Being a business owner or manager is a high-pressure job role with equally high levels of responsibility. You are at the top of the ladder and the overall success of a company lies heavily on your shoulders. But don’t worry. You may well think that stress is an inevitable part of your job but you’d be surprised how many of your workplace woes are preventable or relatively simple to rectify.
Stress has so many more detrimental effects on your body than the temporary overwhelming feeling that encapsulates you. It can have truly severe consequences for your general health and well-being. Stress that is left unchecked can affect your mood and behaviour as well as having serious and unexpected physical effects, such as weight loss, weight gain, ulcers and high blood pressure.
Deadlines
Deadlines are an inevitable part of business; they are unavoidable. Everyone wants their goods delivered by a certain date. Remember that when a customer requests a deadline, they most likely have some sort of deadline of their own that they need to meet. When you miss a deadline or are forced to push it back, you’re causing them trouble of their own. They are unlikely to use your services again due to the inconvenience that they will experience.
Chances are that they’ll also let others know by leaving bad reviews and recommending competitor brands whose service is more reliable. So, if you do end up missing a deadline not only do you have the stress of having to catch up on a deadline but on top of that you’ll have the extra stress of lost customers and attempting to save your brand’s reputation and public image.
Now, if we were to say that the majority of problems that lead to missed deadlines could be avoided, what would you say? Most problems are caused by tech errors such as malfunctioning equipment, loss of essential data and last minute unexpected reboots. Many would argue that these are just a part of life and cannot be anticipated or stopped. But this isn’t quite true. Many problems can, in fact, be brought to a halt before they even arise. Others may happen but can be dealt with quickly and effectively, seeing production and work back on track in time to meet your clients’ deadlines.
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Start projects sooner rather than later
This is common sense, but so many people still ignore this simple piece of wisdom. Start your projects as soon as possible, rather than waiting until you have just enough time to complete them. This allows you much more time to handle problems, reducing stress.
Completing projects early is a liberating experience and gives you time to properly contemplate your next project before rushing into it. This will improve the overall quality of your work as well as reducing stress levels which will skyrocket if you constantly take on one project after another.
Communicate effectively
If a project turns out to be complex or difficult than originally expected, make sure that you communicate this with your client or customer. By notifying them sooner rather than later, you’ll allow them to alter their own deadlines and chances are that they’ll be fine with pushing the original deadline back.
This is much more effective and professional than burying your head in the sand and stressing yourself out last minute as you struggle to reach impossible or difficult deadlines. Your client will also be more understanding than if you were to simply miss the deadline without warning.
Outsourcing
If you own or manage a business, you can feel that you must carry out every single task at hand yourself. But don’t place so much responsibility on yourself: remember that you are just one person. It may be beneficial to outsource certain areas or aspects of your company’s workload. There are various benefits of doing this.
Firstly, you don’t have to spend as much time training yourself up to control certain specialist areas of work. Instead, you can simply hand the necessary tasks over to someone with more knowledge and experience in the specific field. This means that the job will be finished to a higher standard and you don’t have to worry about getting through an excessive workload on top of self-education or training.
Secondly, it’s relatively cheap. If you take on full-time in-house staff to complete certain jobs, you add a whole new weight of responsibility to your shoulders. You have to draw up contracts, sort others’ taxes and maintain a contented staff base. By outsourcing, you engage with other self-employed professionals on a more casual basis. You don’t have to organise holiday or sick pay, create rotas or provide ongoing work. Here are a few areas that you might like to start outsourcing for your own peace of mind.
Information technology
IT is at the centre of your business practice: it’s how we engage with customers, how we advertise and how we expose our brand to the world. That’s just to name a few areas. However, most of the workload in regards to maintaining this area is relatively routine. It most often proves much more productive for a business owner or manager to outsource this work, allowing them to focus their attention on other more creative areas such as overseeing product development, marketing campaigns and ensuring high-level customer service.
Make use of independent IT solutions. These companies will provide you with all of the tech support you could possibly need to ensure that everything is running smoothly with as few hiccups as possible. If errors or problems do occur, they will have your systems back up and be running perfectly in as little time as possible.
Accounting
If numbers and figures aren’t your forte, chances are that just the thought of dealing with your company’s accounts is enough to send a shiver down your spine. So save yourself the hassle and aggravation by working with an independent accountant. Not only will this take the responsibility out of your own hands, but a trained and qualified accountant will be able to reduce your business’ expenses and costs dramatically.
They can give you insight into your business’ excess outgoings, and a better outlook on your company finances. This will allow you to spend cash in other areas to make your life even easier. Perfect! What’s more? It saves you time taking short accountancy courses alongside the rest of your work. This frees up time and reduces your overall responsibility when it comes to managing money.
Marketing
Independent workers who specialise in marketing can take the responsibility of marketing campaigns and activities out of your hands. Will you oversee the process, ensuring that the end result is everything you envisioned, they will sort out all of the administrative aspects of the process.
This will save you waiting on hold to venues, arranging displays, selecting appropriate promotional staff and all of the other necessary aspects that are necessary for a successful and profitable campaign. It will also allow you to focus on the more fun parts, such as choosing decoration, mood boarding and planning activities for the event.
Following these simple yet effective steps will ensure that both you and your customers are contented and happy. This will ensure that you experience as little stress as possible in the workplace, leading to a more relaxed, positive, happy and healthy lifestyle. Perfect![/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]