Category: Startups

No matter how hard we try sometimes, we just can’t seem to find enough time to handle all of our work-related and personal responsibilities throughout the day.

Distractions are running rampant in our society with the advent of email, smart phones, social media, and so many other technological advances that seem to suck up our time.

If it’s not one distraction vying for our attention it’s another.

You’re probably tired of your phone and text messages coming in at all hours of the day and night. Are clients always emailing looking for status updates?

It’s time to learn how to navigate these major distractions. But how do we do it?

This isn’t going to be easy, but you can learn how to focus, get in the zone, and eliminate distractions so that you can stay there when you need to be productive the most.

How to Use Time Blocking to Get in the Zone

At regular intervals in our lives, we have these large lists of responsibilities that we have to accomplish. And no matter how hard we try, we never seem to make a dent in them. The responsibilities keep piling on and there is never enough time to get everything done.

Or is there?

Maybe you just aren’t using your time wisely. Maybe, if you focused on a concept called time blocking, and eliminated your biggest distractions for a short while during the allotted blocks of time, you’d have an easier time completing projects on your to-do list.

What is time blocking and how does it work?

First off, add everything on to-do list to your favorite digital calendar, an online time clock like Clockspot, or put it in a physical date book if you prefer to have a hard copy.

By doing this, you will have allotted a specific date and time to complete each one of your most important action items on your list. Make sure you’ve blocked off enough time to complete each specific item.

Why schedule my to-do list on my calendar?

By putting it on your calendar, you’ll realize in your subconscious that these tasks are important enough to schedule them. So you will take them seriously and work on them in a focused, less distracted manner.

If you truly want to enter the zone and accomplish amazing things in very little time, you’ll avoid your biggest distractors and begin working on your calendar full of important tasks without any interruptions.

Work on the Tasks That Are Most Important First

As you look over your to-do list, there’s no doubt that a few key, important tasks are going to immediately jump out at you.

Everyone’s list has things that they want to get done and things that they absolutely have to get completed, no if’s, and’s, or buts about it.

As an example, let’s say you need to set up a crowdfunding campaign. You’re using the site to raise money for a vacation that you desperately need to relax, unwind, and regroup.

Since this is such a big priority in your life right now, you should add to this task to your calendar first. That way you’ll be able to focus on it immediately.

When you work on your most important tasks quickly, you’ll feel a lot less stress because you’ve eliminated these challenges from your to-do list.

Plus, you’ll even have more time available to take care of the less important items on your list. Or you can just kick up your feet and take a break for a little while because you deserve it!

Everybody’s talking about running a results-driven business. What does this mean?

A results-driven business is one that focuses its operations on what its customers want and not what it wants to provide.

If you’re putting up an online clothing boutique, you should determine the types of apparel your target customers look for, their preferred payment method and other add-on services that suit them. By focusing on customer-centric results, you’ll have less abandoned carts and achieve greater success.

What if your customers don’t know the results they look for in a business?

This is where you venture into a process of discovery. Discovery should not be a one-way journey. It doesn’t need to end upon reaching a predetermined destination because there may be external factors that can change one’s goal.

A decade ago, businesses would set a team planning to map out their 5- and 10-year plans. Their milestones would predict future results based on current performance and economic factors.

However, technology changed this mindset. What is trending today is old news next week. Customers’ demand change more rapidly today, thus you should always be on a discovery venture.

As you discover your customers’ changing definition of the results they want from your business, there’s one concept you should embrace: innovation.

Innovation can mean differences among businesses. It can be a simple progression such as introducing mobile payments or a major improvement like migrating to full automation. “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results has never been a blueprint for success in any walk of life, which is why business leaders the world over are increasingly viewing innovation as the true key to competing effectively,” Jyoti lalchandani, regional managing director at International Data Corporation (IDC) shared in Gulf News.

The innovation game is a results-driven business.

Samsung transformed from a modest trading company to the world’s second-largest IT company because it progressed with the changing times, delivering the results their customers want.

The Japanese clothing company Uniqlo did not become one the world’s largest apparel makers overnight. It reinvented over the years depending on the changing fashion and clothing needs of its customers. From being a local operator of men’s clothing shops, Uniqlo now boasts of more than 1,900 stores worldwide.

What do Samsung, Uniqlo and other global brands have in common? They won, and are continuously winning the innovation game.

Keeping your edge with digital marketing

Running a business in the digital age has its positive and negative points. A small retailer can reach out to its target customers using the same digital platforms as global brands use.

Brands can maintain a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram without spending a fortune. Technology has somehow helped democratize marketing.

However, this has made the competition more grueling among market players. With countless businesses vying for customers’ attention, how do you stand out from the rest? How do you make your target market listen to your message and try out your offerings? This is where an effective digital marketing strategy comes into play.

Digital marketing is not only about maintaining social media presence. The Financial Times defines digital marketing as “the marketing of products or services using digital channels to reach consumers.”

These channels include websites, social media, online advertising, search engines, and mobile phones. With 50 percent of the global population using the Internet and more than 66 percent own a mobile phone, the importance of digital marketing is undeniable.

Identifying your best prospects with marketing campaign optimization

Digital marketing, if wielded correctly, can be the single most powerful marketing tool for your business. It can help you in your conquest to understand what your customers want and deliver these accordingly.

A bookstore can offer a satisfying online shopping experience via a mobile app that provides title suggestions based on the shopper’s recent searches or purchases.

A beauty salon can use e-mail updates to send out discount cards and other promos to its patrons.

Many companies use online surveys to gather customer feedback and social media campaigns to “get a feel” of the market before launching a new product or service. These tactics can be done with marketing campaign optimization.

Marketing campaign optimization involves the matching of the right offers to a certain set of customers over a specific channel at a given time. Each offer uses a predictive model that produces a score when a customer record is entered into the model. The score depends on the goal of the offer. It can be the probability that the customer will respond favorably to the offer or the expected sale from the customer.

A campaign optimization will allow you to identify the best prospects for your products and services.

The power of data in marketing

How does marketing campaign optimization work?

Start with collating data and analyzing your customer information. By knowing what a certain set of customers want, or the results they want from you, you can match them with a certain offer and optimize the same.

You can then use digital marketing tactics to reach out to a specific market segment using the most effective platform at the right time.

Let’s say you’re a financial company offering two types of investment products:
(1) a fund invested in listed stocks of large tech companies and
(2) a fund comprising of sovereign bonds in emerging markets.

What type of data do you need?

First, the profile of your customers (age, sex, status, etc.) Then, find out their risk appetite based on their holdings. Finally, determine, if you can, their investment horizon. Generally, Fund No. 1 will likely appeal to young and cash-rich investors who can tolerate risk, while Fund No. 2 will suit investors with a shorter investment horizon and low-risk aversion.

With this information, you can create a digital marketing strategy on how to deliver your message to these two sets of customers. What digital assets appeal to them and how do they consume these? When are they in the market for an investment product, etc.?

Running a results-driven business is focusing your operations on what your customers want. If they don’t know what they’re looking for, embark on a journey of discovery with them.

You can do this using tools and platforms you both understand. You can run online surveys, social media polls or present offers that match a customer’s recent searches. Innovate along the way.

You may discover that certain group of customers would prefer dealing with cryptocurrency instead of more traditional currencies. Use the information you gather to develop innovations, create quality digital marketing assets and optimize your marketing initiatives.

The Times Are Definitely Changing

Oxford thinks the internet is going to replace traditional real estate agents with AI solutions in the near future. If you work in this industry, watch out. If you’re looking to get the best deals on property, well, then you may actually be in luck. Still, faceless tech can’t give you the “buddy deal” of your real estate broker friend; but he’s likely scraping a little off the top for himself, if you’re being honest—so maybe this is a good thing!

All kidding aside, from inside and outside the real estate agency, it makes sense to get an understanding of that which defines modern real estate. In a word: it’s the internet. Organizations like Rentec Direct offer: “The highest rated and easiest to learn property management software [and it] includes free US-based support.” Inherent in the software is internet utility.

Solutions like this are especially tenable for those who are managing multiple properties. The internet and technology, in general, are acting as a middle-man eliminating agent. Ignoring this reality is a great way to lose money and face a bevy of otherwise avoidable struggles.

Yet there is this interesting facet of life: when one door closes, another door opens. Even though certain industries are being replaced by the technology of one kind or another, new ones are coming in to counterbalance this shift. Look at smartphones, as a for instance. Everybody’s got one, but so many users require requisite coverage.

Identifying A Need And Capitalizing From It

Requisite coverage requires infrastructure. It turns out that cellphone towers need to be installed in multiple areas, and in increasing numbers, for big-time communications companies to properly serve their target markets. It also turns out that, strategically, not all areas where a tower needs to go are on public or otherwise easily-accessible land.

With this in mind, many savvy property owners are looking into cell tower rates; according to the link: “New Verizon cell tower lease agreements typically come in two flavors: construction of a new tower or by adding small cell equipment or antennas to your building. If you are a property owner, they want to see if you are interested in leasing your property for the construction of a cell tower.”

You may get contacted by individuals working with cellular agencies like Verizon who are looking to establish better area coverage for their networks. You may also use the internet to search out and identify strategic areas of necessary coverage. All you really need to do is look up a coverage map and see if you have any properties in areas that will need expansion.

It also makes sense to know community trends. Sometimes one area of the community is set to expand one direction, sometimes another area will remain as static as it has been for a few decades to come. You need to know where your community leaders are taking your municipality in order to have the greatest leverage when dealing with cellular providers. This can help you achieve a leasing arrangement which is appropriate to the value you bring.

Rental Considerations

Another way technology is changing property is in terms of rental. If you own a home or building, you can set up an Airbnb account so that travelers can rent the space out under a “micro” lease, or what’s known as subletting. Sometimes they’ll come in for a day, sometimes for a month. If you own an apartment, you can rent it out.

As a property owner, you’re going to have renters in your building who sublet. That means you’re charging them rent, and they’re charging somebody else rent. You’ve vetted the lessee, but you haven’t vetted those they’re bringing in on the sly. While if you own property this can be a great way to maximize it through technology, if you’re renting to lessees, you may also see them put your property at risk through their exploits.

Thankfully, when one door closes, another door opens. There are now agencies which monitor certain sublet websites which potentially undermine property owners. One organization, Sublet Alert, points out: “As a landlord or property manager, your first priority is to provide a safe and comfortable environment for your tenants. At SubletAlert.com, we monitor Airbnb daily. If we find a tenant illegally subletting one of your properties, we’ll quickly notify you…”

Land Considerations

There are millennial property owners today who only actually own land. It may or may not even have a building on it—the land is a place to park a motorhome. Now, many communities have put certain legal arrangements into play which ban this kind of living; but it is on the increase, and there are places where it flourishes.

If you’re in property management now, you may want to look into branching out into its purest form: land itself. With the internet, people can live comfortably wherever they can park legally. Online jobs and motorhomes make it possible to comfortably travel as a lucrative nomad. In fact, this can be done cheaper than apartments in Springfield living in most places.

People have grown wise to the trend, and are following through on it. But the question becomes: what is there to do when the road turns blue? Eventually, roots have to be put down if only for a few months.

Sustainable technologies and off-grid living are also encouraging this land acquisition trend. If you’re an owner of property on what was a ranch or farm, but for whatever reason no longer functions in this capacity, you might divvy it up and sell it to people, or even lease it out to cell companies.

Knowing The Times

If you’re renting to people on your property, you can keep them from subleasing through online alert solutions. You can add cell tower equipment as well, and maybe even install a cellular tower. If you’ve got multiple properties, you can manage them online as well.

That’s quite a suite of real estate management solutions, and anyone in real estate should become familiar with these as even more applications are out there and will develop as time goes by.