Finding your Style

Like a lot of entrepreneurs out there, I had not had any previous experience working for myself before starting out with Ginger Sky. With that in mind, over the past 12 months I have been taking it slow and learning as I go. I have learned so much and as I always like to share my experiences this week I thought I'd pass on one of my tips for working for yourself.

My tip this week relates to some work I've been doing over the weekend and is all about learning how you work best. By finding out what factors return the most productivity from yourself it makes it easier to manage your time and workload. For me, I discovered I work best in short but intense bursts and finding this out has worked wonders for my productivity.

Putting this into practice, it means that rather than planning long periods of work, I set aside a couple of whole days. An example of this is from the weekend I've just had, after a couple of weeks of just ticking over I had set aside this weekend to really get things done. This has worked out great and this weekend I have made an application for a mailbox, sorted out my accounts, produced a financial structure, shortlisted new products and planned next Sunday's trip to Spring Fair International, amongst other things.

Discovering how you work best can also really help you understand the type of people you need around you. In the early stages of your startup venture it's not always possible to have other people on board, should this be the case then you need to focus more on the environment around you rather than the people. For me, I have some great friends (or should that be gluttons for punishment) who have been willing to help me out where they can. Fortunately their working style compliments mine in that they are best working methodically and over a longer period. This helps me so that when I have my couple of blitz days, getting lots done and coming up with new ideas, they help by recording all of it. They then go away and do bits of research or prod me to remind me of deadlines and important work needed before the next session.

For me, discovering this has meant that I can set aside time to get through the nitty gritty work while still being able to do things like visiting trade fairs and testing out new product ideas. Finding your style and preferred working method can really help increase your productivity and keep you focussed on your business.