Productivity

PRODUCTIVITY. This has to be one of the most talked-about buzz-words of the 21st Century. There seems to always be a steady stream of great productivity strategies out there that people simply cannot get enough of.However, what tips work for one person may not work for the next. So you mustn't stress yourself out when you try some new productivity strategies that just don't seem to work for you.The best way forward is to create your own set of effective strategies that work for you and stick with them until they become second nature. Many people say that to form a new habit can take up to 2-weeks of constant practice.You should focus on finding the productivity techniques that work best for you and repeat them until they stick. Always remember to allow yourself enough time for them to work effectively and become routine. Some techniques will stick, others, not so much.If your workload is becoming a bit too much for you to cope with, take a look at some of these strategies we have picked up along the way to improve your work time.

1: Make a morning to-do list

This isn't a list to make in the morning when you start work. You will have far too many distractions happening to make this happen.Instead, you need to make your morning to-do list last thing at the end of every day. Summarise what you want to achieve the next day and prioritise any jobs at the top of your list that you didn't manage to get completed today.Cross off each task on your list with a big red marker pen. This way you have a visual record of your achievements for the day that you can be proud of!

2: Cut your procrastination time

You know those horrible or very boring tasks that you know need doing, but you don't want to do? Yes, those tasks that you end up talking yourself out of doing each day.If you actually stopped procrastinating about them and used your time to get them done instead, you will be far more productive with your time.When faced with one of these dreadful tasks, give yourself 3 seconds to cut your procrastination. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Count down from 3, 2, 1, open your eyes and do it!This 3-second countdown will effectively cut your procrastination time to zero and will deliver you with more time to focus on other tasks on your list.

3: Do your hardest task first

You will have a few tasks to complete on your to-do list, but it is wise to schedule your most difficult tasks at the top. This is because you will be able to tackle these tasks when you are fresh and well-rested with plenty of energy and concentration.Getting these more tricky tasks out of the way first will be much more effective than leaving them until the end of the day when your energy and concentration levels may be flagging.

4: Cut large tasks into bite-sized pieces

There can be nothing more exhausting or energy-draining that trying to tackle a huge task head-on. Biting off more than you can chew at once will simply result in your struggling to make any effective headway.This can lead to you dithering around with little enthusiasm to get the task finished. By dividing up the work into smaller bite-sized tasks you will be able to set yourself small and more achievable goals to finish step-by-step. Taking regular breaks after each small step will give you the energy to get through to the end of a gargantuan task.

5: Verbalise your problems

You know when you are working out a problem in your head and then something happens that breaks your train of thought? Yes? Annoying, isn't it.Working out difficult problems that require a lot of thought can be better beaten out if you get those thoughts out of your head. A good way to do this is to verbalise your thoughts.You can do this by discussing the problem with someone else, maybe a work colleague for example. However, if you work alone you can record your conversation and play it back to yourself.Verbalising a problem can work very well to fix something that needs a lot of thought. Try it the next time you need to chew something over.

6: The post-it notes trick

Using post-it notes, an ideas whiteboard or an online tool such as Trello to note down your thoughts and possible solutions is a great way to get things out of your head into something visible for you to focus on. This can serve as a memory aid.You can do this with new tasks as they pop into your head or appear in emails. At the end of the day, you can look at all of your notes and rearrange them into a priority list that will form tomorrow's to-do list. It is a great way to de-clutter your mind.

7: Ditch the guilt

Although this post is all about improving your productivity, you simply cannot be expected to perform at 100% efficiency all of the time.Don't expect perfection all of the time. Give yourself some wiggle-room. Shelve that guilty feeling because you failed to finish everything on today's to-do list. We know you may feel a sense of failure to be hitting your goals, but no one is setting those goals for you.You are setting your own goals, so if you physically and mentally cannot manage your present workload then this can lead to you worrying and fretting about it so much that it can affect your mood, your ability to recharge and re-energise and to sleep.Look at what you have achieved today and be proud of your accomplishments. Shrug off those tasks still outstanding from your list and simply move them on to your list for tomorrow.They will get done eventually – and done well as long as you allow yourself to switch off the guilt and recharge your batteries enough for the next day's challenges.

8: Get adequate rest

Don't neglect your downtime in favour of completing more work. Too many people will get up earlier in the morning so they can get an extra hour or two of work done before the rest of their work colleagues even arrive.While you may feel good about how much work you can achieve by giving yourself more time, you will be losing it from somewhere else in your life. This usually means less sleep, rushed meal times or forgoing coffee breaks.The problem with doing this is that when you return to your normal schedule, your productivity levels will fall. You will then feel compelled to keep cutting into your rest time to increase your productivity once again.A lot of aspiring entrepreneurs will substitute sleep for work, but will quickly find themselves burning out and being unable to function well.If you need 8 hours of solid sleep, don't try to get by on just 6. What will happen over time is that you will not be on-the-ball for most of the day. This can negatively affect your productivity levels because you won't have the energy to focus and complete your tasks effectively.

9: Set up a self-care routine

One of the most effective ways to keep up your productivity levels while at the same time giving you time to recharge your batteries and clear your mind throughout the day is to use a Pomodoro timer.This handy time management tool will schedule regular 25 minute sessions for you to concentrate on your work followed by a short break. You should take these break times away from your work to give your body and mind time to recharge.Shake off tired and cramped muscles by taking a five-minute walk around your building, go outside for some fresh air or perform 5-minute mini-workouts to save some gym time. Go and make yourself a coffee, chat with a colleague, practice some deep breathing or meditation in a quiet corner away from your workstation.Your break time action doesn't have to be huge or profound. Just focus them on a few minutes of self-care to clear your mind and stretch your muscles. Making it deliberate and forming a routine will help you to re-focus your mind when you return to working on your task.

10: Allocate a time slot for social media

Everyone knows what a time-drain social media platforms can be. It can be so tempting to check your Facebook feeds or to catch up with your tweets only to find yourself fully absorbed in your feed with precious work time ticking away.Consign your social media catch-up to a specific time of day and resist the temptation to quickly check throughout the day. This can mean switching off alerts on your phone and locking your phone away in a desk drawer during working hours.

Conclusion

Try out these productivity tips to see which ones work for you and adopt them for at least two weeks to make sure that they stick and become part of your working routine.You will see your productivity increase and your procrastinating reduce, as well as giving your well-being a boost at the same time!You can also save yourself a lot of time by outsourcing your everyday admin tasks. This will free up your precious time to dedicate to more important tasks that you need to get done.Make good use of virtual services such as professional call answering, mail sorting and forwarding or complete virtual office service that incorporates everything you need.

It can be seriously difficult to learn ways for managing stress effectively when you are a busy entrepreneur launching and building up your new business.You spend your time rushing from one urgent task to the next with little thought given to how juggling so many jobs at once can have a negative impact on your mental health.This is why so many new entrepreneurs burn themselves out in the first three years of business and end up having to fold their business because they can no longer cope with the strain.

The Difficulty of creating a healthy balance between work and home life

While stress can affect anyone, it can be much easier for a paid employee working a stressful job to switch off when they leave the office. This isn't always possible for an entrepreneur to do, especially when they have the success of the business weighing heavy on their shoulders 24/7.Solo entrepreneurs are more likely to have stress-related health problems because they will have a more difficult task managing every aspect of the business over the long-term.Learning how to leave your work at the office is your first crucial step towards successfully managing your stress levels.While most entrepreneurs function well without much help, it is the fact that they are carrying the whole load of the business and working so many different roles within the workplace that ends up dragging them down.Let's take a look at some top tips to help you better manage your stress levels and keep you motivated and productive at the same time.

1: Stop burning the candle at both ends

The most beneficial thing you can do for your health is to get adequate sleep. When we sleep we not only repair and regenerate our brain and body, but going without enough sleep will leave you more stressed and unable to concentrate or make good business decisions.Make your bedroom as peaceful and comfortable as possible. This means removing any electronic devices at night that could disturb your sleep.Think about making your bedroom into a tranquil escape where you can close the door and forget about the world. Here are some tips:

• Fit blackout blinds on your windows. Studies show people sleep deeper and for longer when their bedroom is as dark as possible.

• Remove electrical gadgets such as your TV, mobile phone, laptop, tablet and games machines.

• Splash out on some luxury bed linen that makes you feel pampered when you go to bed.

• Invest in a memory foam mattress and soft pillows for ultimate comfort.

• Get an essential oil diffuser and use relaxing essential oils to gently fragrance the room.

Make sure you schedule regular time away from work each week so that you are not working every single day. Treat yourself to a family day out or a romantic meal with your partner.

2: Manage your time more effectively

There have been lots of studies over the years that show that entrepreneurs become more stressed out when they are running a chaotic schedule.What you need to do is to maximise your productivity and make every minute count. You can do this by writing yourself a to-do list that prioritises the six most important tasks you need to complete each day and list them in order of priority.Ignore everything else that is not on your list. Don't get distracted by emails or social media, just focus on working through your 6 tasks on the list for that day.If you don't get everything on the list done, then move that to the top spot on your list for the next day.If you work on a computer, download a Pomodoro tracker to help break down your time into 25-minute bites. The tracker will give you a short break after every 25 minutes to stretch your legs, get a drink and refresh your mind.

3: Outsource your non-income generating tasks

As an entrepreneur, especially if you work on your own, you will be tasked with doing every single job needed to keep your business going.This means that you will be spending a large proportion of your waking hours on tasks that don't directly generate any money for your business.While these tasks are important and essential for running your business smoothly, your time could be better spent on tasks that will bring in money to improve your bottom line.Think about outsourcing your necessary everyday financial and administrative tasks to professionals who can handle these jobs on your behalf. These tasks include:

• Your business bookkeeping and accounts
• Answering your business phone calls
• Opening and organising your mail
• Complete virtual office services

This doesn't necessarily mean that you need to employ your own office staff or bookkeeper.If you can pass off what you can to other people via using a local accountant and using virtual office services it will work out cheaper than employing your own staff and having to move to larger and more expensive premises.

Using virtual office services

As an entrepreneur, you cannot be an expert at everything. It is practically impossible to manage everything yourself – there simply isn't enough of you to go around or enough hours in the day!To be an effective and successful entrepreneur, you need to learn to delegate tasks to others so you can focus your own time and effort on tasks that will be more lucrative for your business.Look into using a complete virtual office service such as Capital Office, London for a very high level of support at competitive rates.

4: Don't let your business consume you

Find things to enjoy that are not business-related. It can be easy to lose your self-identity when it becomes wrapped up in your business. You are far more than your business, so find other things away from work to be passionate about.Be careful not to spread your focus in too many different directions though, or become overly distracted with something that is also very mentally draining or time-consuming.Finding a nice balance between work and your social life is the key here. Choose things that energize you rather than drain you of energy.

5: Don't be afraid to say NO!

As an entrepreneur, it can feel like you are going against nature to turn down work opportunities.However, you need to realise that your time is precious. You need to focus on doing a good job with your tasks that are already in hand rather than accept everything that comes your way and spread yourself too thin.Think quality over quantity! At the end of the day, this is what will bring people back to you for some return custom.To reduce your stress levels and lead a healthier life, you need to appreciate the value of your time and effort. Learn how to say NO to things, especially if you have a bad gut feeling about them.Admit to yourself that you simply don't have the time to take on the job or have the available focus needed to be able to deliver high-quality results.

Practice saying NO!

If you have never said no to anyone so far, it may take a bit of getting used to. Practice saying no and rehearsing what you are going to say ahead of time.This way you will feel more confident about refusing a request that you know you cannot handle or will struggle with.

Don't wait any longer - start today!

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Professional Call Answering Service Overview:

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Still not sure? Don't hesitate to contact our friendly team who will be happy to help you! You can email or call us:Tel: 0207 5663939Email: office@capital-office.co.uk

Most of us have heard the saying that 'content is king' when it comes to marketing your business, but to small business owners content is more than King – it is the heart and soul of your operation.Now, more than ever, a small business owner needs to create and share very worthy content as part of your business marketing strategy. Without good quality content, no-one is going to be aware of your business and what you have to offer.

The importance of relevant content for the small operator

For the solo-entrepreneur, single info-entrepreneur and digital marketers, it is even more critical to make content the very base foundation of your business services that everything else can be built from.No matter where you look for marketing help these days, the advice is always the same – produce unique, highly targeted and good quality content.Your content needs to be authentic and should be able to solve a problem that your target audience has, or helps to educate them further about a particular topic, or alternatively outright entertains them!It is important that you cast your content net as far and as wide as possible, so this means building a well-structured website with solid pages that provide evergreen information and then backing up your website with a blog.You should make a point of updating your blog with fresh information on a regular basis, especially when you start to build a list of followers who will be expecting you to post regularly.Link in your social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.) and if possible include things such as videos, live webinar chats, podcasts that will engage with your audience and deliver plenty of useful information.

The Heart and Soul of Small Business

As a small business owner or solo-entrepreneur, your content is a reflection of you. You should put yourself into your content and believe in what you create. By producing genuine content you will build a lot of trust in your target audience.What will keep them coming back for more and eventually convince them to buy from you is your sincerity, believability and the passion you put into your content – your very heart and soul.This is especially true for any infopreneurs that are selling informational products. What you sell needs to be believable and genuinely useful to your end customer. Your content and your branding are interlinked and are presented as a package to your target audience.If your customers believe in one they will believe in the other. So if you win their trust by providing them with high-quality content they will learn to trust your brand and will be open to reading the offerings that you send out in the future.

Temper your content well

When you create your content you do not want to just present dry facts and boring information. You need to make your content sound human and very conversational.Think along the lines of sitting down with a friend and having a conversation with them. Offer thought-provoking information and insights that will raise their curiosity and desire to find out more.Opening a dialogue with your audience works really well for customer engagement. It makes your company look and feel more human, approachable and open to a two-way conversation.Making a share-worthy blog where a reader will consume your content and will want to share it with their family or friends will result in your content being actively passed around long after you have posted it.This is the power of using your content wisely on social media platforms where your target audience can read your content then will “Like,” “comment” and “Share” to their own timeline or newsfeed.

Online conversations are free!

One of the greatest things about engaging with your readers on social media platforms is that you will be taking part in online conversations, which is the new medium for marketing your product and services. And what's more your content will be spread around and shared for free!This can be a real bonus for small business owners or sole traders working with very limited marketing budgets.Remember that online engagement and activity is the next big thing in marketing and is on a par with word of mouth marketing where your customers will be recommending your products or services to their peers.By making your content share-worthy your target audience will read your posts and then instantly share it with their friends and family, and most likely a lot of their peers will fit your ideal customer demographic, so you will be reaching out to more people who will like and follow you on social media.

Finding the time to create quality content

The whole point here is to create as much high-quality content as you can and publish it on your blog and across your social media accounts. Even if your content doesn't get shared much it will still count as valuable in the eyes of the major search engines.Google, Bing and other search engines value websites and blogs that contain great content. They will more likely rank you higher in search engine results for your chosen keywords when you are seen to be an active contributor with a good library of published information and someone who posts fresh content on a regular basis.This is why it is important to find a good balance of creating quality content and posting it regularly enough to make a difference.However, if you are a solo-entrepreneur or a small business where you don't have the available staff free to dedicate their time to produce great content on a regular basis, then you could look at outsourcing either your content writing or some of your everyday office tasks.If you have a flair for writing and want to produce your own content, then you can really dedicate your time into pouring your heart and soul into creating rich and vibrant content to share.If you are not very good at writing, on the other hand, it would be worth looking to hire a freelance content creator to do this work for you.Should you want to create your own content, then look at outsourcing your other office-based day to day tasks that will enable you to work undisturbed in peace and quiet to draw up your content.

Outsourcing your essential office tasks

Imagine being left in peace to work on writing your blog posts, creating an infographic or filming an informational video for your business without being disturbed by your ringing phone.You can have your business telephone calls answered in a professional manner by using our Professional Unlimited Call Handling services.Our call answering service is an affordable yet professional service designed to help a variety of clients to manage their incoming calls. With our call answering service, our PA’s answer your phone calls allowing you have peace of mind that you haven’t missed an important call as you were unavailable.Having a professional Virtual PA to answer your calls can add thousand to your business. You can impress your new and existing clients with our professional call handling service. Our team of professional PA’s will personally greet your clients and handle your call with the greatest of care.You can choose to have messages taken or important calls transferred live through to you if you need to speak to any important clients. Our service is flexible and adaptive, designed to add real value to your business. Don’t waste another call, have your calls handled expertly by trained assistants today.We also offer Complete Virtual Office services should you really want your business to be taken seriously and to project a professional image.If you would like to speak to one of our friendly team about how we can help your business to succeed then give us a call on 0207 5663939 or email us at office@capital-office.co.uk

Have you ever watched Black Mirror on TV? It's a British TV drama series that was written by Charlie Brooker and to say it's a bit dark is an understatement! It is compulsive viewing though as each new episode is completely different and like its own film with new characters and storyline that can help your business. How?Well, if you haven't seen it, then it is worth watching on catch-up if you can get it. If you like a good horror mystery set in modern times then you will love it!The main focus of the series is around modern technology such as virtual reality, AI and social media. One episode stands out in particular here called ‘Bandersnatch’.This episode was set in the 1980s and involved a smart teenager creating his own video game based on a ‘choose your own adventure' style, much like the storybooks you could buy in the '80s where you choose the path of your character through the story by selecting actions to take.

Your choices determine your adventure

Wherever you choose to go next will affect the storyline and the eventual outcome. So you could choose to walk through one of three doors, each with a different adventure in store. One door could lead to a battle with a dragon, another could lead you to a castle full of gold, the third may lead you to fall down a well with no escape.But why the Bandersnatch episode of Black Mirror stood out was because the main character in the story (the teenage boy) doesn’t realise that he himself is actually inside a ‘choose your own adventure’ game of his own, but one that you and I as viewers had control over.So, as you watched the episode (via Netflix) you are given the option over what path the teenager takes next. Your choices include everything from mundane actions like choosing what to eat, to more dramatic options that you know may cause issues for him.

Small decisions or huge decisions

What the episode highlighted well was that no matter whether you made a small decision, such as choosing what breakfast to eat, or a huge decision, such as jumping from a high balcony, making a choice to follow a path is better than choosing to do nothing to move your story along.It was quite a ground-breaking TV show and was lots of fun! It is easy to see how this type of show using interactive technology will take off in the future.

What does this have to do with my business?

Watching this Black Mirror episode got me thinking about decisions. More specifically the business decisions we choose to make every day and how by making one tiny decision can change the way you work from now on and well into the future.As a business owner, you are faced with making decisions every single day. You may make dozens of decisions a day, or hundreds per week or month, but all of these decisions are conscious choices. Some of them may be pretty insignificant, but others can be far more impactful.

Thinking outside the box

It can be really easy to forget that your choices can have a huge influence on the future success - or failure - of your business. Many business owners may think that their day to day operations are fixed and set up in a certain way that cannot be changed or improved upon.

For example, you may think to yourself:

• “I could never expand my business. I am far too busy with my day to day duties to keep it ticking over. I simply don't have the available time to work on growing my business.”

• “I tried to get more clients, but I am already struggling to manage the ones I have.”

• “I simply cannot escape the office to meet new clients. What if I miss a call from a potential new customer?”

• “I’m stuck in this boring 9-5 routine.”

Sometimes it feels like there is nothing you can do to break free of your routine and move your focus away from performing your every day necessary tasks and simply getting through the day.If you really do feel this way, then NOW is the time to choose to think outside of the box that you have placed yourself in!

Choose your own path to determine where you will end up

It’s not just the huge life decisions that you make which determine where you end up. You can also choose to make small but significant choices that can actually lead you towards remarkable business success.Take that decision to meet up with an old business colleague for a coffee. Catching up with them and giving them some of your time may result in both of you striking up an exciting business opportunity.Choose to clear out some old junk from your garage or home office. Your decision may lead you to discover that a particular item sells really well on eBay, which you could source and add to your online store to sell.Decide to join a gym to help reduce your stress. You may see a lucrative new sales outlet for your sports shoes or hand-made shower gel.If you believe in the theory of Karma that you get out of life what you put in, then you need to be out there 'putting things into life'.

Free up your time to make your own luck

You need to allow yourself to make small and positive business decisions so you can start to make your own luck in life. If you choose to do nothing, then nothing will improve and you will be actively reducing your chances of business success.A service that can change your business fortunes if you choose to use it would be a Complete Virtual Office. Here you would be utilising the skills of professional virtual assistants to cover your every day essential business tasks that are keeping you from expanding your business.The positives of choosing to use virtual services such as ours would mean that you would no longer be tied down to your office. There will be no chance that you will miss any potential new customer or client phone calls as these will be answered in a very professional manner on your behalf.

Impress potential new customers

What is more, your callers will be immediately impressed that your business can afford to employ a professional receptionist. This can give your company a really polished and professional image. This would be much better than having their call answered by a stressed-out and short-tempered business owner that is obviously struggling to cope.Just think of how much time you can free up to dedicate to growing your business instead of simply being bogged down answering the phones and dealing with your business post for most of the day.Find out more about our Complete Virtual Office services or any of our individual virtual services to discover why thousands of savvy business owners like you are freeing up more of their time from their day to day admin tasks and choosing to make positive choices for their future.

Our human brains are designed to worry and look out for danger – our brains are very good at it too!Leading psychologists have often concluded that humans were not built to be happy, but were built to survive. This strong desire to survive is driven by us looking for potential risks and problems and working out how to overcome them, should they ever occur.It is our cognitive features that have helped us evolve so successfully. From discovering and controlling fire to inventing the wheel, we were driven to develop such things out of fear or to solve a problem.

• Fear of starvation = hunting tools and later agriculture
• Fear of death = medicines and medical treatments
• Fear of threat = organisation of communities and the formation of armies

And the list goes on....Our brains are built to determine the next thing to fix or improve in our lives and this is why sales and marketing techniques aimed at solving human problems and providing solutions to issues are so effective.

Appealing to our restless minds

There are not many people who are in the fortunate position to be able to sit back, relax and be content with their lot. Even those millionaires who appear to have everything at their feet still worry about how they are going to keep their wealth protected and their lifestyles maintained and improved.Instead of our brains being content with our surroundings and how the world is making us feel right now, we will constantly focus on how we can create or fix any problems we have or worrying about what may be on the horizon.Our human brains don't sit comfortably for long wondering, “What can I enjoy today?” But, rather, “What problems can I fix today?”

Making obstacles into business opportunities

Some common human obstacles can become business opportunities if you know how to solve them, or at least provide some temporary relief for a little while.This is exactly how the holiday industry works. You have a stressed out and exhausted worker looking for a solution for their woes. You own a seaside hotel with a pool and spa where people can take a well-earned break away from their busy lives.Your hotel guests get a chance to escape the 9-5 grind and their long and tedious commute to work and back each day. Win-win all round!The skill here is to keep your hotel guest coming back for more. You can do this by keeping in regular contact with them and providing them with exciting news updates and beautiful photographs of your spectacular sea-views, comfortable hotel rooms or tempting new menu.By doing this you are connecting with your customers on an emotional level and you are reminding them that the perfect solution to their problems (overwork and exhaustion) is right here waiting for their return.

Creating a vision for your customers

Everyone is creative – even if you believe otherwise. You are creating new thoughts as you read this. You can help solve your target customer’s problems by creating a positive vision of your solution in their minds.By truly understanding your ideal customer inside out you will know what concerns or issues they will worry about. It is your job to create a vision of their perfect solution and deliver it on a plate directly to them.When you take the time to analyse your target audience and get inside their collective heads you will start to see what things feel good to their senses and things that don't.This way you can avoid switching off your target audience with the wrong message or creating the wrong image of your product or service in their mind.You need to be discerning about their discomfort. The idea and vision you want to create for your product or service is something that is positive and worthwhile. Show them that having what you are providing will enable them to better cope with whatever problems they are experiencing.

Tactile marketing techniques

Despite to huge rise in digital sales over the internet we still have a human need to touch something. This is most common with physical products such as shoes and clothes. We will have a desire to identify the most comfortable texture or the best fit.There is still a huge demand for real books that you can hold and read despite the popularity and convenience of having a digital version to download and read instantly. This is why for self-published authors it can be a good move to offer your book as a digital version on Amazon Kindle, Smashwords and other digital platforms but also offer your book through a print-on-demand service for those who prefer reading physical copies or would like to buy your book to give as a gift.

Emotional marketing with physical materials

As you want to be solving a problem with your product or service you need to connect with your customer on an emotional level. Giving your customer something tactile to connect with can often outstrip digital marketing efforts for gaining sales.A recent study conducted by Millward Brown for Royal Mail found that “this research strongly suggests that greater emotional processing is facilitated by the physical material than the virtual.”Offering your prospective customers a gift or free sample will act to leave a much deeper impression on the brain. This causes your product or service to be better remembered and a positive physical experience will help to build trust in your brand and a stronger desire and motivation to buy from you.

Tactile marketing can be along the lines of these examples:

• Offering free samples of your cookies if you own a bakery shop or market stall
• A free 5-minute hand massage if you are promoting your beauty salon at a local community event
• Hosting a free cheese and wine taster evening if you own a deli or restaurant
• A free sauna or workout session at your gym

Solving problems of your own

While the main focus of your business activities should be towards finding solutions to your customer’s problems, don't forget that there are also great solutions to help you solve your own business problems and issues too!One of the biggest issues a sole trader, solo entrepreneur or small business owner faces is the lack of available time to dedicate to developing their business and making it run more efficiently.As a business owner, you will have problems of your own to solve. So why not consider freeing up more of your time and giving yourself a break by using any of the following tips:

1: Cut down on your time reading and responding to email

Did you know that nearly one-third of an average working day involves dealing with your inbox? Set yourself a rule to only read and respond to emails twice per day. You can set yourself a time limit of half an hour in the morning and the same in the afternoon, for example at 10 am and 3.30 pm.Don't look at your email at other times and only respond to those that you need to. Email can eat up a huge chunk of your day and sending more emails out will only act to increase what comes in.

2: Use productivity apps

There are many free business apps that have been created to help you to better organise your day. Google Calendar, for example, can help to remind you of appointments and important events.Look at using a free Pomodoro timer to help with your concentration and to give you regular short breaks throughout the day to refresh and re-energise your mind.

3: Build an email list

Capture the contact details of your website visitors and build an email list for a low-cost solution to engage with your customers and interested prospect. MailChimp is great for organising your mailing lists and handy for running split-marketing campaigns.

4: Manage your Social Media

We have all fallen into that trap of opening Facebook and then boom! Half the day has gone. Try to curb the time you spend on social media by using a management tool such as HootSuite or outsourcing its management to an outside expert.

5: Outsource your admin tasks

As mentioned above with handing over the management of your social media to an outside expert, you should also look at freeing up your time from other business admin tasks that are just as time-consuming.While essential tasks for the success of your business, admin task are a big time-drain and they are unproductive in the sense that they don't generate any money for your business. Yes, they are necessary, but your time would be better spent focused on other aspects of your business, such as your customer research and marketing plans.Look at freeing up your precious time with services such as those offered by Capital Office London:

• Call Answering: Impress clients with a London telephone number and a team of professional PAs who will personally greet your client and handle your business calls.

• Virtual Office: Our complete virtual office combines our prestigious London virtual address with our leading professional call answering service. Our virtual office is designed to help you convey a professional image whilst ensuring you maximise your productivity.

6: Organise your to-do list

Obey the 2-minute rule where if you have a task will take less than two minutes to complete, do it right away. Getting these little tasks done and crossed off your list will make your to-do list look far less intimidating and you will be encouraged to power through the rest of your tasks with greater energy.

Conclusion

In summary, look at the many ways your product or service can help to solve a particular customer problem. Identify your target audience and work out their likes and dislikes and find where they hang out so you can better reach them with your solution.Don't forget to solve your own problems along the way by making good use of the tools and services that are available to you, from free apps to outsourcing time-draining tasks.With all this extra time you can save yourself, you can better focus your efforts to define your business goals and also give yourself a well-deserved break once in a while.

The key to customer engagement is to consistently publish fresh and interesting content on your business website, blog and social media pages.This is a very well-known and proven fact that most successful marketers make good use of. However, what do you do with all that valuable content once it has been read?Over the course of time, your website or blog will have accumulated quite a lot of content. Some of it was very popular, some of it not so much.But rather than consigning your old blog posts and articles to your very own content graveyard, why not breath some fresh life into it and reuse it to help boost your company profile and profits at the same time!

Updating content with your current direction

As businesses grow and evolve over time, quite often a company ethos, direction or way of doing things may change. This can mean that what you wrote about your company two years ago may not apply today.For example, with increasing pressure on companies these days to 'go green' and reduce their carbon footprint or environmental impact, many businesses will adopt new environmental strategies into their operations. This means that their old web content and blog posts will make no mention of a new company 'green ethos'.Any new prospective customer that is looking for an eco-minded company to buy from will not be aware of your new positive environment stance if they stumble across you via an old piece of content.You will need to make your customers aware of your new direction if you want to capture that 'green' demographic. Leaving your old content as it is doesn't really position you as the 'go-to' company for products or services delivered with any sort of environmental consciousness.

Recycling your old content for more ROI

As well as the environmental example mentioned above, you can also do something positive with your underperforming blog content and old archived posts.

1: Rewriting and optimising

You should already know which are the most important topics that are of most interest to your readers. You should also know what your most popular keywords are that brings the most traffic to your website.Search through your content to find posts on your most popular topics and pair them with your keyword research. Check to see if your most popular topic content contains your most valuable keywords and key phrases.If they don't contain any important keywords or phrases then you should take action to have these re-written to weave in more targeted keywords and key phrases – but make sure you don't overdo this. Google and other major search engines hate keyword spamming and will penalise you for 'keyword-stuffing'.

2: Creating content pillars

Make an index list on your site where you can list everything your site already contains on those topics or touches on those areas of your business that people most search for.Once you have optimised your content and organised them into a list you will have created a content pillar that easily groups several posts into one strong, easily accessible pillar. Your readers will appreciate this as they will be able to access plenty of information on the same topic easily without having to dig around your site or blog to find the content they want to read.Note: When re-writing and optimising your content remember NOT TO publish it separately and delete your original post. This is important because you may have earned some valuable backlinks on your original content that will be worth hanging on to.

3: Add new CTA's

Revisit your old content to see if you can find any missing opportunities to optimise for lead generation.You need to make it as easy as possible for your readers to take the next step to either engage with you further by signing up to your mailing list or actually go and buy your products or services.Check to see that each blog piece or web page has a call to action (CTA) at the end. You may discover some pieces that don't have a sign-up link or a live link to your online shop or contact page. Add an effective CTA where there are any missing.If you already do include a CTA at the end of every piece of content but you are not seeing good click-through rates, then consider changing your CTA to a more proven one that has worked well on other pieces of content or test different CTA approaches to see if you get better results from using a different format.

4: Redistribute through social media

Your website and blog content is precious material. Although social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter are where you will find your customers hanging out, the downside is that social media has a very short memory.The whole point of social media is to share current hot information. People want information and they want it now! This is why they are so hungry for new news and content and hang out for hours each day on social media platforms.You can use this to your advantage by leveraging your now freshly-optimised old blog content for new hungry minds. The chances are that you may well have a lot of Facebook or Twitter followers that haven't read your old content from two years ago.Why not dig up your old posts and refresh them with your new products, services or a special offer that you are currently running and use these to feed your social media posts.Redistributing your newly created information pillars and updated content will work to get the very best return on investment from your posts and will also get your information in front of as many eyes as possible. It will also take the pressure off your shoulders to feel like you need to write new content every single day.

5: Get some virtual help

Your archived blog and website content doesn't have to sit in the dark in some forgotten corner of your site. You can transform your valuable content and put it to work for you to become a high-traffic asset.Reworking your old content and setting up a fresh distribution plan to get your optimised content off the ground will take some time and effort.We understand that the pressure put on your shoulders to perform well and deliver good results can be great. This is why you should look at using effective ways to relieve that pressure.Hiring virtual office services to help you with your workload is not only a very cost-effective way to get the job done but it allows you to put 100% of your focus into your content refresh plans without any disturbances.While you focus on your old content refresh and redistribution, look at making use of these valuable virtual services that will free up your time and allow you to concentrate:

Professional unlimited call answering service

Our call answering service is an affordable yet professional service designed to help a variety of clients to manage their incoming calls.With our call answering service, our PA’s answer your phone calls allowing you have peace of mind that you haven’t missed an important call as you were unavailable. Watch our quick video to see how our Call Answering service can help your business.

Complete virtual office services

Capital Office complete virtual office combines our prestigious London virtual address with our leading professional call answering service.Our virtual office is designed to help you convey a professional image whilst ensuring you maximise your productivity. Watch our quick video to see how our virtual office service works.Both of these cost-effective professional virtual services are ideal for a solo-entrepreneur or sole trader that works alone and can greatly benefit from our professional support without having to hire their own employees.You can read more about our virtual office services and FAQs or contact us directly to discuss your needs with our friendly team.Call us: 0207 566 3939Email: OFFICE@CAPITAL-OFFICE.CO.UKOr drop in to meet us in person at our London offices:Capital Office, Kemp House, 152 - 160 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX

According to figures collected by the Federation of Small Business, there were 5.6 million small businesses at the start of 2018 in the UK. Small businesses accounted for 99.3% of all private sector start-up businesses at the start of 2018 and 99.9% were small or medium-sized (SMEs).There were 1.4 million employing businesses and 4.3 million non-employing businesses. Therefore, 75% of businesses did not employ anyone aside from the owner(s).What makes or breaks a new start-up business, regardless of size or how many people are involved, is their ability to generate and maintain a stable cash flow. One of the main reasons why a small business will fail in its first couple of years of operation is through having a poor cash flow where a good balance of money is flowing into your business at a greater level than what flows out in overheads, such as for staff wages, supplies, business expenses, rent and utility charges etc.

Why your invoicing schedule is important

Believe it or not, there are lots of small business owners that don't actually invoice their clients each week – or even each month!A lot of small business owners are sole traders or solo-entrepreneurs that operate a 'single-person' business where the responsibility of invoicing falls onto the shoulders of the sole owner, as well as every other business-related and administrative task, needed to run their company.The lack of available time to keep up with a regular customer invoicing system is one reason why a small business owner can fail to maintain good cash flow. When you are the person that is doing all of the work, then your financial and administrative tasks will take a back seat should an urgent order come in from a customer that needs your attention.In some cases, business owners are not invoicing until three or four months later after they have completed their work or delivered on the customer order. This can be a fatal mistake to make when trying to run a business.

Invoice management

To establish and maintain a healthy cash flow for your business you need to be invoicing promptly while offering reasonable payment deadlines. You then need to ensure that you chase up any outstanding invoices as quickly as possible once their payment deadline has lapsed.Admittedly, this can be a mammoth task to perform and manage for a single-person business, especially when you cannot afford to turn down work or new customers coming in to be able to fit in managing your invoices.

Tips on invoicing your customers

There are a number of ways to try to keep your cash flow steady when it comes to invoicing your clients or customers. Sending prompt invoices is a good start, so send them immediately as soon as you have dispatched a customer order or completed a job of work that you have been hired to perform.Depending on the nature of your work, you could look at ways to secure payment upfront, or at least a deposit or part-payment. Doing this will mean that you will have some cash reserves to purchase the stock or materials you need to start.For example, if you offer a service that may take some weeks to complete, you can ask for an upfront deposit to retain your services. Halfway through your contract, you could seek a further part-payment that will see you comfortably through to the completion of your project.

Offer monthly payment plan options

Again, depending on the nature of your business, you could look at the possibility of setting up a monthly or even quarterly payment plan for your services, or for a regular supply of stock or product that you sell all-year-round.There can be some comfort in knowing that there will be some regular payments flowing into your businesses coming from a monthly or quarterly payment plan that your customers have signed up for in advance.Payment plans or business subscriptions are also a great way for other small business owners to buy your products or services in small, regular payments without it drastically affecting their own cash flow or completely draining their cash reserves.

Discounted prices for annual purchases

Taking the time to sit and invoice each and every customer you have on your books each week or month can be a tiresome task. If your business attracts customers that will be repeat buyers or needs a consistent supply of goods and services throughout the year, rather than invoicing them each month, it may be more viable to offer them a tempting upfront offer instead!Offering larger companies that have a healthy cash flow system an annual payment option, with a tempting price reduction or discounted rate, can be more advantageous than individual monthly invoicing.The company will be tempted in by a reduced price when compared to the monthly price for your services, plus you will get an up-front cash injection that could provide a very good boost to your business cash reserves.Plus the fact that having annually renewing customers means that you will only have to invoice once per year per client! That is better than trying to find the time to invoice each customer twelve times per year.

How to avoid bad debts

The only way your business can avoid bad debts is to keep a positive cash flow. Having a negative cash flow can do serious harm to your business, especially in situations where you will struggle to pay for essential supplies that you need for your business to operate.If you fail to pay the suppliers that you rely on, as well as a failure to pay your utility bills that are essential for your business to function, you will see your business crumble in the long run.

Let's look at some ways to improve your business cash flow and to avoid bad debts:

• Prompt invoicing
• Taking upfront deposits
• Taking payment part way through your work
• Chasing up outstanding invoices quickly
• Adding a late-payment interest charge to outstanding invoices
• Offering monthly, quarterly or annual payment plans
• Setting up different payment options: PayPal, card payments, bank transfers

Other ways to improve your business cash flow

To make sure that you can dip into some emergency cash during times of need, you can talk to your bank about setting up flexible overdraft options.You could also look at freeing up your time to dedicate towards better management of your invoicing system:

• You can simplify your invoicing by using online accounting tools such as QuickBooks for example. They offer online bookkeeping and accounting services for small business owners and the self-employed.
• Free yourself from your most time-consuming administrative tasks such as answering your business phone and sorting out your business post by outsourcing these tasks to Capital Office London. You can choose from a Complete Virtual Office service to individual virtual services such as Unlimited Call Answering or mail forwarding options at very cost-effective prices to help free up your time.

Remember, this is your own business – your pride and joy! You have worked hard to build this from the ground up, so don’t be negligent when it comes to managing your business cash flow.

Sole traders and small business owners working from a home-based office actually have a lot more pressure put on them when compared to doing a paid job working from an employers office space.

While the majority of people imagine that being your own boss comes with a lot of freedom, but in most cases the opposite is true.

You may think that every solo entrepreneur or small business owner can sit around all day in their pyjamas, drinking coffee and having the TV on in the background while they work from a laptop.

This image may seem really appealing, especially if you have to face the daily grind of commuting to an office every day, sitting in slow moving traffic, feeling uncomfortable sitting at your desk all day while wearing a suit, tie and tight shoes.

However, there are a lot of things that you can take for granted in your employed job that a small business owner must factor in. We are talking here about time-consuming, yet very important tasks, such as emptying your office waste bin, keeping your office environment clean and free from dust that can seriously affect the inner workings of your electronic equipment, and more....

More responsibilities than you think!

But it is not only the added tasks of a bit of office cleaning that you will need to take care of – the security of your home office will also fall squarely onto your shoulders.

An employer will provide their workers with a safe environment to work within and this includes having Health & Safety policies in place to keep staff physically safe and free from injury, but also Data Protection procedures that prevent sensitive data breaches and company information falling into criminal hands.

Working for an employer will also mean that your boss will be the one paying out for security staff, CCTV, security access points, fire alarm systems and equipment, smart locks and physical window and door locks.

Just because you run your business from your home office doesn't mean that you don't need to have security measures in place to protect your customer information and business data to remain compliant with the current Data Protection Act.

However, there are a lot of steps you can take to help automate your home office and free up your time from your day-to-day administrative tasks that are essential to the success of your business.

How to utilise digital assistants in your office

With the introduction of digital assistants in the form of Amazon's Alexa and others, we have been able to revolutionise our homes. Digital assistants have fundamentally changed the way a growing number of us interact with our digital devices.

Voice-activated AI technology is growing more versatile by the day. We are now seeing Alexa and other digital assistants being able to take on many different tasks in the day-to-day operation of our small businesses.

Setting up Alexa or an Echo-dot in your home office can immediately start to pay for itself through automating task such as scheduling your diary, conferencing calls, running productivity tools to keep you focussed on your work, organising your to-do lists, and delivering data.

Here are just three useful examples of how using a digital assistant can save you time and effort:

Automate your conference call schedule:

You can use a conferencing managing tool to sync with Google Calendar. This will help to remind you of your next conference call and will automatically connect your call without you needing to dial the number. You would simply need to say out loud: "Alexa, tell Conference Manager to start my conference call."

Organise your travel with email assistant:

If your home business involves visiting clients, then you can sync Alexa with an email assistant tool. This handy tool will parse your email inbox to find and read back travel confirmations, so if you want a quick rundown about your car rental, hotel booking or flight details, you will get the information you need without needing to physically check your emails for the information. You would simply need to say: "Alexa, ask Email Assistant what time is my hotel check-in."

Get up to date web analytics:

As well as delivering current news and curated data, your digital assistant can also give you real-time website data. Alexa offers web analytic tools that can sync with Google Analytics to deliver you fresh, real-time updates on your website data, such as visitor numbers and web traffic.

There are new skills being added by the day to digital assistants such as Alexa and Google Assistant. It is worth keeping up with the latest releases and useful tools that can help free up your time and keep on top of your office based tasks.

Automating your business bookkeeping and accounting

Balancing your books and keeping track of your business expenses can be an incredibly tedious job for most small business owners. Rather than sitting and pouring over your business bookkeeping and accounts for hours each week or month, you can look at automating these essential, yet quite boring tasks.

By using an online bookkeeping and accounting service, such as Quickbooks for example, you can transform how you do your company accounts.

Many sole traders will start out simple and use free tools and easy systems to get them off the ground and the money rolling in. This can involve creating a simple invoice in Word and sending this to your customers at the end of each month, or on the completion of your work project.

A physical paper-based cash book would then be used to note down all income and outgoings, along with petty cash and recording of business-related receipts.

Instead, by automating your bookkeeping and accounts through an online service, you can save yourself a lot of time and effort. Your accounting service will sync with your business bank account and any merchant trading accounts you have. Every time you make a business transaction it will be recorded. You can scan in physical receipts for petty cash and non-electronic spending.

What is also a major time-saver with online accounting software is that you can create and send invoices in seconds. These will be logged and tracked and you will be sent an automatic reminder of any late payments and outstanding invoice details.

You will be able to see at a glance how much you are owed, how much you have spent and know instantly the state of your business cash flow. This is so much better than having to work out all of your figures by hand.

Automating your Annual Reporting

As a sole trader or small business owner, you will need to complete and submit your annual tax return based on your income and expenditure for each tax year. You can prepare and submit these easily by yourself by using an online accounting solution, such as Quickbooks or a similar option.

As a sole trader, you will need to pay tax according to your income tax band. You will also need to pay either Class 2 or Class 4 National Insurance contributions, depending on your total business profits. Again, your tax and NI contributions can be automatically worked out for you using your online accounting solution.

If you are a limited company, you will also be required to complete and file your audited company accounts each year. This is necessary to keep your company compliant with the law, but it will also show you the financial health of your business. Your figures will also be used to work out how much corporation tax you will need to pay.

Ideally, you should have your company accounts drawn up by a qualified business accountant. This can be an expensive overhead for a lot of micro-businesses owners, especially if they are used throughout the year to keep checks and balances on your business finances, so using an online accounting system to do all of the legwork for you can make your record keeping as simple as possible.

You can set up your own personal gateway online with HMRC and this portal will allow you pay your self assessment tax bill each year, as well as check on things such as your pension entitlement assessment for when you retire, and details of any benefit payments that you currently receive, such as Tax Credits.

Freeing yourself from your home office

As a business owner working from home, you will have important day-to-day tasks to perform that are essential to keeping your business ticking over. This includes completing menial tasks without becoming distracted or sidetracked.

It can be hard to concentrate on your work if you are worried about what is going on right outside of your home office door. You may have a sick child at home that needs your attention, or you may be trying to work during school holidays and your kids are causing chaos.

Before you know it, you have lost a day's worth of productivity and important business calls have been missed or cut short. Your incoming business mail is piling up and left unopened, and your emails are stacking up in your inbox, but you are unable to work through them because you are struggling to juggle with so many other office tasks.

You can take steps to free yourself from your everyday office tasks and be there for your family whenever they need you. It is possible to escape your home office to take care of family matters knowing that while you are absent all of your important business telephone calls are still being answered promptly, professionally and in a friendly manner.

Now would be a perfect time to make use of very flexible and cost-effective virtual office services, such as those offered by Capital Office, London.

Whether you want to have your business phone calls covered when you need to concentrate on work, meet with important clients, or simply spend time looking after a family member when they are sick, you can use our unlimited business call answering service or you can go the whole hog and have our complete virtual office services at your fingertips when you need a little extra help.

By using virtual office services to free you from your every day time-consuming administrative tasks you can focus your time and energy on other more important things, such as getting a work project completed to meet an impending deadline, meeting with customers or potential new B2B partners or trade suppliers.

Capital Office, London is here to help you if you are struggling to run your own business from home or find your everyday business admin tasks are becoming a little overwhelming. You can find out more about the benefits of using an unlimited call answering service and how it can set you free from being tied to your home office telephone. Or you can discover how using a complete virtual office can actually be good for you and your business if you are a sole trader.

For a business owner on a tight budget, making good use of a live business call answering service can make a lot of sense. Firstly, using an unlimited call answering service such as the one provided by Capital Office, London will actually save you a lot of money.

Because you don't actually have to go to the expense of hiring your own reception staff and providing them with costly offices and IT and telephony equipment to be able to take your incoming business calls, you can reap plenty of financial benefits from using an all-inclusive service instead.

Let's take a closer look at the five major benefits of using our Professional Unlimited Call Answering services:

1: Have your own receptionist without hiring one

You can enjoy the full benefit of having your very own company receptionist without actually having to go through the motions of employing one. When you take on a salaried employee, your responsibilities towards your staff can be huge!

Think about your commitments to providing them with a contract, full-time salary at around £25,000 + per year, holiday and sickness entitlements, pension and NI contributions. This is just to employ them to answer your phones.

Instead, you could choose to use a live telephone answering service that provides you will all of the benefits of having a real-life company receptionist, but without having to shoulder all of the associated financial costs and your employer's commitments and obligations.

At just a fraction of the costs associated with hiring your own staff, you can get your virtual receptionist to handle all of your business calls in the way you want. Plus the fact that because you will be using a virtual service like ours with multiple receptionists, we can handle high volume calls to your business.

This means that you will never miss a single incoming business call, no matter how busy your phone line gets. If your budget would only allow you to stretch to hiring one in-house receptionist to handle all of your incoming business calls, how many prospective new customer calls do you think would be missed while your receptionist was busy dealing with just one incoming call?

A professional call answering service such as ours is a perfect fit for a sole trader, solo entrepreneur or a small business or partnership with very few staff members.

2: Present a professional company image

As a business owner, you will appreciate that your customers are key to your success. If you want your business to survive and thrive, then you need to provide exemplary customer services. This includes the very first impression you make when prospective new customers call your business telephone number.

Instead of having their call greeted by a very flustered and tense business owner, they can have their called answered in a professional and courteous manner by a fully-trained and highly experienced virtual receptionist using the business greeting of your choice.

Your customers will get an immediate great first impression of your company and be filled with confidence that you are a professional outfit that takes your work seriously. Your callers will have no idea how large or small your business really is.

This is why our call answering services are so valuable for new start-ups and lean businesses that don't want the extra expense of running a physical office. You can set up your office structure to be as lean and cost-effective as possible by making good use of virtual office services.

Depending on what you have planned each day, we can take care of your calls to allow you to focus on an urgent work project that demands your full attention, or allow you to hit the road to travel to a client without having to pull your car over to answer your phone, or allow you to lock yourself into a business meeting for the day without being disturbed or interrupted by your phone.

Whatever your day-to-day business tasks involve, having your calls answered swiftly and politely by skilled professional receptionists offers you an outstanding customer service experience without the risk of missing out on potential new customers because you are too busy to take your own calls.

3: Hit the ground running

By using a professional call answering service such as ours, you can start from day one with our team of skilled virtual receptionists seamlessly integrating with your company.

Because you don't have to concern yourself with any staff training you can use our services in the full knowledge that our team of receptionists are fully trained and ready to handle your calls.

We literally hit the ground running with our virtual services. This means that you get a 100% professional service right from day one without having to invest a single moment of your precious time into any staff training.

4: Free up your working day

We all know how crucially important it is to make sure you answer your business phone calls. However, when you are trying to focus your time and energy on actually doing your work and running your business, you can often be left wishing that there were more hours in the day or that all of your callers would ring you within a one-hour time slot so you could get your work done in peace.

By using a professional live call answering service such as ours, you will be able to untie yourself from your company phone. You will be able to take your time back and use it more constructively while your callers feel like they have been well looked after.

Our Professional Unlimited Call Answering Service will make sure that your day can be used more productively, whether that is meeting an up and coming deadline, conducting a business meeting or even spending the day balancing the books when you don't want your concentration broken.

We can relay your messages to you as and when you want us to, plus if you are awaiting an important client phone call, we will know to put that call directly through to you.

5: Free yourself from cold callers

What can be more frustrating for a busy business owner than having their day constantly interrupted by cold callers?

By using our live call answering services, you can be left completely free from the nuisance that is business cold callers. Not only are cold callers frustrating but 99% of the time what they are offering has no importance to your business or are of any interest to yourself personally.

Your virtual receptionist will be able to screen all of your incoming calls so that no cold callers get past them. Our screening process will ensure that only your important calls are put through to you when you want to hear from them in person, and your phone messages that we relay to you are from genuine business callers.

Our services offer great flexibility that allows you to choose which callers you want putting through live, and which caller messages you want to look at and call back at a time that is convenient for you.

Find out more information about our Professional Unlimited Call Answering Service or do not hesitate to talk to us if you want to discuss your virtual office needs. We are here to help!

Whether you are a sole trader running your business from home, from a workshop, or providing mobile services where you to your customer, you still need to be able to dedicate a lot of your time towards your everyday business admin and office-based tasks.

When you are a 'one-man-band' (or one-woman-band) it can be extremely difficult to keep on top of all your essential admin duties while you are busy working for your clients or customers. This is where getting the support on offer from a range of different virtual service providers can be a real life-saver.

There are many types of business set-ups being run by sole traders from e-commerce, business consulting and private tutoring to trade services and childcare providers. In fact, according to Government figures, sole traders make up nearly 65% of UK businesses. This really shows that the self-employed really are the backbone of the UK economy.

Home-based business owner

One of the easiest and most low-cost options for a sole trader is to set their business up from home. This can help greatly to keep overheads down, especially when you are starting up a new business on a very limited budget or maybe by using your own personal savings to get started.

While this can be a very convenient option, just like any other business set-ups, it doesn't come without its own set of inherent issues.

Because you are based at home you can save yourself a lot of time and money not having to commute to an office-based job every day. You could spend your whole day working from your home office or spare bedroom without even changing out of your pyjamas! As long as your work doesn't involve any face-to-face meetings with your clients, you could get away with not having to buy yourself any smart work clothes too.

Never escaping from work

There are so many benefits for sole traders to choose to work from home that the thought of never having to go out to work in the cold wind and rain, or even stepping out of your cosy slippers can be too tempting not to take up.

However, because you can never really escape your home office it can be difficult for you to switch off and disconnect yourself with your work at the end of the day. Too many sole traders admit that they are constantly checking their emails and phone messages throughout the evening when they should be relaxing or spending time with their family.

A vast majority of home-based sole traders will also often find themselves catching up with their business administration tasks in the evening after they have finished for the day with their clients or have completed their other business duties.

Making the best use of your available time

Ultimately the success of your business boils down to how effectively you use your time. If you want to make your business a success, but don't want it to take over your life 24/7, then you need to become good at leveraging the tools that are available to you.

As your business grows you will notice that your to-do list will also grow at a matching rate. There will be a point where you will start to struggle to spread your time thin enough to cover everything and perform your tasks to a satisfactory level.

You need to accept that you can no longer manage to do everything by yourself, right? So, what can you do to ease the pressure on your shoulders while at the same time ensuring that every single business task is done properly and effectively?

If you prefer to keep your business small and don't want to hire a full-time assistant to help you out, then you should seriously consider making good use of professional virtual services that will help you complete everything and will continue to help your business to grow and become more successful.

Let's take a look at the four top reasons why you should consider using virtual services to help you run your home-based business more efficiently.

1: Keeping your business overheads as low as possible

It is fantastic that you have launched a successful home-based business, but if your success now means that you need more help and support, you will have to look at renting office premises and hiring staff to help you manage your day-to-day essential business tasks.

Renting office premises and hiring employees can be incredibly expensive. You will probably need to wave goodbye to your hard-earned business profits as you will need any spare cash you generate to cover your increased overheads.

Your business will now not only be operating to support you and your family but also to support your new employees and cover your extra business overheads, such as office rent, power and utility bills, business premises insurance, IT and infrastructure maintenance etc.

However, if you would prefer to forgo all these extra expenses and keep your business small and to remain operational from home, you can avoid all of these extra drains on your business income by choosing to use professional virtual office services instead.

Using virtual office services such as those offered by Capital Office, London, will open the door for your business to run more efficiently without the need to spend your money on expensive office rent, employing staff and all those extra bills that come with going down this path.

You can benefit from:

• A professional receptionist to take all of your business calls and messages
• Having your business post managed for you
• Having a prestigious business address in the heart of London's business district
• Have your own 0207 or 0203 Business Telephone Number that is separate from your home number
• Out of working hours voicemail to email service-based
• Business packets and parcels signed for
• Mail forwarding to an address of your choosing
• Free central London business meeting room use to impress your clients

Above all of these benefits, you get to keep your overheads small because you will not have a need to run an expensive office. Plus the fact that because you are using virtual staff, you don't get the headaches or stress associated with looking after the financial and physical needs of your own employees.

Using an expert team of trained administrative staff through our virtual office services will mean you can concentrate 100% of your efforts on your business, whether that is meeting with clients, fulfilling your customer orders or creating your products without constant interruption.

2: Give off a professional business image

We all know that in the business world 'first impressions count' so rather than let your customers think you are running a kitchen-table business from home, your customers will think that you are a professional set up with your own suite of offices.

Running a home business where you are dealing with face-to-face customers can also run into trouble because it becomes impossible to separate your work life from your family life. How does your other half feel about you inviting strangers into your home, especially if you have young children around?

There is also the worry that should you have a disgruntled and unhappy customer, they will know where you live. Do you really want to risk them bringing trouble to your front door that will disturb and upset your family? It is a thought that scares a lot of people working from home.

You need to consider your business reputation, especially if you are going after any high-priced contracts. In a lot of industries perception is important, so a large company isn't going to trust a contract with a hefty price tag to someone working from their spare bedroom, even if you could do the job with your eyes closed.

When you think you could own your own prestigious Central-London business address and telephone number set in one of the world's most highly-desired business districts for just a few hundred pounds per year, there really is no argument!

When you need to meet with an important client that you want to impress, you can arrange to use one of our smart business meeting rooms. Our meeting rooms are unbranded and your business guests will be greeted at our London offices by your very own professional receptionist. This will leave a very lasting positive first impression of your business in your client's mind.

3: You can be available for your family

One of the main reasons why so many people choose to work from home is to build a flexible business around the needs of their family. Because you are at home you will always be able to be there for any of your family members, so if one of your children catches a sick-bug and needs to take a couple of days off school, you can be there for them.

You can take care of your family members while still being able to do some work-related tasks at home knowing that your virtual team members will still be handling all of your day-to-day administration duties that help to keep your business ticking over.

4: Outsourcing the tasks you don't like

Let's face it when you start up your own business your enthusiasm and passion for your business extends to making and selling your product or offering your services, but all those dry and boring administration tasks that need doing are not the reason why you started your business in the first place.

In an ideal world, you would be left to your own devices where you simply focus your time on doing what you enjoy and do the best. However, in the real world, a business owner needs to wear many different hats.

Take an objective look at all your essential business tasks that you need to do to have a successful business. Look at outsourcing those tasks that really don't interest or inspire you to others that can take care of these tasks on your behalf.

We cannot be an expert in everything, but sole traders are expected to be competent in all aspects of running a business and are expected to comply with rules and regulations set forth by HMRC and other regulatory institutes.

By utilising the services of virtual office providers you can get the help you need to get things done. This includes all of your day-to-day administration tasks that will allow you to be free to carry on doing what you do well.

With a complete virtual office package, you can level-up your business without having to change your business structure or payout to move location. Why not take a look at our range of virtual office services to see how cost-effective our services truly are.

Do not hesitate to contact us should you need any further help or guidance about our professional services. We are here to help!

CALL US +44 (0) 207 566 3939

EMAIL: OFFICE@CAPITAL-OFFICE.CO.UK

Capital Office , Kemp House, 152 - 160 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX