Moms Network

Working Smart

Launching your own business and becoming an entrepreneur can be a great way to realize your professional ambition, particularly if you want to carve out a flexible career. For working moms, the option to work from home or to adjust your schedule around your kids needs can be invaluable. When you start your own venture, you can ensure that your professional and personal lives complement one another.

Of course, running a business is never easy, which is why it can be helpful to simplify your operations. When you spend less time on the day-to-day management of your firm, for example, you can focus on core activities and business growth. With this in mind, take a look at these four ways to streamline your business management now:

1. Work with Talented People

When you cultivate a talented and reliable team, you’ll feel more comfortable delegating responsibility and be able to trust your workers to complete their tasks satisfactorily. Instead of having to micromanage staff or continually quality check work, you can allow staff to assert their independence and manage their own workloads. Whether you’re hiring in-house employees or working with freelancers, finding talented professionals can transform the way your business runs.

2. Outsource Specific Business Functions

No matter what type of business you run, there will be a range of functions and processes that need to be managed. However, you don’t necessarily have to manage them in-house. When it comes to accounting, IT strategy or marketing, for example, outsourcing can be an effective way to access the specialist services you need while streamlining your business management.

When you work with renowned marketing experts, like merrittgrp.com, you can achieve your goals, increase brand awareness and even boost your marketing ROI while reducing the amount of time you spend managing this area of your business.

3. Use Workflow Management Tools

When you take a strategic approach to workflow management, you can increase your productivity and efficiency but, crucially, you can also manage workers more easily and effectively. By finding the right project management platform for your business, you can ensure that every worker has their own custom dashboard and can access visual updates and forecasts in an instant. This drastically reduces the amount of time you spend managing projects and can increase efficiency throughout the organization.

4. Increase Automation

When business management involves repetitive tasks, such as invoicing or document creation, you can streamline the process by implementing automated solutions. This means you’ll spend less time carrying out managerial tasks, but it also reduces the risk of human error and can increase the quality of your outputs. With a variety of automated solutions now available, it’s easy to find options that match your business needs.

Take a Strategic Approach to Running Your Business

As your business grows, managing every aspect of it can seem overwhelming. With the right strategy, however, you can minimize the amount of work that’s required and even reduce your costs while streamlining the management process. By doing so, you’ll free up your own time, optimize outputs and potentially increase your profitability too.

Man on Computer

Entrepreneurs, professionals, and business owners that relied heavily on in-person networking opportunities are finding themselves faced with a daunting lack of occasions to promote their brand. The reality is that large group meetings and other social events will be postponed for the foreseeable future. Professionals should strive to evolve their networking skills by creating a digital-based networking strategy that’s grounded in an authentic attempt to build relationships and forge mutually beneficial strategic alliances. Reconnecting with your professional vision, and linking your skillset to areas in the current economy that are thriving will help professionals architect a cohesive networking strategy that targets hyper-growth business areas.

The Networking Landscape Has Changed so You Should Too

The current economic conditions that have been ushered in by COVID-19 were brought about by unexpected circumstances that have devastated entire industries. Being able to sort through the mounds of bad news to find the diamonds in the rough will help professionals focus on networking during these uncertain times.

Before jumping into any networking scenario, it’s essential to have a clear roadmap that identifies specific networking strategies, tactics, and tools that map out a possible series of results that would support your vision. Writing a manifesto or creating a vision board can help to paint a clear picture of your goals, and this is an excellent place to make any necessary changes.

Networking involves both nurturing and building. When looking to expand your network, targeting your efforts in the direction of thriving industries will maximize your impact. LinkedIn has compiled a full list of companies that are currently hiring more staff to meet the new demands that the coronavirus pandemic has brought to their doorstep. Industries that are doing massive hiring right now are logistics, supply chain, delivery, gaming, communications, and many more.

The last step that should be taken before launching a new networking strategy is to figure out if and how you need to pivot your products or services to fit areas in the economy that are flourishing. Creating a flowchart that shows how exactly your products or skills can be leveraged as an asset in these industries will help you to take advantage of opportunities that come along.

These Four Tips Will Fuel Your Networking Endeavors During Stay-at-Home Orders

1. Start by Nurturing Your Current Relationships

One big question about networking that’s on everyone’s mind right now is whether or not to explicitly acknowledge the present situation. The short answer is, yes. Checking in with your contacts and simply asking them how they are doing is a great way to start the conversation, and will forge a long-term relationship by showing genuine concern for their health and safety. If the conversation organically calls for the need to offer services or products, you may be able to provide solutions even at a discounted rate, but be careful not to sell. Stay focused on presenting solutions in a spirit of partnership.

2. Video Conferencing is Vital

Video conferencing is the most powerful tool in your networking toolbox, so be sure to study video etiquette since most meetings do (and will continue to) take place on a video conferencing platform such as Zoom. Learning how to navigate video conferencing tools to host webinars, calls, or other mass check-ins fluidly will reflect on your professional skills and allow you to nourish your community of contacts effectively.

Tools like FreeSpeakerBureau.com are free resources that can be used to market your expertise and also contribute to a good cause at this time when people are in need. A more casual approach may involve using tools such as Houseparty to stay connected and host fun events.

3. Harness the Power of Social Media

Social distancing conditions have spiked social media engagement across the board. Now is the perfect time to take advantage of this platform and all other virtual mediums such as email, video chat, live streaming, instant messaging, electronic faxing, and beyond. Social media is also an excellent way to advertise any exclusive products or services that you have to offer. If you’re not sure what to do, look at what other brands are doing to increase exposure without the ability to do live events.

4. Master the Art of Following up

Companies are going through an adjustment period, even if they are doing well, and building new relationships can currently be difficult. Many people may not have the time or wherewithal to entertain new ventures, and rejections could be the result of small businesses or individuals struggling financially. Approaching people in an authentic manner and offering to circle back around when things calm down is appropriate.

Conclusion

Networking during this time of social distancing is still possible. Both people in your network and new connections will be able to see the value of your offerings when you take the time to build relationships that can weather any storm.

Keep Recruiting

COVID-19 has ushered in rapid volatility in the business landscape that companies are now scrambling to address. Fear of the unknown is causing recruiting to come to a complete halt for many businesses across the globe as companies deal with internal needs, and work with Human Resources teams to craft new policies and procedures. Organizations are also struggling to nurture candidates and are looking for best practices in delaying offers or rescinding offers entirely.

The current state of the economy has dumped a surplus of top-notch candidates into the market that will be grabbed by companies with current explosive growth. Businesses can take advantage of hiring candidates that would be difficult to acquire through normal recruiting conditions, and the best time to staff your high-performing team is right now.

Online tools have changed the landscape of recruiting dramatically, and the power spectrum has shifted towards the candidates in many cases because of the rise of recruiting-based social media. Candidates that go through portions of the interview process can still make either a positive or negative impact on your brand in the digital space. Making sure to treat each candidate with respect and communicate actively is one of the most important things that any organization can do to maintain the health of their recruiting brand.

The Hardest Part About Stopping the Recruiting Engine is Restarting

It can take years for companies to build a reliable recruiting brand that is aligned both digitally and in-person with candidates. Maintaining hiring momentum is an uphill battle. Once you stop moving forward, you immediately start to lose traction and begin to move backward. A lack of presence in recruiting circles such as Career Fairs, and even digital groups starts to minimize your overall recruiting brand equity, and potential candidates quickly move to other opportunities.

Nurturing potential candidates during this time and maintaining market presence is essential in keeping your recruiting engine running. If companies do delay or freeze hiring for a short time, recruiting leaders should make sure to check-in with their team members and put together an action plan to ensure that all candidates currently in the pipeline have an active communications cadence. Offering status calls or weekly email updates to prospective candidates is an excellent way to nurture candidates and make your brand stand out. Consider using this time to put new hires through online training while your company rebounds. Being transparent and providing candidates with a short overview of how your company is functioning during this time of volatility can make a big difference, and gives potential candidates insight into your company culture.

Taking down job ads and canceling recruiting activities altogether may not be the best course of action. Building relationships and still taking the time to review resumes is a good way to prepare for a potential influx in staffing needs. Nurturing your candidate pipeline will help recruiting teams to be ready to meet hiring demands when resources are needed.

Urging people to apply for roles is a healthy product of brand behavior in itself that resonates with potential candidates. Adding a note to job descriptions that indicate you are still hiring during this time is also extremely reassuring. Social media is a great way to engage potential candidates, and is also an excellent way for companies to merge corporate brand equity with their recruiting brand.

Companies Have the Option of Leaning on the Gig Economy

There are many different dynamics at play in the current global climate as some companies are doing massive layoffs, and others are in desperate need of staff to meet market demand. A common theme for most companies is the push to meet demands without the responsibility and risk of taking on employees in an unpredictable economic climate. Organizations are looking to the gig economy to support internal teams, and safely offload work to trusted contractors without having to take on the financial risk and responsibilities of full-time employees. The gig economy is the best option for companies in need of staff, and an agile solution that safeguards all parties. Many companies are seeking out Executive Search Firm services as a means to fill these temporary positions. This shortens the process and removes many of the hassles that come with high turnover rates.

Ways to Restructure to Continue Hiring Practices

For service-based industries that have clientele, companies should be proactive in checking in on both the current and future state of projects to allocate resources across their organizations successfully. Condensing bulky teams by moving team members to more active client teams or upskilling other areas that are not as busy are good ways to maximize the members of your team to actively contribute to the growth of your organization.

For example, creating internal research projects that explore business development opportunities is an excellent way to utilize groups that may be waiting for work assignments. Doing pro-bono work can also be a good business development initiative that allows your business to give back to the community while marketing your brand in different circles that you would not ordinarily have access to. This is also a great way to keep teams busy and teach new skills while cultivating innovation during this time.

The CARES Act has provided multiple funding options for businesses such as the Economic Injury Disaster Loan and Advance (EIDL) and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to incentivize companies to maintain their current company populace and help to cover business-related costs. Companies should consider applying for funding to prepare for the unknown, and these programs can help to keep hiring cycles active, safeguard assets, and protect employees.