As an entrepreneur, you have to be prepared for everything but, the truth is you are not really prepared for all situations. Some situations cause a setback while others are equivalent to a natural disaster. Even a normally planned day can go haywire, and all your efficiency goes for a toss with that.
However, when you are a newbie entrepreneur, you ought to keep going. Mobile app startups face a lot of these productivity and efficiency issues, as even the most validated idea can take you for a ride on some days. You are not prepared for many of the factors such as sudden budget change or a competition releasing your idea before you.
If you want to keep your boat sailing and don’t want to lose out to competition, then here are a few productivity tips that should help you get an edge over the competition.
1. Prioritize Everything & Delegate Accordingly
As an entrepreneur, you are constantly overworked. Yes, you need to put in the team’s efforts all by yourself, as there is a lot of work for everyone.
Especially, in the initial days of the app launch, you tend to forget food as well. However, if you keep in mind that you need to delegate, and if you work on prioritizing, then you are sure to get things done smoothly.
Make a task checklist for the launch, pre-launch, and post-launch activities. When you plan, start prioritizing as well. You may not have to do all the work on day one itself. You can start with some parts, and then keep moving along the way to the next tasks on the checklist.
Once the prioritization part is over, begin with delegation. It is not necessary that you do everything by yourself. Some tasks can be done by the people working for your startup. When you begin dividing the work, you will feel less loaded, and more energetic. As a result, your productivity increases, and you tend to speed up the launch.
2. Keep Refining the Business Strategy
One of the biggest business mistakes that every newbie entrepreneur makes is considering the strategy to be constant.
That’s not true! As your business grows, your business strategy changes. What was an effective strategy at one point won't be true after a while.
As a mobile app startup, you need to keep changing the strategy to meet your new goals and vision. If you stagnate your goals or the strategy, then you will not be able to scale your business or acquire new customers.
If you think what you started with was not good enough, then you ought to make corrections to the same. It is important to change the course of the business plan at regular intervals for a smooth and streamlined business.
3. Create a Proper Communication Channel
Vague or improper communication can also hinder the entrepreneur's productivity. If you have channelized your efforts into creating a good mobile app design, but there seems to be no communication between you and the developer or, between you and the designer, then whatever plans you have may not materialize.
What may be a priority for you may not be for someone else, which will eventually lead to non-achievement of the goals.
You can use synchronous communication channels such as Skype, Whatsapp messengers, etc.
You should have a set day for the review meetings. Make sure you don’t have long meetings or long sessions for brainstorming alone. It is important for communication to be smooth and effective. Plan your communication well in advance, and make sure everyone within the team is on the same page.
Pay thorough attention to these components for effective communication:
4. Define your Goals Properly
Another issue that affects productivity is goals. What are your startup goals, and what do you aim to achieve from the app? It also affects how you do the business, and the profits you achieve from it.
If you want to acquire 500 downloads in the first two months, then you need to work your business accordingly. Your marketing plan and goals should be defined in a way that the app can be promoted accordingly.
Apart from having a good marketing strategy, you should ideally link the business strategy to the marketing strategy for increased effectiveness.
5. Create a Rule for Email
Email happens to be the biggest disturbance in your life. You ought to set a separate time to check the emails. In many cases, entrepreneurs spend half their time replying to emails, which reduces the actual productivity, and the time available for the core work.
You should not check the email every two minutes or so. Don’t keep refreshing. Set a particular time when you will check and reply to the emails.
If you feel that you don’t need to be CC’ed into a particular email, ask the people not to mark you. responses should be short and crisp, so that it does not take a long time for the other person to read it.
6. Take a Break to Rejuvenate
Every person requires some time off. You should too! It is not good for you to keep doing what you are all the while. You should relax so that your mind is full of fresh and interesting ideas again.
After a hard day’s work, you can think of going out to exercise or, plan on going for a short walk. A cup of coffee with some friends who are not related to your niche is also a good idea.
When you move away from what you are doing, you get a better idea of how to move about. Sometimes being stuck with the same idea or trying to get things done without taking a break, will not only affect your health but also your productivity.
7. Always Network for Better Responses
It is not easy to get business via cold calling. We are not saying you should not cold call but, we are implying that you should use your network to get started initially.
Connect with people on the business social networks to get promising responses. The reason being rejections that you get with cold calling can reduce your morale, and you may not be able to sell your app effectively. The business prospects increases and returns improve when you move from cold calling without naming your business, to networking through known people.
Go to the relevant people, a market in places where your target audience is present, and start engaging them as soon as you have the app idea in mind.
Don’t wait till the launch of the app to begin an engagement. When you have people in your niche ready to download your app, it will be easier for you to raise your conversions.
8. Take Note of the Employees’ Words
Your employees believe in you, which is why they have come to your startup, and working with you. If you are stuck somewhere or, believe that things are not working for you, instead of brooding or trying to do things by yourself, listen to your employees.
They have the experience and understand their job well, and might be able to help you out. In most cases, entrepreneurs believe that they can handle the situation themselves, and don’t go to others for guidance.
Remember the road to a startup is lonely, and the more people you involve in the road, the easier it would be for all involved.
9. Keep Assessing the Risks
Risks should be considered when you begin working on your startup. As an entrepreneur, there are several risks involved, most of all the financial ones. If you don’t have a plan to manage and mitigate the risks, it can cause heavy issues for you as a business.
Before launching the app or, even launching yourself into the development of the app, make sure you have a thorough risk assessment plan ready and the mitigation methods identified.
10. Schedule your Day
This is a must-follow technique if you want to succeed with your startup. You ought to have a plan for the day and schedule the time that every little piece of work assigned will take. Make sure you use management tools like **RoundPie to manage the day and keep up with the appointments for the day.
If you don’t have the task on the calendar, don’t start working on it. it will reduce your productivity and efficiency.
Also, don’t forget to have a firm grip on your schedule.
As Lou Gerstner, former CEO of IBM once said, "Never let anyone own your schedule."
Summing up
As a new entrepreneur, things can get overwhelming, when you decide to work on everything all at once. You tend to forget that the app launch is the goal and not the process, and you also have to create opportunities for your business.
Procrastination and spending too much time on media are also sins that new entrepreneurs commit, which leads to inefficiency and delays.
These 10 points if followed properly, can help you achieve your entrepreneur goals, and win you your conversions.
About the author:
Sourodip Biswas works with a team of experienced mobile app developers at Space-O Technologies, a leading taxi app development company. He spends his time researching interesting technologies and mobile apps for businesses. His work has been published on various distinct blogs across the web.
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