​The world is full of gurus who will tell you to set some goals, drive action, make it happen. And that’s good advice.
 
But just because you can, doesn’t always mean you should.
 
Launching a new product or service is not something you want to do because you had a wild idea one morning over coffee or in the shower. There’s a lot more that goes into the launching of that product or service. But research and development can be pricey.
 
What if you have a business idea you want to run with but don’t have the money to hire someone to crunch numbers and present data? Should you launch without it? If you do, that could prove to be even more costly.
 
So how can you test an idea without a huge investment?

​Productivity is always a big push at the beginning of the year. Everyone wants to do more with less, less money, less time, and fewer resources. This article will show you four ways to structure your day for greater success in achieving your goals. The one that best works for you is a personal decision but trying several of these can give you some good insights into how you (and your employees) work best.

4 Ways to Structure Your Day for Success 
Time Segmenting
The first way to think about your day is the organization framework. Most productivity experts will agree that segmenting out time is a way to stay on track. Elon Musk, for instance, budgets his day in five-minute increments, five-minute calls, meetings, touch bases, etc.
 
If that is too frantic a schedule for you, you may want to try something like the Pomodoro Method, which structures the day around 20-minute sprints of focused activity. Set a timer for 20 minutes and during that time nothing is allowed to derail you from your work. When the 20-minute buzzer goes off, you have 10 minutes to do other, less focused things such as check on emails or return a phone call. At the end of that 10 minutes, you set another sprint timer.
 
Themes
You can also take a cue from Jack Dorsey the founder of Twitter. He assigns themes to his workday concentrating on one aspect of the business per day much like you might do as part of a workout routine.
 
If that is too limiting and you feel your schedule needs to be a little more fluid, you could assign theme hours or chunks of the day. For instance, Monday Marketing or New Business at Noon.
 
Permanent Dates
Another way to be more productive is to work on things that you’re passionate about. But in times of crisis and when there are many things going on, it’s easy to go into reactionary mode and eliminate these “less important” activities.
 
Avoid that temptation. Scheduling time—even if it’s just half an hour to concentrate on something that refuels you—is a good investment in yourself professionally and in your business.
 
But in order to adhere to these “refreshers” you need to put them on a calendar like you would a meeting with your most loyal customer. Do not allow yourself or anyone else to cancel these important times in your day or week.
 
Free Days
Everyone needs a meeting-free day. It allows you to focus on things that don’t require consensus and gives you more controllable time in your day.
 
You can get quite a lot done if you work to keep your meeting-free day the same day (or half day) every week. This day can be used to catch up on things, reach out to new business, explore a creative outlet or new market, or whatever the business needs at the moment.
 
If you like a tight schedule, building in “free time” that will never be stolen by meetings or other potential time wasters will give you peace of mind that you have a scheduled cushion or productivity boost coming up.
 
If this year is the one you plan on becoming more productive, know that there’s not one way that works for everyone. Implementing one of these tried-and-true structures can help you get better insights into your day and where your time is going. Remember, every decision you make on how you will use your time brings you closer—or tracks you further—from your goals.
 
Since others don’t usually know what your goals are, don’t leave it up to them as to how you spend your time. If you do, you can be assured you won’t end up where you’re planning to be.
 
 
Christina R. Metcalf (formerly Green) is a marketer who enjoys using the power of story and refuses to believe meaningful copy can be written by bots. She helps chamber and small business professionals find the right words when they don’t have the time or interest to do so. 
Christina hates exclamation points and loves road trips. Say hi on Twitter or reach out on Facebook.
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​Who has time for a newsletter? If you want more sales and a more loyal audience, you need to find the time. The magic of newsletters is that they are a way to distribute your content on a regular basis straight to someone’s email inbox or phone. It creates a privileged communication when you do it correctly. But when done poorly, it can feel like a boring monologue of self-promotion.
 
If you don’t have a newsletter, it’s time to start building a list of emails and creating a newsletter. Whether you’ve been a longtime newsletter publisher or one just starting, here are a few ideas to spice it up.

​This year has been a little more difficult to figure out new year’s resolutions. Part of that is because we’re all still reeling from the “lessons” we learned in 2020. Even the best prepared businesses lacked preparation for a global pandemic. Still, the new year is a great time to reexamine what you’ve been doing and how it can get better. Here are a few ideas:

​If you spend any time speaking with copywriters or website writers, they will tell you a lot of businesses understand the importance of an effective About Us page on their website. As there’s been a lot of information written about telling your business story over the last decade and how customers want to do business with people they know, like and trust, many realize the value. You likely know that the About Page has the potential to become one of the most heavily visited pages on your website.
 
However, that’s where most businesses miss an opportunity.
 
They stop at the About Us page. Their business story never moves beyond it. But for the story to be believable, understood, and remembered—and thus effective—it has to spring off the About Us page and into these other places.  

​On Monday, December 21, 2020, the Senate approved a massive emergency economic relief package, government funding, and tax cuts designed to counter the effects of the pandemic and stimulate economic growth. The legislation, introduced as a 5,593-page bill, was passed with a 92 to 6 vote following weeks of intense negotiations.
Efforts to pass economic relief measures in the weeks leading to the presidential election had failed despite numerous attempts. But after the election, a bipartisan group of lawmakers teamed up and successfully negotiated for action to spur economic activity by helping businesses and consumers.

​As I write this, we are a week away from Christmas. And while it may feel like the holiday season has already been decided with everyone from the post office to mail-order businesses saying there's no way they can meet Christmas deadlines, now is the time that local small businesses can shine.
 
You have an advantage at this point over online stores because customers can come in and get a last-minute gift, service, or gift certificate. But you can’t just fling open your doors and let the world in. There are a couple of things you need to be doing to ensure that they feel safe. Still, It's not too late to implement these COVID precautions in your business. 

​This has certainly been a weird year. As we begin to adjust to our new reality, there are some things you could be doing in your business that may help you out in the post-COVID time. We can’t say it will ever be a return to normal. We’ve lost our innocence in some ways. Preparing for the worst in the past would never have (completely) readied us for this. But hopefully we’ve learned a thing or two to help us with future business.

​According to SmallBizTrends.com, “The first set of holiday data and analytics from Adobe reveals online spending is set to increase by 33% in 2020 over 2019.” It’s also likely that this trend will continue as we enter into 2021 and if the pandemic numbers keep increasing. People won’t stop shopping, but they may stop shopping in-person.
 
Online shopping needn’t be owned by large entities like Amazon or Etsy. Your business can excel in online commerce as well. But first, you need to be top-of-mind. One way to do that is to produce valuable content so that when potential customers are on your website, they are moved to action and purchase from you.
 
Online Necessities Before the Content
Before you create the content, work on a few things such as:

• Designing a user-friendly shopping experience and website
• Creating a design that is quick to load and mobile-friendly
• Implementing a review “machine” or protocol in which you make it easy for people to leave reviews
• Engaging your followers on social media
• Honing your voice and brand so that people know, like, and trust you

 
The last two will help with the content you produce but the content will also help engage your followers and solidify your brand.
 
Now let’s talk about the content you need to drive online sales.
 
Content That Drives Online Sales
The content we’re going to suggest creating should be posted on your website, shared on your social media platforms and through sponsored content on Facebook (and any other social media platform that you participate often on), and posted/linked to in your newsletter. Excellent content will do nothing to increase your online sales if people don’t know about it.

​The next couple of months will be telling ones. We’re not saying a lockdown is inevitable, but a lot of communities have spent the past week or so escalating their precautionary levels and this article will give you some advice for overcoming slower business times with a potential shelter in place order.