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Small Business

Apr 23
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3 Things Business Owners Need to Stop Doing in Order to Grow in 2021

By Leadership, People, Sales, Small Business, Success Stories No Comments

Today’s post is going to be a little bit more focused on three quick talking points for small business owners and entrepreneurs. But hopefully everyone can get a little bit of value from this. 

These are three things that every small business owner needs to give up in order to grow in 2021. These are three things that I have given up or are trying to give up each and every day, and we’ve seen the positive benefits from it. I speak from personal experience. 

Catch Up Calls

You’ve got to give up these spontaneous calls, texts and catching up type meetings. I’m not saying all of them, but what you have to realize is that as a small business owner, your time is the most valuable. You just have to accept that fact. With that understanding in mind, it puts everything into more perspective. 

There’s a lot of pet peeves that I have with some communication that goes on. Even little things. I might offend several people that are reading this post. For example, my voicemail says if it’s an emergency, please leave me a voicemail. If it’s not, please email me and I will get back to you at my earliest convenience. I am shocked to this very day how many people listen to that voicemail and leave me a voicemail. It’s amazing. I will listen to the voicemail. And of course, 99% of these calls are not emergencies. 

It goes to show it’s not a personal thing. I know they’re not out to get me. No one’s doing this on purpose. I think there’s very few people out there that are trying to waste other people’s time. 

I remember there was a colleague of mine who once made a joke, but I took it seriously. He said, you know, you should only take revenue generating calls. And I was like, oh, that’s interesting. Let me actually try that, put that into practice. For a period of about a month and a half, all phone calls, emails, even text messages where people were just asking me for stuff such as, hey, can you do this? Hey, I can do that? What do you think about this? Let’s chat about this, I gave him a short, respectful response. I would say, hey, sorry but for right now, I’m really only focused on revenue generating projects. I was shocked at how little pushback I got from that.

I was also shocked at how it often turned several conversations into really awesome collaborative conversations later down the road. I didn’t have time, but it was just amazing to me to show that if you really do put your foot down, value your time, and show that to others, for the most part, people are going to respect that. You’re going to get a lot more done and you’re going to feel less of this external pressure throughout your workday. You have to put your business and your team first or you will be taken advantage of. It’s just the way things go. 

Long Meetings

The second thing you have to give up in order to grow in 2021: long meetings. And I would add meetings in general. I’m bad at this. I’ll admit this right now, but we’ve gotten a lot better at Big Red Jelly. I think people are stuck in these patterns of having meetings like either daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually and here at Big Red Jelly. 

We’ve got certain team meetings that we have every other week. We found that very, very effective. These are 30 minute meetings within our specific smaller teams. They’re thirty minutes long and they’re every other week. We found that pattern or sequence was the most efficient. Every week felt a little unnecessary for us and every month didn’t feel like we were collaborating or meeting enough.

Feel free to get creative. You don’t have to pick one of these daily, weekly, monthly, maybe try something that really works for your team or that particular process at hand. 

Micromanaging

The last thing you have to give up in order to grow in 2021 is micromanaging. This is on so many different levels. Some of my previous videos and posts, I talk a lot about relinquishing control of some of the technical work. That’s something I have a hard time with if there’s a web design project, branding project, or just a marketing project. I really like getting into that project and working on the actual project, trusting your team, trusting your employees and creating processes. Working on the tools instead of in the tools. 

That’s what is ultimately going to help you develop these processes so that your team can become more autonomous and your business can grow. In that weird, paradoxical way, you have to do less technical work in order for your business to grow. It sounds backwards, but I have learned that lesson the hard way. 

Those are my three points. You’ve got to give up these spontaneous calls and meet ups, you’ve got to give up long meetings and you’ve got to give up micromanaging or spending too much time on the actual technical work in order to grow. Three things that I’m constantly working on. But I’ve seen the benefits of doing that. Hopefully you’ve found value from these three points.

Apr 16
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Common Website Tips and Tricks to Help Your Business Grow

By Sales, Small Business, Technology, Website No Comments

What we’re going to go over are some very common mistakes that we see when we’re reviewing a client website and some of the things that we like to always suggest to most businesses. 

Call to Action Page

Firstly, online tools or common practices that we like to implement on a website is giving clients or customers the option to contact you or do business with you, get a quote, or schedule a consultation through several different options. We know that this can be different depending on your industry and how you prefer to be contacted. But generally speaking, when we’re looking at small, local, even mid-sized businesses and we look at their call to action page, contact page, or their consultation page, we’re always pretty shocked at just how much missing information there is. There might be just a contact form, but there’s no phone number when they definitely should. have a phone number. 

As you can see here on this website, College Planning Institute (CollegePlanningInstitute.com), what we’ve done is we’ve got two columns here on the “Schedule Free Consultation” page. As you can see within the same frame, there are several ways that you could get started. If you’re more in exploration mode or just looking for a quote, then you might complete the form. It’s not going to be as time sensitive. It’s going to submit the info and their responsibility is to reach out to me. That’s a much more passive approach. 

But as you can see above, the email and phone number is also listed. Both of these are linked. So if you click on this, it will call the phone number on my phone. We see this mistake a lot with small business websites where they have just the text for the phone number and it’s not a button or it’s not linked. Have you ever tried to copy a phone number using your thumb on a mobile phone while you’re in a meeting or talking or driving? It is horrible. So make sure that it’s mobile, responsive. They can tap it and get in touch with you right away. 

But why not skip all of this? If you know you want to get started and you want to take advantage of the free consultation, just go ahead and schedule with them?

Calendly

Use a tool like Calendly, for example. Calendly is great. We have used Calendly for years because there’s a great free version and there’s a lot of fun stuff you can do with it. We have other videos and blogs about how to set up and use Calendly. As you can see here, you can customize it as well. It syncs with your calendar, so it’s only going to show times that you are available. If you go and edit my calendar and I’m blocked off Thursday for a doctor’s appointment and I use Calendly, it’s not going to have those time slots available for my customers or clients. 

We’re shocked that more business owners are not taking advantage of these real time synched calendars. They save so much time. They’re going to help you get more leads. They’re going to help you get more business.

I can tell you from personal experience, we went through our Big Red Jelly website and we started putting in embedded calendars using HubSpot, or CRM, very similar to Calendly. And right after we did that and we put those calendars on our call to action pages, we saw a significant, measurable difference in scheduled calls from real people who wanted real advice. 

Relevant Home Page

This is WaytoMoab.com, a website for an amazing tour guide company. One of the things that we like about their site is this little banner at the bottom, “Booking Now for the 2021 Season,” even though it seems minor looking. Point number two is try to have something that’s time or season relevant on your home page. 

A lot of people will design a website or digital platform and say, boom, it’s done. Maybe I’ll refresh it five years from now. The home page is probably going to be one of your most visited pages. You should have a promo, discount, something that’s seasonal, something that’s relevant. It shows that your business is updating your website consistently. It’s growing. It’s changing. It keeps up to date. 

As human beings, generally, we have a hard time thinking far ahead in the future. If you are an e-commerce brand, there should be a banner there or something there that says 25 percent off until the end of this month. There’s a price and a time incentive. 

So think to yourself, what’s a banner coupon, discount, an event, something relevant that can be added to your home page and something that you can update on a monthly basis. You will see results from something as small as that. 

Testimonials

This is something we see again and again with local businesses. They don’t have any testimonials or reviews listed on their website–at least nowhere really easy to find. What a lot of people do is they will have a page where they dump all their testimonials. Or they’ve just got one section where they’ve got testimonials and then nowhere else. 

Here on this website (triedntruecoaching.com), there’s actually testimonials on several pages. Above is an example of a carousel on the homepage with some testimonials. Even though these are static testimonials right now, just that cherry on top, adding validation onto all the information that was digested before is priceless. 

Don’t be afraid to strategically place single testimonials throughout your site. Small business owners do that nearly enough, especially if that testimonial is relevant to the information that it’s next to. 

Let’s say you have a bio about you on a team page. You might have a testimonial from a client that says it was great working with you. It adds validation to the information that someone just digested by visiting your website. Do not be afraid to be strategic with your testimonials, your reviews, your case studies. Use them as a tool to add validity to information on your website. 

Live Chat

Second to last point is just some very basic but easy to set up tools like this OnPoint website that we built (OnPointavl.com). As you can see here in the bottom right hand corner, this is a live chat plugin using the Zoho CRM, which was their preferred CRM. It’s like a sales software. This is a live chat tool when someone on their team is online, this will give a little green light. It will show that someone is online and when they’re not. It turns into a really easy to find contact for these tools.

There’s so much you can do and it can feel like you have an additional mini me who’s doing this work on your website while you’re asleep or while away. Think about a CRM, live chat, chat bot, or a combination of the two. Really leverage your time a little bit better by using these tools. We have other videos and posts about tools like Live Chat Chat, 

Secondary Call to Action

Let’s go to this website here. Get in the Cashflow Game (GetintheCashFlowGame.com). Very fun brand, very fun website that we made a while ago. 

Something we don’t see a lot of business owners do very well is offering kind of secondary calls to action or other pieces of value or content. As you can see here, decently, far down the homepage for this website, there’s kind of this secondary call to action, which is getting a free video course. A lot of people say, well, I want people to call me, I want leads. I want them to fill out my form. That’s your primary call to action. But are there other things that you could provide for the majority of your website, visitors who aren’t ready to pull the trigger and do business with you right now? 

We challenge you to maybe think about. What’s something of value you can offer that you’re not going to require anyone to pay you? What would be of great value content to share with future customers that might warm them up to do business with me in the future?

This is applicable to just about every industry out there. So as you can see here, this is a video course, a little bit more complex. If you were to fill out this form, it sends you an email sequence with videos and once per week each email comes with a new video. It’s really cool and really engaging. 

It’s always helpful to have a secondary call to action on your website. You’d be surprised how many people would take advantage of that. 

There are some tips and tricks for some common things we like to implement in websites and online business strategies for most of our clients. Hopefully you found one or two of these to be helpful for you. 

And don’t forget, you can go to bigredjelly.com/comeback and download the free guide to read about more of these points or schedule a free consultation with our team. 

Let’s get to work and do something fun together.

Apr 15
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Meet Our Small Business Neighbors: How Local Businesses Are Making a Comeback in 2021

By People, Small Business, Success Stories No Comments

Many businesses took a hit last year, in 2020, when Covid-19 spread both germs and lock-downs over the globe. They were forced to close their doors, losing customers and revenue. But there is a bright and shining hope for business to make a comeback in 2021! We want to share a few success stories with you!

Home Grid Energy

Home Grid Energy installs battery systems in homes that are chargeable by solar. This battery not only sources lights and fridges but can power all home energy.

When Home Grid Energy began marketing and sales efforts in November 2020, the team faced difficulty closing deals. They contacted solar companies, but it was challenging to build trust when there was no face-to-face contact. This slowed their potential for growth.

As lockdowns have ended in 2021, Home Grid Energy is able to visit solar companies in person and shake hands with them. This has made a night and day difference. Steven, the Marketing Director at Home Gird Energy explains that “Putting a face to our company makes others more eager to believe that it is legitimate.” They are picking up the pace for growth as things are opening back up. They plan to open up Hawaii, Texas, and California markets this year! This growth is also made possible due to the cheaper costs for housing and travel. Business travel is more affordable which makes their budget go further.

Home Grid Energy capitalized on an issue that arose from the pandemic. Energy consumption definitely went up in 2020 and is still on that rise as families continue to work and attend school from home. Additionally, the recent calamities, such as the power crisis in Texas, generated motivation to become more self-reliant this year. Families are more interested in sustainability through solar battery energy in their homes. 

Home Grid Energy is making a comeback this year as they expand their markets and provide a solution to the current energy issues!

Set Fire Creative

Set Fire Creative is a digital marketing company located in Orem, Utah. Their goal is to help give a voice to businesses that cannot find their own. 

In 2020, when various businesses had to lock down and say goodbye to customers, they also had to say goodbye to the digital marketing team at Set Fire Creative. McCain, VP of Client Services explains that “It is interesting being a digital marketing company that helps other companies grow, because when the pandemic hit and all these companies and industries were affected, that in turn affected [Set Fire Creative].”

In March, there was one specific day when Set Fire Creative received a plethora of calls from clients telling them that they had to shut down and needed to pause their contract. On the other hand, eCommerce clients turned to Set Fire Creative for guidance. The team predicted that people would be shopping online more than ever before– and they were right! Their eCommerce clients thrived during the pandemic and their mom & pop clients saw the need to go digital. 

Because of this, Set Fire Creative launched a new product at the beginning of 2021. The new Business Validation Process helps new companies establish their key audience and assess public interest in buying the proposed product. The pandemic taught both Set Fire Creative and their clients that successful businesses take time to develop and require research to back up business decisions. 

Set Fire Creative had an outward focus during the pandemic. It did its best to help other businesses stay alive through partnerships, outreach, and its marketing services. That kind of mindset comes back around– the more you give, the more you receive. Set Fire Creative continues to add value to its services to help other businesses grow. Along with its new Business Validation process, Set Fire Creative is making its 2021 comeback while helping others do the same. 

Big Red Jelly 

During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, many Big Red Jelly clients were losing customers and struggling to keep their businesses alive. This resulted in a lack of revenue and Big Red Jelly lost many of their clients. 

However, Big Red Jelly didn’t let setbacks like these define us. Rather we doubled our efforts by choosing to focus on what we are best at – web design! We also created many strategic partners with other local digital marketing companies and have come back stronger than ever. 

By emphasizing the importance of online business and offering discounts, Big Red Jelly is growing clientele and making our own comeback this year. In March, we launched our new website digital.bigredjelly.com which offers domain name registration, website hosting, and website security in addition to the branding and growth services offered on our other website.

The year 2021, has become a bright and shining hope for the future. This is the year for small businesses to make a comeback– including Big Red Jelly. Noticing the issues that many small businesses need to overcome this year, Big Red Jelly is doubling our efforts to help their partners and clients come back stronger than before. 

We Can Help You Make a Comeback Too

Big Red Jelly is here to help your business get back on its feet and accelerate growth this year. We focus on three key concepts: brand, build, and grow. We can help captivate your audience and increase conversion rate through a well-developed, recognizable brand. We will set up your business with world-class digital tools and a website that will drive measurable success. And we will provide dedicated support, strategy and implementation to help your business grow.

Having a digital presence is critical to building your business, and we are ready to help you understand how and why. We have created a 2021 Small Business Comeback Guide. This is a free eBook designed to help small businesses come back bigger and better this year. You can download the free PDF guide here. If you are intrigued, or if you have any questions, schedule a free consultation with our team. There really are no strings attached. Our sixth sense is telling us that this is the year that small and local businesses will make their comebacks and we just want to help you make that happen.

Schedule a free consultation with one of our team members, to talk more about how we can help you make a comeback in 2021.

Schedule a free consultation
Apr 02
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The First 5 Steps to Take When Launching Your Business into the Digital World

By SEO, Small Business, Social Media, Technology No Comments

What we’re going to talk about today is a question that we get a lot with small and local businesses that are trying to make a comeback in 2021. After what was a rather rough year being 2020, how do I launch my business into the online world? There are five key steps for any business to take when they feel like (1) I need to get into the online world, or (2) I need to be better at doing business online. 

If you are a brick-and-mortar store and you have not yet really thought about how you could do better business online, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, this post is for you. If you’re a business that does all of your business online or you’ve already been doing it for several years, this post is still applicable to you. 

So here are five steps that we say to any business before they launch into the digital universe. 

Get Your Domain 

Step number one seems obvious, but it’s important to get your domain. So what is a domain? For example, www.BigRedJelly.com, or your URL. It is your identity on the internet. There is only one of those. There’s only one BigRedJelly.com. When you buy your domain, you have now reserved that turf on the Internet. It is priceless. If you are thinking about going into doing business online or you’re saying, gee, I’ve been meaning to get a website or I might want a website in the future, first things first, go get a domain. 

They’re not that expensive. Most domains can vary anywhere from $15 to $25 a year. It usually depends on if it’s a common name. If you’re to go look for a domain that’s thebusinessattorney.com, that’s probably going to be thousands of dollars. You have to get creative with it. But most unique domains are very cheap. People are often shocked, they say, “wait a second, this isn’t per month? This is per year?” That’s right. It should only be a couple of bucks a month. 

You can go to digital.bigredjelly.com to find your perfect domain name. It’ll tell you if it’s available or not. It will also show you some variations of your searched domain. The .com might be taken, but the .co might be available or the .org. We recommend looking into that, though. If the .com is taken, it might be from a competitor. It might be worth thinking of a different name. This is a great tool to be able to show you what is available. Right from there, you can select the domain of your liking, register the domain and you’re good to go. 

Set Up Communication Channels

Moving on to number two. Once you’ve got your domain, go set up your communication channels correctly. We understand that it might be a little overwhelming at first, but once you have your domain, you can sign up for or set up a business email or online storage. For example, instead of joshbigredjelly@gmail.com, it’s just josh@bigredjelly.com. It really does make your email look that much more professional. 

When we get business emails, inquiries, or someone wants to do business with us, and it’s still @gmail or @yahoo, it’s a real quick indicator that their business probably isn’t big. It may seem minor, but it is important. 

We recommend setting up a business phone number as well. We see a lot of small business owners that are still using their mobile phone number. Here’s why that’s an issue: When you inevitably change to a business phone, such as when you add people to your team and you can’t just keep using your mobile phone number forever, you’ll have to switch to a new phone number. If it’s been several years that you’ve been using your mobile phone number and then you switch to a different phone number, your CEO is going to take a hit and you’re going to have to reprint and redesign so many more assets. So why not go get a business phone number now if you’re serious about your business?. 

We recommend tools like Google Voice where they used to have a free version. It’s unique to you. It’s one of the first things we did when we set up Big Red Jelly. We knew we didn’t want to use personal phone numbers. We wanted to look a little bit more professional. So we got a Google Voice number and then I just had to go forward to our personal phone numbers until our team grew. It’s very easy to do. There’s a lot of alternatives out there as well. 

Control Your Brand

Once you have your domain, your communication channels are set up, take some time and control your brand.. This goes back to number one. Improve your brand and take control of it. 

We can’t tell you how much of an effect it has when your email signature, website, business cards, logo, business email, business phone number, even a shirt with your logo on it, all communicate your brand. These little details really add to your brand story. They add to your brand loyalty, they make you stand out and people will inevitably take you more seriously and want to do business with you. 

That’s when you can hire someone like Big Red Jelly, for example, or anyone for that matter, to help you design a logo, get a brand style guide. What’s your messaging? What are your dos and don’ts, your colors, your typography, those types of things. Figure that stuff out early so you have consistent marketing and advertising going forward.

Build Your Website

Our favorite topic or one of our favorite topics: website. Go in and get your website created. We’re not saying you have to hire an expert right out of the gate. You can use really easy, affordable website builders like Wix or Squarespace, for example. They are very easy drag-and-drop websites. 

If you’re a little bit more skilled, you may use WordPress or Shopify. There’s a lot of really great tools and platforms out there. But when you are ready, we do recommend reaching out to an expert or a team like Big Red Jelly and having a professional design and build your website. It really can take your business to the next level.  

Once those steps are done, you might say, I’ve got my domain, I’ve got my email and phone number set up, my brand, overall, I’m pretty happy with it. My website is done. Now what? 

People sometimes will jump straight into the marketing and advertising, but there’s a half a step that a lot of people forget once you have these things done. In other words, your business information is complete. Your brand is there. It looks nice. Your website is done. Now, it’s time to list and manage your business. So, for example, if you have a restaurant, you’ve got a domain, communications, brand, and website done, now you should list your business and manage those listings. We recommend for all small business owners that you manage your listings for a while.

So what we mean by listings? If you’re a restaurant, number one thing you should do is get listed on Google My Business It’s your Google listing. It makes you show up on Google Maps, Google Search, local search, and where you manage your reviews. You add your phone number and website link. People can talk about you, people can message you, they can see posts, and so on. 

Get listed on Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Yelp, and get listed on maybe some other platforms that would be important for your industry. But if you’re a restaurant owner, we would say the top four to be listed on are definitely Google My Business, Facebook, Yelp, and Instagram, probably in that order. 

Once they’re listed there now, you can go through and add your professional information. Email, phone number, short description logo, that’s all been done. Your brand is on point. Now you have your website and all of these major listings or marketplaces where the people are now. It’s time to just manage those listings. 

Right now, each one’s different. Managing your Facebook listing is managing your Facebook page or posting, sharing reviews, etc. but also managing your Google my business listing. This enables you to do a couple of things. Number one, you get to better understand how these platforms work. And number two, it will give you really key insights into who your customers are and how your business should perform online so that when you are ready to start running ads or do marketing or hire an agency, you’ve already got a fundamental understanding of how these platforms work. 

When you’ve gone through all of these steps, your domain, communications, brand, and website, it’s time to start listing your business on some really important marketplaces, make sure they look accurate, make sure they’re updated. If you already have your business listed, now’s a great time to go through and do a little bit of a refresh. It’s important for the business owner or a manager to go out and actually list the business on these platforms, get used to managing them for a while, just posting now and then, sharing updates, and so on. Then you can start to market and advertise. 

To review the five steps, get a domain, set up your business communications, control your brand, build your website and then the list and manage your business on your own, at least for a short period. 

Don’t forget to go to BigRedJelly.com/Comeback to download the free guide and you can read about all of these points in more detail and then you can schedule a free consultation with us. Thank you.

Mar 15
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The Small Business Comeback Guide for 2021

By Marketing, Small Business, Technology, Website No Comments
Here at Big Red Jelly, where we help brand, build, and grow your business by combining powerful digital tools with human creativity and customization. We work in a lot of different areas to help businesses do better business online. In this post, we’re going to touch on a big campaign that we’re doing to kick off 2021 to really help small businesses come back. We’re going to dive into easy-to-use tools or platforms that a lot of small businesses can use.
Two of these tools are mentioned in our 2021 Small Business Comeback Guide. This is a free eBook that our team has created to help small businesses come back this year. You can download the free PDF guide here. If something intrigues you, or if you have questions, schedule a free consultation with our team. There really are not any strings attached. We are on a mission to help small and local businesses bounce back this year and we have a really strong feeling that is going to happen.

Use Digital Tools

Let’s jump into one of the steps: use digital tools. Powerful digital tools to help your business grow or scale.

Housecall Pro

The first tool we will discuss is a little bit industry-specific, but there are many tools like this for various industries. This one here is called Housecall Pro. This is a tool that we often recommend for small businesses who are in the home services industry. If you
have a business model where you send technicians or professionals to the houses of your customers Housecall Pro is a tool that would fit your needs. This can include electricians, plumbers, HVAC, garage door installation, cleaners, people who do home cleaning, commercial cleaning, residential cleaning, or any other industry that required you to go to the location of the customer in order to complete your job. House Call Pro is also a tool Big Red Jelly has been partnered with for a long time. We know how to set this tool up. We know how to integrate it with your website and we can also get you a discount on the subscription. Win-win!
Firstly, in order for small businesses to really come back, we have to embrace digital. We have to embrace online. It can be overwhelming and scary. The biggest question or concern that we get from small business owners is they don’t even know where to get started. Concerns such as a platform to invoice, send meaningful reminders, do my bookings, send out review requests, schedule people online, integrate with my website, have a live chat on my website, or interact with my customers. These are at least half a dozen different digital platforms to learn how to use and sign up for. And sounds expensive. But that’s not always the case. There is great software like Housecall Pro platform that brings it all together and makes it very easy to use for small businesses. They even have a mobile app so you can manage your business on the go.
So what does Housecall Pro actually do? It can do scheduling, dispatching, invoicing, software, and more. Again, if you’re an electrician, plumber, or if you go and do salon work if you’re a hairdresser or babysitter, a tutor, this tool will work for you. You can also integrate a calendar onto your website so visitors can see when you’re available and book an appointment. You can also set up memberships or recurring jobs. In order for small and local businesses to succeed, we have to do a better job of finding that recurring revenue. So you might already be doing a great job of landing sales, selling a certain product, but you have to think outside the box and think, is there a way for me to make this a subscription, a membership, some type of recurring revenue stream for my business? It’s going to help you scale and grow. Let’s say you are a company and someone books one of your technicians for a job. They book your technician for Wednesday at two o’clock p.m. to come to a check-up on the furnace. You can also set reminders. You can set a reminder to go out 24 hours before to Becky who booked your technician that Bob is coming out to check on her furnace at this time. Then it will send out another reminder a couple of hours before. This is going to greatly mitigate no-shows or last-minute cancellations, which is going to save you a lot of money. Then after the appointment or the booking is complete, what happens? You need to collect payment. You can collect payment right there on your phone using Housecall Pro. You can also send an invoice via text or email that they can open up on their phone and pay right there and then with their preferred payment method. One of our favorite little automations is after the job is complete, they’ve paid, they get a review request. They get a text message that says, “Hi, Becky. How was your experience with Bob today? If you enjoyed your experience, please take 20 seconds and leave a review here.” Which would then link through to Google, Yelp, Facebook or whatever preferred site.
We are huge believers in automating these things, getting your invoices sent out, review requests sent, making booking seamless on your website, and can be tracked on your phone. All of this can be done through Housecall Pro for reasonable prices. If you’re a startup, solopreneur, all of those things combined for $49 a month. If you’re interested, Big Red Jelly can help you out. We can actually get you a discount as well as help you integrate these things with your website. There’s no real benefit for us to refer people to Housecall Pro other than we just really enjoy it and know how to use and integrate it with the websites that we build.
Although Housecall Pro is a little bit specific in terms of the business model that they target, there are very similar customer relationship management, or CRM, tools like this. Housecall Pro is kind of a CRM plus. It’s a CRM plus invoicing, plus booking, plus project management, plus review requests, software plus more built into it. There are equivalents of this software for almost every industry out there. If you’re an attorney, if you’re a restaurant, if you are a whitewater rafting guide, if you are a business coach, talk to us and we can walk you through the equivalent of what this is for your business. You can automate so much of what you do. You can save time, money, get more reviews and higher conversion rates. You can make the customer experience so much more enjoyable because they can book online, pay online and do everything that they really want to online. And that’s just going to make them happier and coming back for more.

Google My Business

This platform is free, at least for now to use. This is your Google listing. So when you type in “best Chinese restaurant near me,” what pops up on your maps are different Google listings. Or you might see it on Google search. That is Google my business. If you have not gained access to your Google My Business account, or you have not verified your Google my business account, that should be a top priority. If you don’t know how to do that, shoot us an email. We can help you do that for free. Google My Business is probably the most important digital tool for a small or local business, especially if you are a brick-and-mortar store. Google My Business has been making some changes recently where if you’re in these service industries where you go to locations and service your customers at their location, Google My Business is also effective for you too. When you set up your Google My Business profile, you can actually dictate what your service area is. If you serve the entire state of Utah or serve your customers within a 25-mile radius of your zip code, that is a setting in Google My Business. They really are trying to create this social platform between customers and local businesses.

It is so intuitive and easy to use. If you go to Google and type in Big Red Jelly, luckily, we’ve been doing a good job on our Google My Business, you can see that this listing has our Google card on the right. In our Google card, you’ll see people also searched for social media profiles, posts we’ve done from Big Red Jelly, our latest reviews, questions and answers, products and services, then, of course, our information. You’ll also see 153 five-star reviews. Not bad where we’re located. After a Google search, your eyes are naturally going to go toward those visuals on the right. That is Google My Business. That is your Google listing. And guess what? You can dictate what shows up here. Once you’ve logged into your account and you’ve verified your account. On your homepage, it gives you a really cool dashboard where you can see your performance locally and how many people have viewed you Google listing. You can also see your reviews here. Also what we really like, you can share your business profile right here so you can send people to your Google My Business listing. In fact, that’s our invitation right now, find your Google my business, get it verified, copy your Google My Business link and send it to your closest colleagues, your team members, family, friends, anyone you’ve done business with or met with in the last
week.
Go get yourself 20 reviews right now. After all, why not? You can post as if it’s a social media profile. The insights are super helpful. The reviews you can go respond to your views, manage reviews from there.
Google My Business also has a free mobile app. You can go download it onto your phone so you can log into your listing and respond to reviews, post on the go, update your info, such as hours of operation, phone number if you are a local business owner. Get on Google, search for your business, try to find your business listing. If that doesn’t pull up your business, try to put in some extra information to really get it to appear. If it doesn’t appear, contact us and we’ll help you find it and get it verified so you can log in
and start growing your business using this free online platform.
Don’t forget to go to bigredjelly.com/comeback and download the free guide to see some of these other realistic, practical steps, tricks, and tips to help your business come back in 2021 and then schedule a consultation so we can chat. It’s all free, no strings attached.
Mar 08
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Women in Business: 3 Advantages of Hiring Women

By Leadership, People, Small Business, Uncategorized No Comments
Women are becoming increasingly influential in the business world each year as more females take on leadership roles and form their own businesses. In the year 2020, it was calculated that the US has 12.3 million women-owned businesses which generate about $1.8 trillion a year. Additionally, 40% of all US businesses are actually owned by women. Looking at these numbers, it’s easy to see how women in business are becoming a driving force in the nation’s economy and why it’s important for companies to continue implementing women leaders. In celebration of International Women’s Day, here are three advantages that hiring more women can have on your small business:

1. A Diverse Team Leads to More Innovation

Diversity is the key to creativity and innovation. When a team is made up of people with many things in common, it can be difficult to come up with unbiased ideas and solutions. Teams that are composed of members of diverse backgrounds, however, are more likely to consider new perspectives and thus, open the door for innovation. Because men and women have different ways of thinking, forming gender-diverse teams can be crucial to coming up with fresh ideas for your business.

2. Women Lead Differently Than Men

Studies show that people of different genders tend to lead differently. These varying leadership styles between men and women can largely be attributed to neurological differences within the brain. It has actually been shown that men and women have different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to emotional intelligence. In a 2017 study, for example, women typically scored higher on attributes such as empathy, interpersonal relationships, and social responsibility, whereas men scored higher on self-regard, stress tolerance, and optimism. While there are benefits to having leaders who reflect any of these qualities, creating a gender-diverse leadership within your business will help optimize the different strengths held by your team members.

3. Gender Diverse Teams Have Better Collaboration

As we move into the future, it’s becoming increasingly important for businesses to create cultures centered around collaboration rather than competition. And interestingly enough, research has actually shown that women can play a huge role in creating this culture of collaboration. It’s been shown that women tend to collaborate connectively, meaning they seek connections between their own ideas and the ideas of their team members. This collaboration is becoming vital for small businesses, in that it can help to create both a unified and efficient team. “It is pure mythology that women cannot perform as well as men in science, engineering, and mathematics. In my experience, the opposite is true: Women are often more adept and patient at untangling complex problems, multitasking, seeing the possibilities in new solutions, and winning team support for collaborative action.” (Weili Dai, director, and co-founder of Marvell Technology Group) Continuing to hire women leaders in business moving into the future will help to diversify skills in leadership and lead to more innovation.
Mar 01
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Small Business Checklist: Top 5 Areas to Address First

By Marketing, Small Business No Comments

Whether you’re looking to run a side hustle or a full-on business endeavor, starting a small business takes a lot of hard work, commitment, and planning. You’ve probably thought through your ideas and are wondering where to begin. It can be daunting to figure out what to tackle first when starting your business and a Google search may lead you down too many rabbit holes.

If you’re looking for a short overview of the first things to address on your small business checklist then you’ve come to the right place. We’ve put together a few suggestions of the top 5 areas you need to address first when starting your small business. From registering your business, to creating an attractive brand and website with powerful tools, we’ll fill you in on what you need to have prepared in order to ensure success and growth in the coming year. 

 

1. Register Your Business 

Registering your business is an important first step for any business. By doing so, you add your name and business name to your state’s business registry, making things truly official and allowing you to form a legal entity in your state. You may have started out as a sole proprietorship, which is the simplest way to start your business but also invites risk as you grow. As a sole proprietorship, the law sees no difference between your personal assets and your business assets, meaning that if an accident occurs you are fully liable. When you incorporate, your business takes on that liability and not you personally. 

Take the guesswork out of incorporating with the help of Incorporate.com. With Incorporate, you’ll be able to form a corporation by simply submitting an application. Just send in your information and Incorporate does the rest. You don’t have to worry about filling out additional paperwork when their agents are standing by ready to do it for you. And, after incorporating through them, you get the support you need whenever you need it. Check your state’s guidelines for incorporation to be sure you’re following the right protocol. You can find out more here. 

 

2. Open Business Bank Accounts

After you’ve created your business entity, you want to be sure you have the necessary bank accounts open to run your business. Keeping your business expenses separate from your personal ones is important and will help you maintain records of what you’ve spent and earned as a business, making for a smoother tax season next year. 

If you’re not sure where to go to open business accounts, you can always try your personal banking institution first. They might be able to offer you more options or better benefits when opening a new account through them. A few other banking institutions that you could also consider are Wells Fargo, Chase, or Capital One. 

Aside from offering different options for business checking accounts, savings accounts, and credit cards they also offer different merchant services, SBA lending programs, and payroll services. However, we recommend utilizing the Small Business Administration’s guidelines of criteria to consider when choosing a financial institution for your small business.  

 

3. Set Up Payroll Services 

You might not think that having a payroll service could be of much help when running a small business. After all, it might just be you and a few employees at the beginning, or just you. Even if it’s just you and a few others, having a payroll service can greatly benefit the way you manage your business by increasing efficiency and reducing the time you spend on it, allowing you to focus on other important activities to grow your business. 

Payroll services, such as Helpside, make it easy for you to pay your employees, manage any benefits, and address risk management. Helpside specializes in serving small businesses as they strive to be more efficient, more focused, and more productive. Helpside will work with you to find the best combination of solutions for you and your employees. Check out Helpside’s payroll plans and find out more about how they could benefit your small business here.

 

4. Protect Your Business With Insurance 

Every business owner will face risks that could cost you down the road. These risks vary greatly depending on the type of business you have, the number of employees, the products or services you sell, and more. As a small business owner, you will want to consider insurance coverages like  General Liability Insurance, Product Liability Insurance, Workers’ Compensation, and others. 

General Liability is one of the most common coverages and insures you against third-party bodily injury, property damage, and personal and advertising injury claims. For example, if a customer slipped and fell in your business resulting in an injury then General Liability policy could cover a claim like this. Product Liability is designed to cover claims arising out of the use of your products that cause bodily harm or property damage. For example, if you sold soap and a consumer had an allergic reaction to it then this type of policy could cover costs associated with that type of claim. 

You face many risks when running a small business and you need to put up proper safeguards to protect it. Just like you wouldn’t drive your car with the right insurance, you shouldn’t want to operate your business without the needed coverage. 

For your insurance needs, check out a small business insurance marketplace like Insurance Canopy for a variety of insurance coverages based on industry and specific needs. Insurance Canopy offers A + rated insurance from the best carriers in the nation. Their application is completely online and their agents can get you quoted in as little as 48 hours. Premiums depend on the kind of business you run, your annual revenue, number of employees, and a few other factors. Visit Insurance Canopy to get the right insurance coverage for your business.   

 

5. Utilize Marketing and Branding Tools

Marketing and branding your company may seem like an overwhelming task. A simple web search to find the best business-building practices and tools provides you with a daunting amount of information to sift through. To ease your burden, the professionally trained marketing and branding team at Big Red Jelly comes in to save the day.

Big Red Jelly helps you navigate the digital landscape by providing you with the necessary services to develop your brand further, set up the right digital tools, and grow with our support. Our team is dedicated to helping businesses succeed and will support you every step of the way by helping you manage your digital platforms. Check out some of the other services we offer to see if they could help you grow too. 

Big Red Jelly can help get you found through their strategic marketing and branding services:

  • Brand Research
  • Brand Development
  • Web Design
  • Web Development
  • Digital Tool Integration
  • Hosting/Web Services
  • Digital Strategy & Support
  • Marketing Automation
  • & More 

To get started with Big Red Jelly, sign up for a free consultation today!

 

Checking Off The Boxes

There’s a lot that goes into running a small business and maintaining your efforts. You need access to the right tools that will enhance your business and keep you on top of your game. By utilizing Big Red Jelly’s branding and marketing skills and Helpside’s payroll services early on, you’ll set yourself up for success and avoid some of the more common mishaps business owners run into when they start out. We hope you’ve found some quality advice and put it to use. 

Feb 10
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Advice For Young Entrepreneurs: 4 Tips To Start Off Strong

By Leadership, People, Small Business No Comments

You have a great idea, you’re passionate that you can solve unique problems, and you’ve started your own business. However, it feels intimidating for someone like you, who is young and inexperienced, to know how to move forward. Maybe you haven’t yet found a mentor or have heard the startling startling false myth that 90% of startups fail. You don’t need to worry because there is a plethora of advice for young entrepreneurs. You can ride on the backs of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs to build that booming business that you’re dreaming of. 

Here is advice from 4 of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs to help you do exactly that: 

1. Henry Ford 

“It has been my observation that most people get ahead during the time that others waste.” 

Henry Ford, who not only is the founder of the Ford Motor Company but also invented the assembly line, completely revolutionized the way businesses operate. Take his advice in your entrepreneurial project, being successful is all about time management. Being successful as an entrepreneur is not only about being diligent and working hard but also about working wisely. Read Big Red Jelly’s in-depth exploration of this here. 

2. Oprah Winfrey

“When you undervalue what you do, the world will undervalue who you are.”

Oprah Winfrey is the epitome of the rags to riches story and embodies this advice.  She grew up in a rural town in Mississippi and experienced sexual abuse as a child. She valued who she was and what she offered, eventually founded the Oprah Winfrey Show which ran for 25 seasons, her own production company Harpo Productions, and later Oxygen Media and O Magazine. As young entrepreneurs, it can be easy to sell yourself and your product short but success comes when you unwaveringly insist on the value that you bring to potential clients and customers.

3. Bill Gates

“It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”

Follow this great advice from the co-founder of Microsoft. As a young entrepreneur, it’s important to celebrate your successes but it’s also important to recognize that more often than not, you’re going to fail. This happened to Gates himself when he founded his first company, Traf-O-Data which later went out of business. Gates and his business partners realized from this venture that they needed more market research to be successful. They learned from their failure and eventually founded a wildly successful company. Gates net worth is now more than $129 billion.

4. Melanie Perkins

“Solve customer problems and make sure that the customer is representative of a large market and then you will have a pretty good formula.”

At only 32 years old, Canva founder Melanie Perkins has discovered the key to entrepreneurial success. She follows her own advice. Between 2006-2007 while teaching students to use design tools such as Photoshop and Indesign, she noticed that it was difficult for students to master these tools. That’s where her idea for Canva, a design tool so easy that anyone can use it, came from. This is vital advice for young entrepreneurs. Make sure your idea is solving customers’ problems and make sure you understand your target market. 

Follow this advice and you’ll find success as an entrepreneur whether you are young or old. Big Red Jelly is proud to support entrepreneurs. Schedule a free consultation with us to know how we can make sure you’re starting off on the right foot with all things digital here.

Feb 01
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Big Red Jelly’s Devotion to Uplifting Its Customers’ Vision

By Marketing, People, Small Business No Comments

According to Hubspot, 93% of people leave a website for not correctly displaying on their devices. In the fast-paced environment — not to mention the lifestyle — that many people are exposed to, it isn’t surprising that users are always eager to get to the information they’re looking for as quickly as possible.

As a business, it’s your job to do your best in reaching out to customers. The technology we have today allows us to connect with people wherever they are. The most common way to do this is through your website.

Your website serves as a hub where all the information about your business can be found. That said, the harsh truth is that visitors will likely not care about your business if you don’t have something to offer. This is where your value proposition comes in. To turn your visitors into frequent customers, it’s crucial that you emphasize what your business can do for them — the problems that you can solve. More importantly, you need to let them know right away the solutions that you can offer on your website.

Our team at Big Red Jelly is dedicated to helping our clients highlight their strengths and turn their weaknesses into opportunities. Being a modern digital branding agency, we are equipped with the knowledge that will propel your business in the online world. Thus, we focus on your vision and turn them into something better through research and creativity.

Not long ago, one of our clients generously left us some feedback on Clutch. If you’re not familiar with it, Clutch is a B2B ratings and reviews firm based in Washington, DC. Its team of independent analysts is committed to helping businesses identify and connect with the service providers they need to achieve their goals.

Here’s what a review on Clutch would look like:

For this project, we were tasked with the development of Yogi Zen’s e-commerce website. The challenge that we needed to solve was to improve upon the client’s existing Wix website since it didn’t function as intended. We sat down with the owner and talked about the specific areas of focus. Afterwards, we went ahead and did what we set out to do — craft an amazing ecommerce store that will gain our client more customer traction. Within seven days, we delivered a website the checks all the boxes for our partner.

“They always make sure that their finished product is something that we will be proud to have out there. Moreover, they really care about the people they’re working for. I like that the people we’ve worked with have been super informative and knowledgeable about designing the page and the store.” — Todd Roberts, Owner, Yogi Zen

To learn more about this review, along with our older reviews, don’t hesitate to check out our Clutch profile. You can also visit The Manifest, Clutch’s sister site, where you can find lists of top companies to aid you in your business goals. We’re currently featured as a top developer in Salt Lake City, so don’t miss out on that one.

Unlock your business’s untapped potential. Get your free assessment by clicking here.

Feb 01
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3 Tactics to Employ to Be More Productive

By Leadership, Small Business No Comments

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, at Big Red Jelly we believe that 2021 is going to be the comeback year for small and local businesses. How do you make sure your business is going to be one of the ones that make a comeback? Here are 3 tactics small business owners, entrepreneurs, managers, and anyone who helps run businesses across the globe and the United States can employ to be more productive.  Employing these three tactics helped me significantly improve the amount of stuff that I get done every week and not just stuff, but important action items and projects that actually move our business forward.

1. Make Your Calendar Your Friend

The first tactic that I employ that helps me get more done and be more productive is to make your calendar your friend. I love that phrase. It’s a little bit of a cliche so maybe you hear that every now and then. However, I cannot express this enough to those of you who either don’t use your calendar as much as you should, or your calendar is more just a place where it has your meetings for the next day. It can be so much more than that. Let me explain exactly what it can be. 

Set Times to Check Your Email

First of all, I’ve learned various parts of the day where I feel like I’m more productive. One of the really bad habits that I used to have was I would have my email tab almost always pulled up while I was at work. As soon as I came into work until the minute I left, I have my email tab pulled up and you can even see that number in the parentheses up there. Every time it would go up a notch, I  had that impulse to go click it and see who emailed me. When I was doing that, my entire day felt reactive. I was reacting to every possible incoming email and at the end of the day I felt like I didn’t really move the ball forward in any significant way. I felt like I answered a lot of requests,  I answered a lot of questions, I was able to kind of put out a lot of fires. However, it did not feel like a productive day. Instead, I’ve made my calendar work for me where I closed that email tab and instead I have two, maybe three short email blocks. 

As soon as I come into the office, I do like to check my email first which might be different for other people. I’ve actually heard some people say they do not recommend opening their email first thing, work on a project first. It really comes down to your personal preference. In my opinion. I’m the type of guy where when I come in, I do have to open that inbox. I will not open it at home. I will not wake up and open it up on my phone. I just think that’s a bad idea because I’m not realistically going to be able to solve any issues while I’m at home and on my phone or going through my morning routine. There is no point in putting that anxiety upon yourself when you can’t handle it effectively anyway. However, once I get to the office and I open up my laptop, I’m situated, I’m ready. Then I can dive into my email and I usually spend thirty to forty-five minutes just going through those immediate emails. I respond to the ones that are urgent. I schedule a time for other ones that are not as urgent but are important, etc. Then what I do is I have a small block of time, maybe in the late afternoon, kind of that lull period where I don’t have a lot of calls anyway. Finally,  I’ll have one more block of emails before I go home for the night just to clear my inbox. That might be too much for some people. I do like to reply to all emails within 24 hours, but that really helped me.

Schedule the Big and Little Things

One thing I have learned is that for the most part, as human beings, we’re usually overly optimistic with our to-do lists. In other words, we will think we can get 20 things done tomorrow and we’ll really only get 10 things done because there are so many unforeseen things that always pop up. I’ve always learned as well to block off some time in my calendar for just those unforeseen things. Trust me, it always fills up. I never block back to back meetings the next day and think I’ll have a great workday. Emergency situations always might come up and you need to give yourself that flexibility. I’ve kind of found that balance for me where I know exactly how many calls, client calls, reviews I want to be on in a day. I also know my email blocks and I know my flexible time for unforeseen circumstances. The rest of my time is major projects that I’m focusing on and I know I want to get done. It’s much more effective for me to just pick my top two or three biggest projects or action items for that day and just make sure I get those done instead of 20 smaller things. One practice I’ve been using recently is I will write down the top 20 things I have to get done tomorrow, circle the top three or four and and and delegate the rest or really rethink about even doing those things. If you are just looking for things to do to be busy, you might not be productive. 

Have Calls When You’re Productive

Something I’ve done that’s really effective for me is I will not have calls probably the first two or three hours of Monday morning and the last two or three hours of Friday. You might think this is probably just because I want a long weekend. However, the real reason I do this is so I have time to assess major projects and have extra time for unforeseen circumstances that happen over the weekend. On Friday I use that extra time to review my week. This includes reviewing my team’s action items, doing important updates and note-taking, and just taking into account my entire week. My weeks feel chaotic and my weekends are not nearly as enjoyable when I have calls all the way up until five or six p.m. on Friday. I have seen a stark difference even in my weekend enjoyment. It is the same thing with Monday. Don’t put that pressure on yourself where it’s Sunday night and you’re just dreading that call that you’ve got at 9:00 a.m. the next day on Monday. You don’t want to start your week that way. You can easily solve this problem by not having 9:00 am on Mondays as an availability. 

If you make your calendar your friend, you will be more productive. There are many easy ways to make your calendar your friend such as the ones I have described above. Find out what works for you and then do it. You’ll find you’re able to be more productive in the time you have. 

2.  Ignore Convention and Find What Works For You

Many people think they need to follow the traditional American Work Week which runs Monday through Friday from 9:00-5:00. In the entrepreneurial world this can differ with people coming into work much earlier and leaving at who knows how late into the evening. I have found in the past that I was always trying to match what was typical. I thought in order to really be grinding I had to be in the office at certain times doing certain things. I thought I had to be on calls first thing in the morning and no matter what accommodate our clients. However, I’ve learned how my body works. I’ve learned that, because I’m not a morning person, coming in before 9 helps me get into the groove. I try to be here at 8:00 for one particular reason. I like to be ahead of the nine a.m. influx of messages and emails and requests even from our own team. Even a small difference between coming in at 8:45 and 9 makes a big difference in my day. Everyone is different, to be your most productive you need to listen to your body and you may do something that is different than convention. 

In the early days of Big Red Jelly, I would fall into this convention where I would go home and I would have dinner and try to get some type of exercise and I’d come back to the office during those really startup years, which are necessary for many people. I would come back to the office and I had this second surge of energy, which I’m sure some of you have felt. I’m much more of a night owl. I felt more creative, I felt energetic. After doing a little bit more research and talking to some people  I think that my cortisol levels would even increase during that time. I felt that kind of second wind. There’s a lot of terms for it. But I found that if I could power through my afternoon slump, which was much later than most people. For me, between five and seven p.m. is when I get that wall of fatigue and I have an immediate decision to make, either go lay down on the couch and inevitably end up watching hours of NBA highlights and never get back to the office or I eat dinner as soon as I get back and I just immediately get changed and do some type of exercise, go to the gym. When I followed the second pattern I would bypass that kind of tired window. By 8:00, I’m back to that kind of creative level. I like to have what I like to call kind of my second work session where it’s purely just creative thinking, long-term thinking, goal setting, etc. I don’t condone that for everyone. I think it’s important to turn off, but I like to have that second window. 

The ultimate thing to remember here is that you need to remember what works best for you. Move certain tasks that are more autopilot like following up with the team on certain things, adjusting my notes, adjusting my calendar, preparing my calendar, things that I could really just plug and chug. Move those things to the time of day where you’re not performing the best and creatively right. Don’t force yourself into certain areas of the day just because conventionally that’s what’s done. Find what works best for you and you’ll be more productive.

In the next couple of decades, I believe that we’ll see many changes in the workweek. In the past there were certain things that were typical in the workspace, it was always nine to five you go to the office. You work here, you sit here, you clock in here, you clock out there. I think that’s going to look very different in the next few years. Covid-19 has kind of opened a lot of people’s eyes to that, especially working virtually. It’s also opened many eyes to the fact that people have different schedules. People’s bodies are different. There is a reason that some people are classified as early birds and night owls and we can’t just keep ignoring that. Listen to your body, experiment, try different things, and see what works best for you. When are you the most creative? When are you not? Adjust your calendar accordingly.

3. Follow the Pareto Principle

The third tactic to employ to be more productive is to live by the Pareto Principle. The Pareto Principle states that for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of the causes. Other names for this principle are the 80/20 rule, the law of a vital few, and the principle of factor sparsity. 

The Pareto Principle was created by Wilfredo de Parado was an Italian sociologist and an economist who realized that in general, 80% of a nation’s income was in the hands of only 20% of the population. He realized this could be applied in many situations. For example, 20% of criminals can commit 80% of crimes, 20% of drivers cause 80% of all traffic accidents, 80% of the pollution originates from 20% of all

factories, 20% of companies products represent 80% of sales, 20% of employees are responsible for 80% of the results, 20% of students have grades 80% or higher. 

There are many ways this can apply to your work life. It goes back to that to-do list. When I write down my ten things, let’s say 20 % of the things on my list are going to move the ball forward 80% more than the others. Basically, 20% of those to do things are going to result in 80% of the production of Big Red Jelly or my time. In order to accomplish the most, you need to focus more on that 20%. This needs to be applied to your calendar; your to-dos for the next day; your meetings; your priorities for the week, month, and year. Try and find that 20% that ultimately is going to lead to 80% of your growth. 

It’s always interesting to do this mental exercise. Stop right now where you are and look back on the last year, two years, three years of your business or your startup and think about which two or three major decisions, major changes, services, pricing changes, campaigns, think about the top two or three things that moved your business forward the fastest or that helped it take the biggest step. I’ve done this practice many times and I really can start to write down a short list of things that we did at Big Red Jelly that seemed to make 80% of the difference.  Doing this exercise more frequently helps us remember what the next 20% is. 

After we recognize what made 80% of the difference, then we can focus on what we can do now? We will know what we should focus on. Doing this moving forward, helps you refine and delegate focus as a decision-maker and the business owner to what is most important and what’s going to help your company move forward.

So let’s review. To be more productive follow these three tips: make your calendar your friend; ignore the conventional and listen to your body or what works best for you, your energy levels, your focus, etc.; and remember the Pareto Principle. By following these three tips you will find that you get more done in less time. 

To hear more tips to help run your small business check out Big Red Jelly’s Youtube channel here.