Category: Entrepreneurship

For the past several years, it has become customary for most companies to expect their employees to work longer hours, check emails and answer calls on end, and devote their lives to their job. Sadly, these things all border on being unhealthy. Good thing that times have changed as business owners rediscovered a fact Henry Ford knew all along – too much work can lead to decreased productivity, increased absenteeism, and reduced employee morale that can affect the bottom line in the end. This is where the Law of Diminishing Returns comes in.

What is the Law of Diminishing Returns?

Law of Diminishing Returns, in Economics, is also called Diminishing Marginal Returns, Principle of Diminishing Marginal Productivity, or Law of Variable Proportions. This states that the marginal or incremental output of the process of production reduces as the amount of one production factor is significantly increased while the rest of the production factors are held constant.

Based on research, this law seems to be applicable to the relationship between the hours worked and employee productivity. Experts claim that working several hours per week or for several consecutive days can lead to reduced productivity in time. Time is needed for workers to recover from their work.

Plunging into the Productivity Cliff

Output of employees appears to fall incrementally after 50 hours before dropping more severely after 55 hours. Also employees who work 70 hours don’t produce much more than those who work 55 hours.

It can be disheartening news for those driven workers wearing their long working hours as a badge of honor. However, experts warn about long hours and its health effects that are also associated with employee turnover and absenteeism.

The stark reality is that physical and mental work alike can result in fatigue that can limit the bodily and cognitive resources people spend on their work. If they don’t think clearly or move as precisely or quickly, they need to work slower to maintain safety and quality requirements.

Employees Lose Sleep

More and more employees today trade sleep for their jobs. People who were able to sleep for 6 hours or less every night worked 1 and ½ hours more than those who got longer sleeping hours.

There is overwhelming evidence that the time employees spend on their job has become the most common sleep thief these days.

However, the idea of executing healthy working limits could be good news for today’s workforce. If companies set boundaries in work, they can enjoy the benefits of higher employee output every hour. Businesses can then lower costs provided that employees stopped working before they fall off the productivity cliff.

Changes in the Company Culture

An increasing number of small business owners are now trying to tweak company culture as far as long working hours are concerned. Company leaders claim that their 40-hour weekly work policy improves the efficiency of their employees for them to focus better while at work. This policy can also free up workers to completely unplug the moment they step outside the office.

 

Do you always find yourself wondering where you day went at the end of every day? If this sounds just like you, you are like millions of people on this planet. Boy, you are a procrastinator!

Procrastination is the number one reason why you remain to be in the exact same place you were last year. Procrastination is also why you constantly find yourself lingering in your past. Procrastination is the one that steals your dreams!

But, worry not because it doesn’t mean that you can just stick with your habit of procrastinating. Below are a few tips on how to stop procrastination so you can start chasing and achieving your goals in no time!

Focus, Focus, and Focus

Focus on a single task one at a time. Avoid thinking or worrying about the next task if you haven’t completed the current task yet. Also, don’t think about your previous task the moment you moved on to your next one. If the specific task you work on at the moment is a part of a bigger project, try to define a certain goal for that specific period of time.

Start with the Hardest Task

The task you find the hardest to do should be the first task you work on. Why? This is because doing this will give you that much needed gusto and shot of enthusiasms once you have completed it. That feeling of success that you generate from completing the hardest task will boost your productivity to dramatic levels.

Clear Your Mind by Clearing Your Desktop

Keeping your desktop clear and clean will let you focus one task at a time. You surely heard of the saying that a clean environment means a clean mind. So, ditch those mountains of paper and make sure that your desk and mind stay free from clutter.

Take Short Breaks Every Now and Then and Stay Hydrated

There are times when you feel as if your focus is going elsewhere. If this happens, drinking water might all that you need. Scientists have proven without a doubt that regular intake of fluid is important for creativity so see to it that you take regular breaks of 5 to 10 minutes to get a drink away from your desktop. You can also do a few exercises such as a short walk.

Develop a Reward System

This sounds great but many of you probably fail to do this consistently enough. This is a great incentive for you to push forward with a certain project. Come up with a reward system you can give yourself and you will be surprised how motivated you will feel in putting one foot before the other even when things get tough.

Be Enthusiastic

Finally, whatever you might be doing, whether taking out the trash or counting pennies, always do this with enthusiasm. Give it your best shot and bring your positive energy to the specific task at hand. Talk to yourself positively and convince yourself that the task you are doing is crucial for a bigger vision.

 

 

A lot of institutions as well as high net-worth individuals like to earn high returns compared to somebody else. The traditional investments including bonds and stocks do not typically earn an ROI and private companies. However, such investors never purchase companies directly. They actually invest through a private equity firm. For you to earn better than usual returns, you can consider a private equity fund.

For you to understand the concept of GP or General Partners and LP or Limited Partners, it is necessary to know how the private equity firm works. Once a private equity firm is established, it’ll have investors who’ve purchased Partnership Interest using their money. The private equity firm makes funds through that money and such funds contain capital used to begin or buy companies. Investors who have invested in every fund would be referred to as LP or Limited Partners and it’d led by a GP or General Partner.

Limited Partners – Who Are They?

The external investors in private equity funds are called LP or limited partners. Their liability is actually is limited to the extent of the invested capital. Not all may invest in private equity firm. Typically, the investors need to put $250K or more to the fund. Majority of private equity firms have investors including insurance companies, labor unions, pension funds, big wealthy families, foundations, university endowments, and so on.

The Limited Partners will give money to private equity firm through buying Partnership Interest and expect returns for it. Private equity performed far better compared to the public market in the past. Limited Partners invest their money and they are not involved with the fund management. This management is actually carried out by General Partner.

General Partner – Who is It?

If funds are made, you only need someone to manage it. It’s done by the GP or General Partner. All of the decisions for the fund of private equity are made by General Partner. These decisions may include which companies to sell or buy, what kind of companies to start, and more.

General Partner is basically paid either by way of a fixed compensation or management fee. Management fees are simply a percentage of the overall amount of the assets or capital of the fund. This percentage is not flexible and fixed. Generally, this fee actually ranges from 1-3 percent yearly of the committed capital. The management fees are stated as a percent each year of the assets under management.

General Partner or GP also gets a performance fee if she or he earns you lots of money. It’s done through the use of returns distribution waterfall. Other than their meager salaries, GPs also earn carry or carried interest. It’s the percentage of profits that funds earn on the investments. Performance fee is the other name for carried interest. It’s a fee charged based on overall amount of the profits that have been earned by the fund that particular year. In short, performance fee is the share of the net profits of the fund, which should be paid by GP.

From graphic designers to life coaches to tech stars, affliction seems deep-rooted and unprejudiced. Inspired and ambitious entrepreneurs end up stuck in their working hours since they don’t know when to cut cords. Sidelined business venture becomes relationship-ruiners, energy-suckers, and money-wasters. Budding visionaries might get burnt out and begin agonizing over their unfulfilled potential.

Below are some of the ways on how to know when to quit your job:

You are Prepared to Scale, Yet You Do Not Have Time

If you are working full time and you are spending your free time on your venture, then that is great. However, it can be impossible to do the job needed to keep that as a money-making venture and make long term growth and sustainability with just your weekends and evenings. It is also difficult to train, hire, and be responsive leader when you are working something all day.

While money could be made, time is the only finite resource you have. You will be missing an opportunity to scale up at some point in time since you do not have the time to devote to that. Once you hit the point of not having time to do the things you like to for your business, there is a great chance you are partially prepared for the next step.

You Have Money Saved to Support Yourself

While your business would be wildly profitable, you have to ensure that you have money to keep living it until that takes off. This is the reason why it is essential to understand how much you want to live and how long you think it’ll take until you are turning enough of profits to pay yourself a good salary.

Decide If It’s Time

Being your own boss can be challenging. Having a business is like having your own kid and it will never feel like the best time to do it. There would be things you like to figure out before it happens. The idea of having things falling into place is a rare occurrence. You need to make the conditions that would make you feel comfortable to take the next step. Therefore, it’s important to think of what should be in place for you to bust the move. For others, it’s a particular number of clients as well as peace of mind when leaving your old job behind.

Have your own timeline to get everything in place and make accountability for yourself. Try putting notes on your calendar to remind yourself that it will be time to leap whether you feel it’s ready or not.

It is a tough decision to consider something that’s unknown, particular when it is headfirst. Not all people, in spite of dreaming about the thrills of forging paths, are excited on the possibility of unstable cash flow and paying for your health insurance. However, if you know that you get the business off the ground, it is time for you to push through the challenges and make that happen.

Business scalability is basically the flexibility of every aspect of your operation, which grows with the business. It includes things including marketing and accounting provisions and production or even your telephone system.

Whether you own a company or you’re taking first steps to your dream’s startup, you mostly likely imagine the bright future. People who are ambitious reach for the stars always and any small business ideas may grow to a huge enterprise.

Automate as Much Job as Possible

Automation is something you must focus on as early as you could since it isn’t something you have to hire to do and might even save you from making hires at the first place. Automation is always consistent and reliable as your business scales. It isn’t also expensive.

Make a Wiki for All of Your Employees

There are some information that nobody seems to remember and they are frequently scattered in the market. Rather than starring the message, why not get your information accessible, easily searchable, and centralized? It isn’t something that huge companies require. Even your content team with only a few members uses shared documents to store important code snippets and vital links.

Concentrate on Turning Early Hires to Leaders and Making Formal Management Structure

If the company is high energy and small, the employees are typically juggling a lot of functions at the same time. As you scale, you will be able to focus down and turn all hands on deck structure to something that is more formal. Adding management structure and defining specialized roles are the most important things, which lasting companies do whenever they’re scaling.

Once done properly, your early hires could go on to lead their departments and teams. When they are promoted, they must have the most competence and experience in job function. Experts recommend you to set up early hire for leadership through giving them more responsibility and mentoring them about the work in progress projects as well as general management skills. You can also bring in some senior hires who have scaled companies successfully in the past.

Hire Assistants as Early as Possible

The last thing you like to be spending time on is on the tasks like doing data entry, updating calendar, and managing databases. The faster you get such tasks out of the way, the better you could concentrate your energy to scale your business.

Switch to Cloud Collaboration and Instant Messaging Apps

These days, it is silly to let some important emails from co-workers share space with automated updated emails and newsletters. Teams using instant messaging cut down on internal emails regularly report that it helps them to centralize everything in a much better way and stay on top of the tasks. Instant messaging can also save more time. With cloud collaboration apps, they help you centralize and share information. The alternative is forwarding emails and adding to pile of messages for your colleagues to check.

Create a Scalable Business Today

The first thing to have a scalable business is to streamline your company through cutting paper and digitizing documents. Just make sure to choose a reliable service provider to do this.

If personal development is your goal, one of the very first things you should do is invest in yourself. Whatever you wish to improve or achieve, it definitely requires an investment. Self awareness is a crucial step for you to determine the things you should be doing to make yourself better.

Check out the following top five reasons to start investing in yourself today:

1. You are More Than Worth It

Yourself is always your greatest and biggest asset. How many times have you seen extremely talented and gifted people who don’t maximize their fullest potential? Instead of becoming the best, they just waste their precious time on less than stellar pursuits. Many are either unaware of their true potential, while some stopped at one level then settled there, possibly because of complacency, ignorance, or fear.

Know that the world sees you as someone valuable in one way or another. Invest resources and time to make your brilliance shine brighter and for other people to see your glow.

2. You Establish Yourself as an Expert

Positioning yourself as an expert takes a substantial investment of resources and time. But, the payoff will be more substantial compared to the generalist counterparts. By investing in becoming an expert on a subject matter, you will be recognized right away in your niche market even if you are just a part of the exclusive club. If you wish to enter a niche market, look into its challenges and invest to prepare in solving these hurdles.

3. You Improve Your Value in the Eyes of Prospect Clients and Employers

The reason why graduates of Ivy League schools manage to land job positions with 6-figure salary even with no work experience in the past is because they are perceived as among the best and brightest. However, it doesn’t mean that you should become an Ivy Leaguer for employers to see you as someone valuable.

People who commit to their professional and personal development set themselves apart from the norm. Investing in yourself more helps you become a value-added commodity. Enhance your knowledge level and enjoy an increase in personal capital either in your present endeavor or a new one.

4. You Attract People with the Same Commitment of Making Themselves Better

You will be surprised how great it feels to be around successful people who believe in excellence and nothing less. These people can bring out the best in you by inspiring you to stretch and grow. Aside from your family, are there people whose influence in your own life is the greatest? What make you feel drawn towards them? It is possibly because of their credentials, intelligence, character, and other admirable qualities.

5. You Can Better Influence Other People’s Lives

Self awareness means you can offer more to others. Realizing your purpose and value in this world will put you in a better position of improving the lives of other people aside from your own. This gives you a sense of responsibility that will urge you to continue to do better by the day.

 

 

Majority of starting or growing business will need to borrow cash at some point in time. While taking a loan or on debt is risky, it’s vital to level up a business. However, there are some reasons why you must not borrow money if you are going to start any kind of business.

Some of these reasons include the following:

• Repayments May Damage Your Cash Flow

Debt repayments may derail your cash flow once your business becomes too leveraged. Therefore, it is essential to borrow for the right purposes at the right rate for interest and make sure any kind of repayment you take on are affordable and realistic.

• Borrowing May Reduce  Your Options

Seizing a chance today may mean forgoing some opportunities tomorrow. The repayments will minimize your spare cash for the loan’s term, which means you’ll have less to spend on people, premises, and plan. But, if borrow for the right purposes with right rates, you will be able to provide your business a boost, which repays dividends in the long run.

• Interest Rates May be High If You Have Low Credit Score

Not every loan is equal in terms of affordability. Your credit score will actually have a good deal to do with it. Once your business appears to be a risky investment, you’ll find yourself paying a good deal more for the same finances, so you must focus on establishing your credit score and reputation before you seek a loan.

Start a Business Without Borrowing Money

For most of you, small business loans are accessible and convenient if you have good credit rating with collateral and if you agree paying a big portion of the costs. Banks will fund new businesses. These loans are only accessible and convenient to people who don’t need money. Even with a great credit history, they won’t give loans for new company though the company has guaranteed contract to buy a big order.

Business loans offer different loan options like personal loans and mortgage. They’re only as original and inventive as banks wish to make them. In most cases, the real freedom is offered only to those who have long-term established business account with banks along with good credit rating.

Probably, the biggest disadvantage of these loans is the interest rates. Although banks offer low interest rates for loans, they often compensate for low charges with big account fees. In fact, even depositing money to account manually would cost the business owner some cash. They provide low rates of interests, yet the attached account to the overdraft or loan won’t doubt cost lots of cash to maintain.

There are also advantages of borrowing money to start a business. However, if you are a wise business owner, you will not consider it because of the possible disadvantages that you might experience in the long run. Remember that you are just getting started with your business and you must do your best to use your own money for it to avoid any possible problems.