A Workplace Environment With Clout

You're an entrepreneur with Clout, and everyday you enjoy the decision-making power and responsibilities that go along with being the top-dog. Yet, being number 1 comes with a serious challenge: maximizing the efficiency of your team. If you are in the early stages of a startup, chances are you are working from home, which can be the biggest opponent to focus and productivity.

Maybe your team works with you in you own home. Maybe your team works out of their own respective homes, or perhaps you have employed freelancers and you have no idea where or how they are working. But those frustrating days are now over: say goodbye to missed deadlines, excuses, and inefficiency. Apply these rules to your company’s culture in order to keep your team’s eye on the prize.

Have Your Own Office

Your home may be your temporary office, but it is best to not think of it like that. You need to mentally separate your workday and workplace from tedious household occurrences. Hell, may be you even need to physically separate the two. What about working in the living room… You can lie on the couch, maybe watch some TV while you work.  Sounds great, right?  Except your productiveness will decrease drastically. Your goals will only be half met.

If you’re lucky enough to have an extra room in your house or apartment that isn’t getting a lot of use, set up an office in there and have your very own workspace. If not, clean your bedroom, put a desk in there, and get to work.  If even that isn’t possible, you can head to your local library or Starbucks to find a secluded space. It takes quite a bit of discipline to avoid all the temptations of home.

Work Offline

Whether at home or in an office, working online can be a major hindrance. With just a few touches of your fingers you will find yourself drifting off onto your favorite website or procrastinating on HuffPost or Youtube, wasting valuable time. Even if you are the hungriest and most dedicated guy in the room, human nature will get the best of you and distractions become inevitable… Unless you remove them entirely.

Checking the “work offline” option in your toolbar is one option, but how easy is it to uncheck it after a few minutes of work you find particularly frustrating? Maybe you can find a computer that doesn’t have internet altogether.  I myself am writing on a laptop that doesn’t have internet access. Once I finish this article, I can put it in a flash drive, stick the flashdrive into my home computer, and send it in an e-mail. And, once I’ve sent that e-mail, I can go to as many of my favorite websites as I want.  It’s a reward for a job well done.  Speaking of which—

Have a Reward System

I learned the benefits of a reward system in college.  One night I was writing article after article for all of my different journalism class.  Finally, I opened up a new blank document immediately after finishing a 4,000 word essay and found myself just staring numbly at the screen.  Not only was I cramming too much into one day, I also wasn’t giving myself any encouragement.

Rewarding myself after completing a difficult task changed everything.  The work got done faster, felt easier, and I was happy and more relaxed, because I knew that the work was not forever.  A movie, a night out with friends, a 30 minute break for a walk, even a single piece of candy can be enough to keep you motivated and help support your freelancer lifestyle.

These are a few of the techniques you can use to get your one-man business rolling.  Using them, you can go from unemployed to businessman, and from couch potato to hard worker.  As long as you stay focused, stay determined, and keep your office hours, you can look forward to a long, profitable life ahead.

Venture Clout | Elite.