Everyone has hard the adage “Work Smarter Not Harder”, but not everyone truly understands it. That’s because we live in a culture that values hard work and productivity. Because of this we assume that more production equals more pay.
On the surface level, this is true. The more you produce the more you get paid. However, there is a difference between working to get paid and working just to work. Unfortunately, a lot of business owners mistakenly fall into the latter category.
I’m not saying this to shame you. In fact, I’ve been there. I’m saying this to open your eyes. The truth is when we learn to work smarter, we can make more money without running ourselves into the ground. Here are a few ways to work smarter.
Delegate.
I feel like I’m beating a dead horse when I talk about delegating, but I still see to many business owners who refuse to do it. I also see business owners who are terrible at it.
The first step in working smarter is to get stuff off your plate. More specifically, stuff that needs to get done but that isn’t a good use of your time. This may look like accounting, invoicing, emails, customer service and scheduling. It also looks like delegating things you aren’t good at.
If you really want to take it to another level, hire a manager. That way you just delegate to one person and they delegate to everyone else on your team.
Repurpose content.
One way I’ve learned to work smarter over the years is to repurpose marketing content. For example, I’ll turn my podcast into an SEO friendly blog post and upload the video version to YouTube.
Or, just recently, rather than coming up with new quotes for Instagram images, I told my graphic designer to re-do a few images from a couple of years ago. They need a refresh and I have so many new followers that they probably never saw them the first time. This, in turn, means less work for both of us.
Set up systems.
Systems are a great way for you to work smarter. For example, I was out the other night when I received a notification that someone had booked a consult with me. I wasn’t actively working, but my business was still running.
More than likely, they received one of my automatic marketing emails or saw my autowebinar and decided to book a time using my online calendar. This is just one example of a system. Others include auto-invoicing, an editorial process or a sales funnel.
The thing about systems is they take a long time to build. They also require a lot of work upfront. However, once you have it set up parts of your business will run themselves. This leaves you and your team more time to do better things.
Final Thoughts
Learning how to work smarter in your business takes some time, so don’t feel too pressured to figure it out right away. The important thing is you start thinking of ways to avoid doing things you don’t have to do yourself while increasing revenue.
Amanda Abella
Amanda is a best-selling author of "Make Money Your Honey", a book that helps freelancers and business owners understand their relationship with money and how to make it more productive. She's driven by helping others live the most productive and fruitful way possible.