will always have up and down periods. Sometimes customers line up, and the company may not be able to keep up with the demand, but other times it may be very quiet. During these low times, you may not have enough income to keep your company as supported as you may like. At such times, cut back on your spending rather than take out more loans. You need to be thrifty to keep your venture afloat. These are six unexpected cost-cutting strategies small businesses will benefit from.

1. Automate

Why do tedious tasks yourself when you can have a machine do them for pennies? Automation is the future of business. It can be very annoying to do repetitive, mundane tasks manually. Plus, someone could make an error which could cost your company even more money. To prevent this, you should invest in automation. Small businesses need to focus on the bigger picture items to grow and be successful. By implementing automation into your company, tasks like sending out reminders, getting notifications, sorting through invoices, etc., could be done in seconds. Employing automation is much cheaper than having employees do this work. Many companies, like Simply Flows, offer a free trial version of their product and then reasonable plans to choose from. Using automation will help your small business not have to worry about tedious tasks and save you money in the process.

2. Hire Freelancers

Instead of hiring full-time employees or expensive consultants, hire freelancers for your standalone or independent projects. The reason why freelancers will save you money is because they have no overhead fees. All you have to pay them is their designated fee for the work they perform. No health insurance, retirement, or time-off expenses to worry about. Instead, only pay them for the work they have completed. Obviously, a contract should be drawn between your company and the freelancer defining your expectations, but this is a significant cost-cutting strategy, given that labor costs are usually the biggest expenses for a business. Using freelancers is a great way to help your organization save money.

3. Right-Size

Having ample office space for a small number of people and the occasional meeting with a customer is not efficient. It is not smart to pay rent, utilities, insurance, etc. if you do not properly utilize the amount of space you have. Downsizing could be your unexpected cost-cutting strategy. Plus, you can arrange people in this smaller office to sit where it would promote the most efficient results. For example, if someone is constantly going to the filing cabinet to get excess paper or other products, it would be beneficial to place them by the filing cabinet rather than the printer. This strategic placement in a right-sized office would save money and promote productivity.

Also, consider running a fully virtual company, i.e., not having an office at all. Then, you would not have to pay for rent, furniture, or property insurance. Even before the pandemic, many companies were starting as virtual. That way, they could hire people from anywhere without being restrained to a physical location. People, on the other hand, would have the benefit of working from their homes, shared spaces, or the beach, if they wanted to, without being forced into crazy commutes and unpleasant cubicles. Both right-sizing and going virtual are viable options to save you money.

4. Cutting Operating Expenses

Operating expenses can go through the roof if not appropriately managed. Bills can begin to pile up, and small businesses may have no way to pay them if they do not have the income. It is essential to do whatever possible to cut back on these expenses. For example, electricity costs a lot in the industry. If you forget to turn off machines or lights, this could result in higher fees for your organization. Possible ways to cut these operating costs would be investing in solar energy or more cost-efficient lighting.

Additionally, consider reviewing and renegotiating the professional services you pay for. A small business may work with a few agencies for their bookkeeping, accounting, marketing, hiring, etc., and each may be willing to lower their fees if you renegotiate them. If this did not work, you could transfer to another agency with lower fares.

5. Do Your Own Advertising

Another unexpected cost-cutting strategy is that small businesses can do their own advertising. Rather than hiring someone that charges a lot to create digital advertisement materials, you can do this yourself. There are various free applications to get the job done. For example, companies can use Canva to create all sorts of materials for posts and ads – images, infographics, banners, postcards, etc. If a small business does not know where to place its ads, it can utilize programmatic advertising. Programmatic advertising is the placement of ads on websites and social media through AI. This is much cheaper than hiring someone to do this process for you. To cut costs, small businesses could make their own ads and do the ad placement themselves or through programmatic advertising.

6. Buy a Smart Thermostat

Would you be able to do work in a place that was overly hot or cold? I doubt it. Being in a comfortable setting contributes significantly to employee productivity and job satisfaction. Investing in a smart thermostat will surely pay back. These thermostats learn the company’s climate preferences and automatically adjust to create a comfortable temperature. Over time, this investment would cut back on heating and cooling costs. People would no longer have to constantly adjust (or argue over) the temperature settings in the office. Plus, a comfortable workplace contributes to workers being more relaxed and productive.

Small businesses need to cut costs to remain afloat, especially during low points for their organization. Saving money will help with the financials. Furthermore, these strategies can lead to more efficient and productive workplace. Also, being efficient means more time and attention towards customers and your products. Strategizing and determining the best ways to save money is vital to small businesses. These unexpected cost-cutting strategies will help your organization not only thrive but be more successful than the competitors.

Learn how to automate your small business and cut costs by checking out Simply Flows product.

Free Digital Marketing Apps for Small Businesses

Every business owner is looking for marketing tools that allow them to accurately market and promote their products or services, with hopes of gaining new customers. Marketing tools can serve many different functions across a business and can come in several forms. Here are the best free digital marketing apps we have identified. They are all great for small business owners to have under their belt.

From image creation, file sharing, posts scheduling, to sending email campaigns, you are covered by the apps we’ve selected for you.

Sendinblue

Email marketing is one of the best ways to keep your customers updated, infromerd, and nurtured. With applications like Sendinblue, companies can build custom email campaigns for their customers. You can send up to 300 emails a day with their free plan. Email marketing can entice customers to spend more money with a business because of possible promotions sent. Also, you can share product and company information with your customers and give them an insight into the business. Sendinblue offers tools for creating visually appealing and engaging emails. Additionally, it allows scheduling of your email marketing campaigns.

Hootsuite

Small business’ biggest marketing tool is social media. It is free and there are many different platforms that range in target audience and focus. Hootsuite is a tool that helps you manage and schedule posts to various social media platforms. With Hootsuite you can plan ahead and prepare your post content in advance. You can also collaborate with your team members through this tool. In addition, Hootsuite can be used to curate the content you’ll use on your social media. Tools like Hootsuite benefit small businesses because posting consistent and quality content is important for building a brand. Social media is a great way to connect with your current and potential customers. Also, it gives your business visibility and trustworthiness.

Canva

Whether posting graphics on your social media, sending emails, or updating your website, graphics and visuals are used. Canva is a great tool for creating content such as images, flyers, presentations, etc. You can access many features that Canva offers for free or opt for the paid version for additional features and opportunities. Tools such as Canva are important because quality imagery is something that could get you recognized and is a great way to get customers’ attention. With Canva, small businesses can create an unlimited amount of unique branded content specific to their business and further build their brand’s recognition.

Dropbox

With small business owners managing all aspects of the business, having an organizational and communication platform is key. You can easily store and share documents in Dropbox. Additionally, you can collaborate on projects. This enables owners to run their business smoothly and keep recent and older documents easily accessible and securely stored. You can communicate with your teammates through Dropbox and even create calendars. The best part is that Dropbox is free, so small businesses can get a high quality organizational tool at no cost.

There are many ways that small businesses can manage the marketing mix most effective for them. But using tools will help smooth marketing operations and make knowledge and tasks easily accessible and transferable. Having the above free digital marketing apps in your tool belt is great as each has its specific purpose. Lastly, try out different marketing tools, especially if free, and see which are the most beneficial to you. The end goal is by utilizing these tools to get new customers and new sales, ultimately growing your business.

Learn how Simply Flows product helps small business owners.

Best Time-Saving Tips for Success in Business

Throughout the workday, there are various tedious tasks a person has to do that consume a large amount of their time. A lot of other, high-value, tasks don’t get completed because there isn’t enough time in the day. Not to mention that people feel burnt-out from doing such mundane work. It is essential to find ways to save time because time is the only non renewable resource. Here are the best time-saving tips for success in business. They will help your organization be more productive and, ultimately, more successful.

Time is the only non renewable resource and we have very little of it. Therefore, wasting it on low-value work is unacceptable.

Time-Saving Benefits

Time savings can help increase productivity within a company. You open yourself up to getting more work done throughout the day by eliminating minuscule tasks. This, in turn, can lead to higher productivity and professional satisfaction in the workplace. People like to see that what they are doing is making a difference. Getting rid of low-value tasks means more time dedicated to growing the business, taking better care of the customers, and investing in employees’ professional development. This, in turn, would lead to higher customer loyalty and job satisfaction. Last but not least, saving time would contribute to increasing the organization’s value, revenues, and opportunities.

Time-Saving Tips

So, how does one increase time savings? There are various ways that a company can cut down on its inefficiencies. To start, a person has to stay organized. If someone’s files are all over, there is no way to get their work done efficiently. They would just be searching for what they need, which would take up a large portion of their day. It is essential to focus your attention to ensure you are doing high-quality work without making mistakes. Getting a job done before deadlines is crucial, so keeping an eye on the time and hitting those deadlines can increase time savings. To add, one other way to help save time is to avoid multitasking. Although it can be tempting to try and get everything done at once, it could be a distraction. Using these tips, one can become better at implementing time-saving techniques into their routine.

Automation: The Biggest Helper

The best way to increase time savings is through automation. Automation can eliminate tedious tasks, so that you do not have to waste time doing them yourself. You could create workflows for repetitive data entry and other manual data processing tasks. Then, you can focus your attention on your customers, for example, while the software does the tedious work. Something else, investing in automation to do your payroll is a huge time-saver. You get back that person whose only job is to work on the payroll tasks all day long. Business would grow, revenues would increase, and customers would be happier once you employ automation – the most significant time-saving helper a company can get.

Using the above time-saving tips for success, you can help your company cut back on inefficiencies and make more money. Automation is the biggest helper when it comes to saving time in a business. Automated workflows can eliminate tedious tasks and give you time back to grow your company and make it even more successful.

Simply Flows can save you an immense amount of time, check out our product.

6 Free Tools to Get Solopreneurs Started

Solopreneurs are responsible for all aspects of the business. They don’t have the resources or staffing like larger and more established businesses have. They are super careful with their spending, since they often bootstrap their business (i.e. use their own savings) or rely on loans from friends and family. However, there are many free tools that business owners can use that can help them in all aspects of running their business. We have collected a list of top free tools for solopreneurs to use in their day-to-day communications and business operations.

Wix

Every business needs a website. They need a touchpoint for customers to see so they can learn about the business, see their products, and potentially make a purchase or sign up. Wix is one of the best and easy to use website builders on the market. You can make a free account on Wix and build a website that has full feature capabilities. Furthermore, Wix allows you to create websites that are mobile-friendly. This way customers can access your website conveniently.

Glip

Glip is a video conferencing application. it is free but, unlike others, meetings can run as long as 24 hours. The number of people limitation being much higher than on Zoom, Google meet, etc. With Glip you can be on a conferencing call with up to 100 people. The time limit for their meetings is up to 24 hours. With Glip you can still screen share and send messages to the participants or privately. In addition, you can create tasks and agendas for the meetings.

Wave

With Wave, business owners can have better control of their finances. Wave allows you to receive and send an unlimited amount of invoices and you can make an unlimited amount of transactions. Furthermore, it has an e-commerce feature so you can sell your items on your website. Not only is Wave good for payment transactions but it can also be used for human resources and payroll. However, their payroll feature is a part of their paid-subscription services.

Google Drive

Using Google Drive can help owners with keeping all their documents organized. Certain files or folders can be shared with team members, vendors, customers, and community members for collaboration and review. It has ample free storage and you are able to access files when you are offline. Additionally, Google Drive can be linked to other applications so you can share work across applications.

HubSpot

Hubspot is an easy to use customer relationship management (CRM) tool. They offer free tools for sales, marketing, operations, and customer support. In addition, you can have an unlimited amount of users. Also, you can add a live chat and chat bot to your website to help communicate with customers and assist them in online needs. Hubspot can also track website activity and give you feedback on your customers.

SurveyMonkey

If you’re ever wondering how your current customers are feeling or what they want to see in the future, a survey is the best way to ask. SurveyMonkey is a survey application that allows you to make multiple free surveys. You can send and share these surveys with anyone. Surveys are a perfect way to connect with a customer and receive feedback.

Solopreneurs are focused on growing their business. Initially money may be scarce, so startup owners should spend it wisely. At this stage of the business, free applications are their best friends. There are many free tools available that owners can use to help them grow their online presence and their customer base.

Find out more information on how Simply Flows can help you as a solopreneur.

How Non-Technical Startups can Utilize Technology with no Budget

Starting your own company can be one of the most exciting moments of your life. It is an amazing feeling when you find something you are passionate about and push to make it become a reality. However, startups require a lot of money to get off the ground. It can be difficult to get investors to believe in your idea right away and even if they do, getting funding takes quite a bit of time. Initially, you will have to bootstrap your idea. This can become very costly if you do not budget correctly. Therefore, you should always try to save money whenever possible. Non-technical startups can still utilize technology even without any budget, as long as they avoid money suckers.

Biggest Spending Mistakes

Many small businesses are run by first-time owners. To succeed, they need to be extremely cost-conscious. Some of the biggest mistakes a startup can make are:

Hiring staff you don’t need (yet).
Spending money on unnecessary products.
Overspending to the point where you take on debt.
- You need to have backup savings in case any problems arise.

It is essential to be cognizant regarding your spending. Even more so at the beginning, when revenues are not yet consistently coming. But even down the road, avoiding these major spending mistakes is vital for your success.

How to Avoid Overspending

Rather than hiring too many people, it would be more beneficial to focus on 2-5 vital employees who will help develop your idea. It is crucial to find knowledgeable, experienced, self-driven, and flexible people whose values align with your own. Additionally, there is no point in hiring full-time employees when part-time ones are all you need.

When it comes to buying products, you should only get what is necessary. It is also important to create a budget and stick to it. Keeping your organization lean and spending only the minimum is vital when just starting. Also, always set aside some savings. Chances are something will go wrong (late, unexpected) and you will need that money. Having an emergency fund is always a good idea. Avoiding overspending early on will help your startup run longer and successfully.

No Money, No Problem

It takes a decent amount of time for startups to become recognized. Spending money can help with the promotion of your products but can burn a hole in your pocket. These are three of the best ways to succeed as a non-technical startup without spending a large sum of money.

1. Self-Teaching

Small business owners do not have to go through intense and expensive training programs to obtain new skills. In fact, there are many online resources that they can use to learn the many necessary skills of a startup owner. There are tons of online resources for digital marketing, accounting and finance, hiring, and other skills for running the business in the form of blog posts, podcasts, white papers, etc. This will not only expand a person’s knowledge, but it will save them money as well. Rather than using costly consultants to help them, non-technical startup owners can teach themselves how to do something that will benefit their company. Later on that knowledge and experience will pay back because it will help them hire the right people for their organization.

2. Getting Help from Mentors

Seek out experienced professionals among your network. Mentors can be a massive help to the development of your company and product. You can ask them for help, advice, guidance, and new ways to position yourself strategically in the market. They could also tell you where your startup could improve, whether in the advertising strategy or the product itself. For example, if you need help with your marketing strategy, reaching out to a marketing professional would be beneficial. There are many programs offering free mentorship. Most times you’ll be able to get the help your startup needs without spending any money at all.

3. Using Free Tools

Hiring a team of professionals would be very costly. Plus, you may not be able to fully utilize them at the beginning. You would be overpaying for services that you could get online for free. People have created a lot of tools to help others with their work. Many of these tools offer a free tier, which is more than sufficient for the needs of a startup. Once your company and its needs grow, you can upgrade to a higher (paid) tier. Plus, there are so many low-code and no-code applications, especially designed for non-technical startups. You could easily create a prototype of your product without worrying about coding it yourself. There must be an easy no-code app which would do it for you. This is a massive benefit for non-technical startups and a great way for them to save a lot of money.

As you can see, there are many ways for you to be successful as a non-technical startup. Knowing how to be proactive and avoiding major spending traps will help your business. You will be more competitive if you put in the work and use the most cost-efficient procedures and technology. A product that would be beneficial to startups would be Simply Flows because it can automate your busywork. Rather than hiring someone to do the job, you could utilize this product to do it for you. Click here to find out more on how Simply Flows can help your small business thrive.

10 Simple Ways to Be More Productive

Sometimes we get in slumps and aren’t as productive as we’d like to be. Or maybe our workload just doubled and we need to get more work done in the same amount of time. There are days we feel like we aren’t getting anything done at all. Other times we get distracted or interrupted so much that our whole day seems wasted. Whatever the case, here are 10 simple ways to be more productive.

1. Do the Most Work at Peak Timing

Everyone has a natural body clock. Some people have more energy in the morning, while others feel at their best late at night. Take advantage of the times you feel most energized and set a goal to do the most work during those productive times. Leave the smaller and less important tasks for when you are more tired.

2. Stop Trying to Multitask

It can be stressful when a lot of tasks pile up and subsequently you try to work on multiple tasks at a time. But the key to getting more done is to try and focus on one task at a time. When you start a task, try to work through completion, so you can give it dedicated time and attention. Working on a singular task also gives you the satisfaction of having completed tasks instead of a bunch of half-done ones.

3. Create and Narrow Down a To-Do List

Make a to-do list of all the things that you need to complete. Then, prioritize by importance and put the most important task at the top. This way as you are working down the list you are getting the most important tasks done first. You can move the remaining tasks to the following day or scratch them from the list if no longer relevant.

4. Delegate

If you are working on a team but are already overwhelmed with work, you should utilize the people around you and delegate tasks. Splitting up tasks minimizes stress and allows for projects to be done faster because a single person is not doing all the work. Plus, you don’t want to become the project’s bottleneck.

5. Get Enough Sleep

When you get a good night of rest, you feel more energized and rejuvenated. When you feel energized, you have the ability to do more work. The brain gets exhausted after not getting enough sleep. This makes it more difficult to focus, which results in us making more mistakes, and work takes longer.

6. Eat Healthy Meals

It can be easy to get caught up in a task and forget to take care of ourselves. But eating is how we fuel our bodies and brains. Taking time to have full and healthy meals can give us the energy to get a substantive amount of work done.

7. Follow the 2-Minute Rule

The 2-minute rule means that if you have anything that can be done in 2 minutes or less, do it right away. These are small tasks that can be done quickly but can easily pile up. It’s better to get small tasks done first, so that you no longer have to be concerned about them.

8. Be Proactive, Not Reactive

Set yourself up for success. If you have upcoming work that can be planned for, try to make time to plan ahead. Or if you know you are about to start a new demanding project, make sure to complete all incomplete tasks before the project’s start date, so you won’t get overwhelmed.

9. Minimize Interruptions and Distractions

Find a quiet space that’s free of distractions and anything that can interfere with your productivity. If you find yourself always going on social media or your phone, download applications that can lock your phone, so you can focus on work. Or simply have self-control and block out your surroundings and get down to business. Closing out tabs and applications, especially the ones constantly popping up notifications, is another great way to eliminate distractions. Dedicate focused time to more involved tasks and make sure to communicate that with your team, manager, family, or roommates. A ‘Do not Disturb’ sign/mode usually helps.

10. Reward Yourself

Work can be stressful. And the need to always be on can get the most of you. But it is important to reward yourself, so you don’t burn out and continue to be productive in the future. A reward can be taking a break after completing a task, stretching out or exercising for a while, having a snack, or chatting with a friend. Any reward is a good one, as long as it makes you happy.

There may be times when you feel you have not achieved much. Hopefully, following these tips, you will be more productive. Eventually they will become commonplace and work will never stress you out again.

If you want to find out more productivity tips, check out this article .

Also, you can find some helpful time management tips here.

The Best Productivity Tools for Business Interns

Most of us have been interns at some point in our lives. As an intern, you have to learn the ins and outs of a company in a very short period. Intern’s tasks can be very random and not always the most organized. It can be tough to stay on top of the non-streamlined work given to interns. Since many tasks are not set in stone, there could be confusion and miscommunication between the intern and their manager. To avoid such issues and to be efficient and productive, you can use many different tools. These are five of the best productivity tools for business interns.

1. Hootsuite

Companies give interns lots of busy work, such as making and managing posts. Hootsuite helps simplify the process of posting. Rather than switching between multiple apps and posting on each of them, Hootsuite keeps all social media in one place. This is a great productivity tool for business interns because you can schedule posts for weeks at a time so that you never forget to post. Also, the app aggregates your posts’ performance statistics from all social media accounts. It tells you what posts are doing well and which ones are not. Hootsuite is beneficial because it automates your posting schedule and gives you analytics to let you know if you should stick to your strategy or make changes.

2. Canva

One of my favorite tools to use as an intern is Canva. Canva is an app that allows you to create original art or edit photos using different templates. You can easily move, resize, or edit images to your liking and needs. If you had to create an image for emails, a new company logo, an icon, or a banner for social media, Canva is your go-to tool. This is one of the best productivity tools for business interns because of all the features. For example, one of the best features of Canva is its design tab. You are several templates to choose from and can make things from videos to business cards with the click of a button. You are given the creative freedom, as a business intern, to make items quickly and with ease, even if you are not a graphic designer. There is both a free and paid version for the application. People who want access to more features can get the paid version, but as an intern, Canva has a lot to offer with just the free version.

3. Trello

Trello is an excellent app for both project tracking and team collaboration. Through Trello, people can see their weekly tasks and update them according to their completion status, assignment, priority, etc. Interns can organize their workload into a manageable schedule to meet their deadlines. Trello allows other coworkers to see your schedule so that they know when you are busy. Managers can assign tasks to team members and manage workloads, deadlines, and project goals in Trello. This is a beneficial application that increases productivity. It helps you manage and schedule your tasks and communicate what you are currently working on with your team.

4. Grammarly

Grammarly is an essential productivity tool for business interns. Sometimes, you may not have time to go over all your grammatical and spelling errors when writing something. That’s what Grammarly is for. This application catches the majority of mistakes that you have made in a piece of writing. Whether it is a simple comma error or a passage with passive voice, Grammarly tells you where the issues are and gives you suggestions on how to fix them. This is vital for business interns, so emails, letters, presentation slides, and other documents look and sound professional.

5. PomoDone

PomoDone is very helpful with time management. You use a clock to determine how much time you spend on specific assignments. For example, you can schedule yourself to work for 45 minutes straight, then take a 15-minute break to recharge. This will motivate you to focus on your current task and get as much done as possible before the break. It will also prevent you from getting distracted from your tasks since you know you will be stepping away from your work in a short time. PomoDone is a valuable productivity tool for business interns.

Knowing these tools will not only give you a leg up at your internship but at a future job as well. Increasing your productivity as an intern will leave a significant mark on the company. They will be impressed with your work, which will contribute to you performing well in future jobs. Having systems for organizing, correcting, and editing work is vital in the business world, and understanding how to use them can help you be more competitive as a company.

Simply Flows is an application created to help with workplace productivity and efficiency. Click here to read another one of our blogs about productivity in the workplace.

5 Ways Automation Tools Help Improve Customer Relations

Businesses adopt task and process automation at a fast pace. As the technology evolves, it spreads across more and more verticals, roles, and use cases. Automation makes processes faster, smoother, and reliable. In addition, it increases productivity, improves quality of products and services and reduces lead times. The business is automation’s prime beneficiary. However, given the cost savings and productivity gains it brings, customers are positively impacted, too. Did you know that process automation tools can help improve customer relations?

1. Customer Personalization

Communication with customers manually is hard to manage and scale. In fact, it becomes nearly impossible with customers across the globe, trying to get in touch with the company from different time zones. This is where customer experience automation comes in. This can range from personalizing the website when users log in, addressing customers by name or offering personalized recommendations. Personalization makes customers feel appreciated and recognized, increasing their brand loyalty.

2. Quality and Consistency

Automation can remove human errors and make processes run smoothly. When customers interact with a business they want quality and consistency of service. If a customer has made a purchase, they want to track their order from shipment to delivery. Customers can receive real time updates via text messages or emails. Ultimately, the automation tools improve the product or service. And that means a better customer experience.

3. Ease of Use and Customer Support

Improving customer support has become one of process automation’s major trends lately. Some tools have become commonplace – chatbots, for example. Chatbots automatically respond to customer’s questions. They ‘know’ the user well and offer customizations and help based on location, preferences, and other context. Guided tutorials of software products is another real-world application.

4. Improves Relationship

When customers feel appreciated by a business, they are more loyal and tend to return to purchase again. Automation can provide customers with attention and support 24/7. It personalizes the way each customer is addressed and improves the customer’s interaction with a business. Personalization and availability subsequently makes customers feel recognized and appreciated by the business.

5. Scalability

No matter how hard a business tries, there will be a point when customer care specialists cannot manually handle the load of customer questions or issues. There are different reasons for this. For example, customer support may be temporarily understaffed. In other cases the timezone differences reduce coverage. Other times holidays and vacations get in the way. Whatever the case, the business will have troubles responding to customers’ needs. This is where automation offers unparalleled help. Once you have automated a process, it can scale up indefinitely. The best candidate for automation is the first tier of support. That is where customers ask basic questions or need resources like user guides. Automating this first line of support takes a huge chunk off the plate of already overwhelmed support team. Also, it shortens the overall wait time, allowing more people to get help.

Automation has the ability to tailor experiences based on their customer needs. Also, it allows for personalization, consistency and ease of use. And last but not least, many more customers can be taken care of via automation. Therefore, automation tools can improve customer relations between the business and their clients.

Learn how Simply Flows can help improve your customer relations.

Work Smarter, Not Harder: 6 Ways to Simplify your Life

You’ve probably heard the saying “work smarter, not harder” more than once in your life. Not only can this saying be applied to work activities, but to everyday ones as well. There are many surprising and easy ways that you can simplify your life. If you follow these six tips, you will work smarter, not harder. Following this mindset will help you save time and money. Additionally, it will help increase your productivity and efficiency and make you more motivated to get work done in a simple manner. Working smarter, not harder, is a practical philosophy that makes both work and life easier and more enjoyable.

1. Take More Breaks

One surprising way to work smarter, not harder, is to take more breaks during the day. Whether you are working on an important project due for work or just doing chores, it is crucial to recharge. People can become exhausted by focusing on one thing for too long. This can result in poorer quality of work and problems concentrating. By taking breaks, you are allowing your brain to reset. You can refresh your mind and focus on the task at hand after a break of around 15-20 minutes.

2. Check Your Email When you Wake up

It is important to check your email first thing in the morning before you officially start the day. The reason for this is that you want to be sure you’re on the same page as everyone else on your team. If you begin your tasks without checking your email, you may miss essential information. For example, priorities may have changed due to a critical problem with a customer. Checking emails when you wake up also helps you prepare for the day before it even starts. Rather than sorting through everything at once, you can check your emails first thing in the morning and be mentally prepared to get started with the day.

3. Stop Multitasking

Focusing on many different tasks at once can slow brain functioning down. When multitasking, your brain is confused about what it is supposed to be doing at the given time. It makes it more challenging to concentrate, and you are quicker to get tired. Paying attention to one thing for a prolonged time period will yield much better results than switching between different ones. Also, by focusing on one task, you are less likely to make errors in your work. This allows a person to be more productive and work for more extended periods without getting drained.

4. Track Where you are Wasting Time

Sometimes you may get sidetracked throughout the day and do not spend much time doing actual work. It would be smart to note when you get distracted or are less productive during the day to prevent this. Taking note of this can help you determine when and why you are spending time on trivial tasks. By pointing out these issues, you can then figure out ways to fix them. For example, browsing through your social media feed is usually a huge time sucker. Identifying and remedying this issue will help you become more efficient in everything you do.

5. Properly Position People Around the Office

Another smart way to be efficient is by properly positioning people in the office. If a person uses the copier more throughout the day and is seated very far away from it, this could take up valuable work time. By moving the person closer to the copier, you would be shortening their ‘trip’. Locating people closer to the items they use during the day would make them spend less time moving around the office. Productivity would increase, and downtime would decrease, helping the company’s bottom line.

6. Automation

work smarter, not harder - automate your tasks

Automation is an excellent example of how to truly take advantage of working smarter, not harder.

Have a tedious task that you do not like doing throughout the day? Automate it.
Do you have to copy and paste large amounts of data from one place to another? Automate it.
Have to send out a check-up email every few days to your employees? Automate it.

Utilizing automation in the workplace will make your life so much easier. It will reduce errors, give you back time in your day, and increase efficiency. Automation is one of the best ways to be more productive by removing repetitive manual tasks from your life.

Adopting the motto ‘work smarter, not harder’ can genuinely change how you accomplish work at the office, home, school, the charity you volunteer at, and so on. It will give you back time in the day and make your life more efficient. Following these tips is just a start on how we can simplify our lives. Always prioritize this lifestyle and ensure that you are doing everything in your power to make your life easier while also not sacrificing your quality of work and performance.

Simply Flows can help you determine the best ways to work smarter, not harder.

12 Best Time Management Tips

Time management is how we distribute our time to complete necessary activities. Good time management can allow you to get more done in less time and relieves a lot of stress. But when work responsibilities pile up and deadlines approach, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. We’ve collected the best time management tips to keep you on track – successful and stress-free.

1. Create Goals

Before you begin your day or week, set goals. Take note of tasks that you want to accomplish by a certain date. Goals allow you to see what needs to be done. It’s also important to set achievable goals and make sure they are realistic.

2. Use Time Management Tools

Time management tools exist for a reason – they track work, time, and people or budget. For example, use Toggl to track how much time you spend on each activity. Calendars are immensely helpful to set reminders for meetings and deadlines, or to block off time for focused work.

3. Prioritize

This is the most important among all time management tips. Put the most important tasks as a priority. Just a note, ‘urgent’ is not the same as ‘important’. Make sure tasks with the highest priority get done first. All others you can handle later – when you have the extra time.

4. Establish a Routine

Get into a routine. Try to set specific times to do certain tasks and stick to that time. If you put yourself on a schedule it will be easier to complete your work.

5. Set Time Limits for Tasks

Work and responsibilities can feel like they go on forever and you can easily spend too much time focusing on one task. It is important to set a time limit for a task so you don’t wear yourself out working on a singular project for an extended amount of time. Time limits indicate when it’s time to stop and break or stop and move on.

6. Plan Your Week Before It Starts

If you take the time to plan your week before it starts, it can alleviate some of the stress that you might have during the week. A planned schedule can keep you on time and on task. And once the week starts it is hard to get around to planning when you are already doing the things you are supposedly planning for.

7. Take Advantage of Your Most Productive Times

If you know you are most productive between the hours of 1pm -3pm then that is when you should get down to work. Take advantage of how your body naturally feels and get work done. Most productive times can be used to achieve bulk loads of work.

8. Break Tasks up to Keep from Feeling Overwhelmed

If you have a large project or one with multiple parts, break it down. Separate your tasks and complete them in the order they need to be completed. Small tasks are more achievable than large tasks and small tasks make work more manageable.

9. Take Breaks

Take breaks between tasks or when you feel like you need one. Break prevents burnout and can alleviate stress. Work is important but so is your well-being and breaks are a way to take care of yourself.

10. Try Not to Procrastinate

Work can be daunting but it’s best not to procrastinate. When you procrastinate work doesn’t go away, it just piles up. Putting off work can feel good at the moment but it only leads to a lot of stress later.

11. Use a To-Do List

A to-do list lets you know what needs to be completed for the day. A visualization of your tasks allows you to have a better understanding of what needs to be done. A to-do list also allows you to check tasks off. Whenever we complete a task, our brain releases dopamine – the neurotransmitter responsible for our feelings of accomplishment, satisfaction and happiness. Checking tasks off our to-do list makes us feel good and motivates us to go on and complete more work to get more dopamine and extend the pleasant feeling.

12. Knowing When to Put a Task on Hold or Say No

If you know that you are overwhelmed, learn how to say no or put things on hold. Saying yes to tasks you can’t complete just stresses you out and leads to subpar work. The tasks can always be given to someone else or just be completed when your more pressing priorities are completed.

Work and responsibilities can be overwhelming and stressful. However, having tips and strategies to manage that stress is beneficial. We’ve compiled a list of the best time management tips. You don’t have to use all of them, though. Implementing even one of them in your routine will leave a big impact.

Learn how Simply Flows can help you better manage your time.

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