Working Less. Doing More.

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It goes without saying that some people are more efficient at their work. So much so that they can work fewer hours, yet accomplish a lot more than the average person. A recent Stanford study on this found that productivity declines quite sharply per hour when the workweek is in excess of 50 hours. Most interestingly, the study showed that productivity fell so much beyond the 55 hour mark, that there was no point in even working. Essentially, those who are working around 70 hours a week, and more, are accomplishing the same amount of work as those who are working around 55 hours a week.

The idea of working smarter, not longer, is not a new idea. Many successful CEO’s have already tapped into this method and have found significant success. They understand the value in a weekend away from their work to relax and rejuvenate. By utilizing this time appropriately, their workweeks are far more efficient and productive. The most efficient workers disconnect. If you are unable to disconnect from the technology that keeps you bound to your work, then you never really left. Being on call 24/7 will only expose you to additional work stresses that will keep you from recharging your batteries. Do yourself a favor and disconnect, unless absolutely necessary to stay connected.

Efficient workers have also to practice a variety of different habits, all of which help yield similar beneficial results. These habits include minimizing chores, reflecting on bigger issues, exercising, pursuing hobbies, taking time for adventures, spending time with family, and preparing for the week. All of these activities are mainly linked by their dissociation with work, which ideally means less stress. Chores are basically work at home, so its important to schedule them during the week. Use the free time during the weekend to get in those brief exercises you frequently talk about during the week. Find a habit and stick to it. Whether picking up an instrument for the first time, knitting, or gardening, the mental returns on a passionate hobby are priceless. Lastly, spend time with your family. It is an essential part of recharging and getting back to normal before the busy week starts back up.

Best practices can take you a long way. Utilize these various practices often used by some of the happiest and most successful people out there. It’s at least worth a shot.

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Successful Startup Entrepreneurs

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There are plenty of lists out there detailing the habits of successful people in practically any industry. I have decided to compile the information I have learned about successful startup entrepreneurs and discuss in brief the common habits which have made them who they are today. At first glance, the assumption is that entrepreneurs are everyday people who function like everyone else. After closely examining them, however, you will find there are a few significant differences which make them successful leaders of their businesses.

Often when we try to initiate something new, our first instinct is detailed planning and step by step processes. This is by no means the wrong attitude, but the reality is your plan will more than likely change – many, many times. The most successful entrepreneurs spend some time planning, but a majority of their time doing. Another major part of the process is adapting to reality and recognizing how funding affects your business. A capital intensive venture may require large amounts of funds, but a lot of successful businesses require little funding to get off the ground. Contrary to common belief, limited capital can be a blessing in disguise. Many venture capitalists firmly believe there is an inverse relationship between level of funding and a startup’s long-term success. When you have less cash in the bank, you learn to work through problems as opposed to throwing money at it.

Successful entrepreneurs do not waste their time. As mentioned many times before, these entrepreneurs are realistic in their goals and only chase what is attainable. If you focus on landing real business where you have a reasonable chance of success, odds are you will find it. In the same vein, the most successful leaders avoid anything that is not revenue generating. Reduce the time spent on anything that does not generate revenue, and that includes meetings, spreadsheets, reports, administrative tasks, and more.

The fact of the matter is that successful people come in many different shapes and sizes. One entrepreneur may do things very different than another, but the reality is that they share a few similar significant characteristics. If you are looking to be successful, be sure to learn from those who have taken their businesses new heights. They have obviously done things right, and some wrong, along the way.

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Successful Startup Entrepreneurs

There are plenty of lists out there detailing the habits of successful people in practically any industry. I have decided to compile the information I have learned about successful startup entrepreneurs and discuss in brief the common habits which have made them who they are today. At first glance, the assumption is that entrepreneurs are everyday people who function like everyone else. After closely examining them, however, you will find there are a few significant differences which make them successful leaders of their businesses.

Often when we try to initiate something new, our first instinct is detailed planning and step by step processes. This is by no means the wrong attitude, but the reality is your plan will more than likely change – many, many times. The most successful entrepreneurs spend some time planning, but a majority of their time doing. Another major part of the process is adapting to reality and recognizing how funding affects your business. A capital intensive venture may require large amounts of funds, but a lot of successful businesses require little funding to get off the ground. Contrary to common belief, limited capital can be a blessing in disguise. Many venture capitalists firmly believe there is an inverse relationship between level of funding and a startup’s long-term success. When you have less cash in the bank, you learn to work through problems as opposed to throwing money at it.

Successful entrepreneurs do not waste their time. As mentioned many times before, these entrepreneurs are realistic in their goals and only chase what is attainable. If you focus on landing real business where you have a reasonable chance of success, odds are you will find it. In the same vein, the most successful leaders avoid anything that is not revenue generating. Reduce the time spent on anything that does not generate revenue, and that includes meetings, spreadsheets, reports, administrative tasks, and more.

The fact of the matter is that successful people come in many different shapes and sizes. One entrepreneur may do things very different than another, but the reality is that they share a few similar significant characteristics. If you are looking to be successful, be sure to learn from those who have taken their businesses new heights. They have obviously done things right, and some wrong, along the way.

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Who Needs Email?

New post from Bevans Branham

A recent article with Entrepreneur.com explored the idea of going an entire year without using email. According to the story, Claire Burge, the owner of Get Organized, wanted to free herself from the burden and anxiety of responding to, and writing daily emails.

As most of us know, email has worked wonders in making our daily work lives easier and more manageable. Email is a brilliant tool that has helped organize our lives for years now, however, data is beginning to support the idea that email can get in the way of our productivity. It makes sense, too. If you consider how often we are checking emails on an hourly basis, you begin to realize how this time adds up. More importantly you begin to realize how you can better spend that time.

There are reports which show that email can even be bad for our health. According to these reports, it causes increased levels of stress and anxiety. Loughborough University conducted a study in 2013 to analyze the effect of email activity on blood pressure, heart rate and stress. They found that 83% of government employees did in fact experience higher levels of stress, blood pressure, and heart rate.

We now find ourselves dancing a fine line between maximizing organization and acting in the best interest of our health. As mentioned above, Get Organized owner Claire Burge was motivated to eliminate this unwanted stress and ultimately decided to rid herself of email for an entire year. According to Burge, email is a waste of time. As a result of being email free, Burge found herself to be more productive and could dedicate more time to propelling her business to the next level.

The Entrepreneur article provides a more in depth of analysis of Claire Burge’s year without email. The idea does beg the question, do we really need email? Can I really do more without email? There is no doubt that it helps organize our lives, both personally and professionally, but the thought of action and doing far outweighs the process of mindlessly checking emails. Perhaps this is an exercise we should all put into practice to some extent.

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Employee Motivation

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There are many factors in business today which can harm your company or your brand. It is important to ensure one of these variables is not a lack of employee motivation. If your team is suffering and unmotivated, then odds are you have a big issue. In order to keep employees happy and motivated, make sure the workplace avoids some of the following common morale killers.

It should be understood that employees need to placed in an opportunity to learn, grow, and advance. While not every employee longs for this, most are aiming high and expect to grow in their roles. Without development, employees can become discouraged and the workplace will suffer as it grows monotonous and static. Putting your employees career first and providing them an opportunity to develop themselves professionally will yield major results. This lets everyone know that the company is investing in them.

Recognizing an employee’s efforts also goes a long way. An employee who feels their ideas are not appreciated can often find themselves not trying as hard, because why should they? If hard work goes unappreciated, people grow apathetic. Even saying “thank you” can go a long way. This particular scenario should be an easy fix. Sometimes it is a result of poor management or just flat out bad leadership overall. A poor manager can harm an entire team, which hurts the company. The brightest and best performers need effective leaders to truly excel. Identify and position your best leaders at the top, and do it as soon as possible.

Identifying leaders is only one side of this equation. Be sure to identify the underperforming or destructive employees. A bad hire can wear on employee morale just as much as other factors. If you can identify a negative employee who you feel brings everyone else down, then you need to make the proper moves to protect your team. Let them go or find them a better fitting position.

By identifying these factors, you are portraying to your team that leadership has a clear vision of who they want, what they want, and where they are going. It communicates to your staff they are in the right hands. A clear vision allows employees to focus as one and move in the same direction. This results in confidence, higher morale, motivation, and overall team happiness.

And finally, hire people who are better and smarter than you.

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The Real Super Bowl Winner

New post from Bevans Branham

It’s the day after Super Bowl Sunday and if you’re like many viewers, you watched the game for one thing and one thing only: the commercials. This year, the price was set at $4.5 million for a 30 second spot. Seeing as the game kept viewers interested all the way through to the end of the game, the price seems like a good investment for advertisers no matter where the commercial ended up in the lineup. There were many great commercials throughout the game but the most notable, if you were to ask ad executives, was promoting NBC’s The Blacklist.

The Blacklist, whose midseason return happened right after the Super Bowl, was able to pull in a huge viewer base of 13.5 million this year. The only thing to really beat this was a few years ago when NBC premiered The Voice after the game which received a whopping 20 million viewers! Along with the surge of viewers from the post-bowl spot, The Blacklist is promoting itself with a national scavenger hunt in various cities around the U.S. Essentially, the show’s social media accounts will give viewers and fans clues to find doppelgänger of the show’s man character, Red Reddington, throughout their city. Lucky fans could win up to $500 for finding these look-alikes.

Though The Blacklist got a lot of hype from the Super Bowl this year, many other usual contributors didn’t. Since NBC raised the price of an ad spot this year many top brands who generally advertise publicly took their money elsewhere. Auto manufacturers Ford and GM were the most notable companies who decided that the money just wasn’t worth it for them this year. Since there was more room though, some businesses like Mophie and Loctite got a lot of mileage out of their advertisements. Though their commercials happened in the fourth quarter, since the game was a captivating one it didn’t really matter.

In the end, the advertisements were a huge success. NBC crammed the airwaves with promotions for its shows like Allegiance, The Voice, and The Blacklist. There were also many cross promotional advertisements for their other properties. The most apparent ones were for Furious 7, Ted 2, Pitch Perfect 2, and of course Fifty Shades of Grey (which comes out next Friday).

Overall, NBC made a bold move upping the price of a Super Bowl spot this year and many brands didn’t think that it would be worth it. Though for the companies that did take the plunge, the fact that the game was entertaining the entire way through made it a worth-while endeavor for those ads who were featured near the end of the game. Good work NBC!

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Want to invest? Why not consider global markets.

From Bevans Branham of Palm Springs, CA:

Every year, venture capitalists are asked about their thoughts regarding investing outside of their home country. It seems to make sense that these types of investments would be very lucrative, countries outside of America account for 86% of the users of top internet sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. Shouldn’t venture capitalists be tapping into this market as well?

Well, it turns out that many of these investors who spend so much time and money in their home country (usually Silicone Valley area) are very averse to investing in companies outside of the United States. What are some of the reasons that this is happening, and what can we do about it to ensure that we don’t miss the next big tech wave?

1) Home Bias

It shouldn’t be a huge surprise to anyone when I say that venture capitalists usually have a hometown bias. If you grew up, went to school, started your first company, and currently reside in an area like Silicone Valley or New York City it’s very likely that you’re going to think that companies and talent from that particular area is top-notch. This type of bias happens all the time (and not just with VC’s), so it’s no surprise that when it comes to spending money, VC’s are a little nepotistic.

2) Physical Proximity

If you’re investing in an early-stage startup it’s very likely that you’re going to want to be involved in many of the decisions that this company is going to be making. If it requires a 10 hour flight for you to get to a board meeting, this could be a major barrier to you being as effective with this company as opposed to one which is located in your hometown. Because of this, many VC’s don’t want to invest in potentially-good companies not located near them because they feel as though they won’t be able to help out as much as they’d like to.

Though there are these obstacles, this shouldn’t deter everyone from investing abroad. In fact, entrepreneurs all over say that Silicon Valley knowledge and expertise in places like China, Japan, Africa, and Mexico is in very high demand. If an investment company were able to secure locations in these areas it’s very likely that they would be a hit among the entrepreneurs of the area. Along with that, they would have the unique ability to invest in companies that Silicon Valley based investment firms would be too afraid to invest in. Hopefully these barriers will be eliminated in the near future so we don’t miss the boat on the big companies of the next 10 years.

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