​When it comes to productivity, you’re your own best friend.
 
The things you do now will ensure your future self is as productive as possible, and all it takes is a little foresight and forward planning.
 
I’m always helping my future self be more productive and, while it isn’t always 100% successful, I feel far better knowing that I’m doing whatever I can to keep on top of my ever-growing to-do list.
 
Here’s how to increase your own productivity levels by planning ahead.

When you first start up a new business it can take some time before it starts to make any kind of significant profit so many people continue to work full-time and run their new business on the side, at the same time.
 
It makes sense because you need money coming in to pay the bills while you work on getting your company up and running; however it can take a lot of hard work and very long hours to work two jobs effectively.
 
If you are planning to run your business alongside a full-time employed position there are quite a number of elements to take into consideration, not the least of which is managing your own health and wellbeing at what will be a very busy and stressful time.
 
To give us some tips on how to balance both we asked the experts from Crunch.co.uk and they gave these useful tips. 

In order for any for-profit business to be successful, it must be for-people before anything else. When customers decide to spend money on your service or product, they do so by expecting to be served in the best way possible. That’s what customer service is for. Otherwise, if the service isn't satisfying, they may go shopping elsewhere. This holds true whether you are oriented on service or product and whether you're a B2C or B2B business.

Around the world, a staggering 96% of customers are saying that customer service is a major factor in their choice of loyalty to a brand. Great customer service will create a satisfied and loyal audience, the business will experience growth in the best way possible and the customer experience level will rise substantially. However, just one wrong Facebook or Instagram complaint or dozens of bad comments and reviews will ruin the years of effort that went into building a high-quality business reputation.
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For small businesses, one of the better ways of achieving such high-quality customer service comes with using a virtual assistant to deal with all the nuances.

There’s nothing worse than dreading the journey to work because you know your marketing team isn’t quite as ‘on it’ as they used to be.
 
It’s a crushing feeling - particularly when you’re so invested in the business yourself.
 
What gives? Why do they appear to be so unproductive when they were once flying high and smashing every target?
 
Fear not, for there are some smart, tried-and-tested methods you can adopt to rejuvenate your flagging marketing team, and I’d like to share them with you today.

Did you know that an average of 2 missed calls can equate to 104 potential missed sales each year? If you’re a relatively new small business, then hitting the ground running and getting those clients reeled in is a huge priority. However, with new business comes an influx of telephone enquiries if you’ve nailed a good marketing strategy - and as great as this sounds, answering numerous calls can become very time-consuming.

It’s not just on the hour calls that eat up your working day, but maybe your job involves lots of travelling or the inability to answer the phone due to the nature of your business.

If hiring a receptionist just isn’t in your business budget, then a call answering service might just be what you need.

​A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is usually very helpful for any business. This is mainly because every business faces emergencies or disasters that can hinder its continuation. If your business does not have a continuity plan you might be forced to close down in case of emergencies or disasters. This makes it paramount to know exactly why having a business continuity plan is crucial for your business.

.A recent study published by the Journal of Advertising Research found that events have a considerable impact on fostering a ‘positive brand experience’ amongst consumers, and that people who had attended a brand’s event ultimately ‘gave more value to that brand’. The evidence shows that, with careful and strategic planning, events are an incredibly powerful marketing tool for businesses of any size or industry.
 
In this post, we highlight seven essential reasons why events should be part of your marketing strategy.

​Instagram currently has over 1 billion monthly active users and 500 million daily active users posting millions of photos, videos and comments. To search for any particular person, personality or place would be akin to looking for a needle in a haystack but for Instagram search.
 
Listing in online yellow pages is a great way to get local/global exposure for your business, another smart way is by harnessing the power of Instagram search.
 
Instagram search is like the Google of Instagram where you can search for and find anything on Instagram particularly people, places and performing hashtags. It allows you to find whatever you're looking for (or anything close to it).
 
Learning how to use Instagram search will help you improve your Instagram search game which comes with benefits like increased:

• Visibility
• Mentions
• Likes
• Comments
• Traffic
• Leads
• Sales
• Customers, etc

 
In this post we'll share 5 easy ways to optimize your Instagram profile and posts for Instagram search.

Local citations… What are they, are they useful to your business, and do you really need them? Will they improve your search engine results? We unpick and explore what is seen by many to be a complex issue, but which is, in fact, simple once you understand the basics.