At the end of last year our founder Gemma and I put together an advent calendar of small business tips exclusively for members of our Eureka community. It had some lovely feedback so we’ve cherry picked the 10 favorite tips, and we’ve listed them here for you. If you’re reading this and you’re thinking, “I’m not really sure I can class myself as a small business owner”, fear not, these tips can be applied whatever stage you are at.

Map out regular tasks throughout your week.

When you’re running a business you’re often faced with regular and spontaneous tasks. Staying on top of it all can be tough. Our tip is to assign regular tasks to days of the week, so you can stay on top. Which tasks do you have that you can assign to certain days?

Don’t lose time trying to swap everything over, stick to set days for the regular tasks and let the rest slot in around them.

Ask for feedback.

If someone has bought your product or service, the chances are they are going to be a returning customer. Asking for feedback means you can adapt and tailor your product so that you know there is a demand for what you have to offer. Perhaps they love the smoothies you make but they never finish them or they always want two of them. Giving your customer the chance to communicate this with you could mean that you create a new smoothie size somewhere in between. Can you think of the last time you made a change in your business based on customer input?

Prioritize your breaks

A topic raised by female founders – Nonie White, Clare Flaxen and Helen Hamston, in our LIVE session on how to avoid business burnout. “Prioritize your time first. Timeblock your breaks and work around those. Not the other way around.” This is so important when you are working for yourself. Oftentimes when we are working for ourselves we get caught up in working every spare moment we have. I can definitely relate to eating my lunch whilst on the go. Mapping out your breaks first will change your pace and enhance your quality of work.

Never underestimate the power of local Facebook groups.

Make sure you’re a member of relevant groups to your business: local groups, groups with a shared interest. Post your news and events, or updates on your website etc. in these groups as they happen. Introduce yourself and your business, and share your story. Facebook groups are a great way to network and meet other like minded businesses. 

Have a digital declutter

The more information your laptop, computer or phone has to process the slower it will run. So free up some space. Delete old emails. Remove any old images or files no longer and use.I also make a habit of closing all of my tabs at the end of everyday so that I can start afresh the next day. Be sure to add any important ones to your to do list before you do though.

View your website or social media account from someone else’s eyes.

Sit down with a family member, ideally of a different generation. And ask them to complete a task on your website: order an item, find the contact page etc. This can help you identify how easy your website is to use, how clear the text on your social media account is or any tricky bits that you might have missed.

Use the power of technology – Get yourself a scheduling tool.

While some of the best ones do incur a monthly or annual cost, meaning that doing without might seem like a cost saving, this could actually be costing your business money. If money is an issue, Creator Studio is free and already integrated with facebook and Instagram making it fairly straightforward to use. Most scheduling apps will offer you a free trial so that you can get to grips with the software and make sure you like it first. But be careful NOT to schedule too much work, if you’re not prepared to commit.

Collaboration over competition.

Every. Single. Time.There is enough room out there for everyone. We can build each other up, show support and champion one another. There’s no need to step on anybody’s toes.

The truth of the matter is – one good idea begets another. Passion is inspiring. And it’s ok to want to do the same thing, or something similar. It’s ok to recycle, repurpose and reshare content so long as you credit the ones who inspired you to action in the first place.

If you don’t know, just ask.

There’s only one way to find out. There’s SO much you can learn at the press of a button between Youtube and Google’s search bar. I do find that sometimes Google can’t answer my question. Perhaps it’s the way I’ve worded it but even so asking for help on Social Media usually gets results. So don’t be shy, if you’re having trouble working out a new tool, you’re looking for personal recommendations for a website developer or you need some words of encouragement for your business, just ask!

Read, research and read some more.

The more you read the more you understand and the more information you have to share with your audience. Once you’ve built connections you can help each other grow. And you can do that by educating each other through your content. Reading from a variety of sources is important, as you want to make sure that the content you share is valid and true. So always triple fact check.

We hope that you’ve found these small business tips useful and that they help you along your way. Want more fantastic tips like these? Join our small business community here.