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With less than a month to go until the Procurement Act comes into force on 24th February, the big question is: Will it really open doors for SMEs in public sector contracting?

New habits for the New Year

Mornings turn into days, which turn into weeks, which in turn into months and another year has gone. Have you come back from your holiday keen to develop better time management habits? Have your time management habits meant that you didn’t get a holiday? We have prepared 12 5-minute time management exercises to help you get more from your day. Invest an hour with these suggestions to see if they could help you achieve more, feel less stressed and get that perfect work/life balance. 1) Have a plan for the day As the old chestnut goes, failing to plan is planning to fail. Don’t potter. Have definite targets for the day. Imagine the sense of accomplishment that you’re feel when you look back at a list of completed tasks. How to do it? Spend 15 minutes at the end of your day planning your next day. Review your tasks and number them in order of urgency and importance. 2) Eat your greens Your most urgent, and possibly most important task might not be your favourite. Tackle it first. Just like eating your greens, it may not be the most enjoyable of experiences, but it will do you good. As before imagining how relived/satisfied you will feel when you complete it. What if you have got tasks that carry over? Try a test. Every time you review these tasks, draw a star (or type *). If you get up to nine stars there is every chance that you will never complete that task. Which leads us to 3) Pass the torch/delegate Remember this is delegation not abdication. Before you delegate you need to know the parameters of the task; what skills are involved, possible time allocation of task. Who will you choose to take on the task? You also need to bear in mind if you need to train any aspects of the task. If you do decide to do in-house training, the initial investment will be worth-it in the end. 4) Stop plate spinning As a business owner/manager you have many responsibilities. As you flit between operations, accounts, marketing it’s possible to leave lots of half-finished jobs. Do you make your life more difficult than it needs to be by distracting yourself unnecessarily? How often do you look at your phone? Do you have Outlook open the whole time, so that you can see emails ghosting in front of your eyes; haunting your day? To completely focus on a project could you leave your phone in a different room. If you have staff could you ensure that they know that you are not to be disturbed and even equip them to field any queries that come up so that you don’t face an avalanche of issues when you resurface. 5) Change your schedule: Tweak it out If you’re reading this article, then it’s obviously because you want to discover some useful time. If you’re struggling with time management, the solution may be as simple as changing your schedule around and analysing your activity patterns; that counts at home as much as it does at work. Please note we are not talking about wholesale change – just little tweaks. 6) Leave a buffer between meetings to avoid getting punch drunk Jumping immediately from one task or meeting to the next may seem like a good use of your time, but it has the opposite effect. We need time to clear our minds and recharge by going for a walk, meditating, or just daydreaming. After all, the human brain can only focus for about 90-minutes at a time. This exercise is particularly useful when you analyse and record the actions that you may have picked up from each meeting. There’s nothing worse than when meetings bleed into one another or you cannot properly recall what you’ve volunteered for until you see your initials against them at the next meeting! 7) Stop being perfect: Done is better than Perfect Benjamin Franklin said, “Well done is better than well said.” Mark Zuckerberg has built an empire on the maxim that Done is better than Perfect. Do then review and analyse. If you don’t start you guarantee you will not finish. If you are begin, you don’t know where you’ll end up. When you’re a perfectionist, nothing will ever be good enough. That means you’ll keep going back to same task repeatedly. How productive do you think your day will be as a result? 8) Just say “No.” Stop being everyone’s friend by saying “yes”. Be realistic with yourself regarding your time and other commitments. You’re not helping anybody (particularly yourself) if you monkey collect, stress yourself out and let people down. This mindset can lead to a downward spiral in performance and mood. 9) Don’t waste time waiting: Make every second count Even in the most organised of days you can find yourself with pockets of time. Business contacts will run late, you will have suppliers that keep you waiting. Have some tasks in mind that you can do to make the most of these “gifts” in time. 10) Find inspiration: Keep the fire burning Even if you are doing a job you love life can become a trudge. Make sure you can give yourself a chance to get above this by recharging your motivation. Tune into a TED Talk or read a biography of a thought changer. It will give you the energy to think around issues. 11) Batch similar task together. When you have related work, batch them together. For example, don’t answer your emails and phone calls throughout the day. Schedule a specific time to handle these tasks. By doing this you can educate people in how you work; they will not expect to receive an email response straight away for instance. Different tasks demand different types of thinking. By batching related tasks together, your brain isn’t switching gears - which means you cut out that time reorienting. 12) Do less: don’t do the headless chicken Don’t punch the air. So much energy gets wasted by running around and plate spinning. By slowing down you can be aware of what needs to be done and concentrate on those things. Make sure you use a task list for the week and evaluate it daily. By doing this you can increase your chance of improving your work/life balance.

Try out these tried and tested techniques, highlighted by Xero, to get your invoices paid faster 1) Invoice straight away So many business owners we meet say they haven’t got time to send invoices. You need to send invoices to get paid; like it or not it’s what you’re in business for Don’t make setting up and sending invoices an arduous process. In these days of user-friendly cloud-based accountancy software you can send invoices from your phone; on the move. Remember clients are more open to paying bills when they've just received the goods or services that you delivered. Cash in on the goodwill. 2) Send clean invoices Is there any ambiguity, misinformation (or wrong information) on your invoice? Remove it! Take away any potential blocks to your client paying up. Details on your invoice should include description of the work or product, the date it was delivered, and any client requirements (such as a purchase order number). Some clients have very specific requirements so ask what they need to see on the invoice. Could you ascertain this information prior to you doing the work? Make the due date clear, too. 3) Ask for prompt payment You are not a bank; you don’t need to give credit. More than a third of businesses now request payment within a week. Consider doing the same. Your client may want to negotiate for more time – and you should try to be flexible – but starting off at seven days will help set an expectation of prompt payment. 4) Make on-time payment worthwhile How clear are the terms and conditions on your invoice? Putting thought into how you operate this policy pays dividends. You operate from a position of strength. Have you considered charging fees for late payment? If you charge include a line something like: “Late fees are assessed after the due date, at the rate of 1.5 percent per month.” A more positive approach is to offer a discount for prompt payment. The lure of saving money is a powerful motivator, even if it’s just a few percent discount it gives you, or your credit control person/department an extra chase date. 5) Be easy to pay Customers will pay faster if they can use their preferred method. Offer them a variety of options. Be aware that some customers would like to pay using credit card or an automated clearing house (like PayPal). Could you set up an iZettle card reader to take credit card payments? Our research shows you'll get paid 20 days sooner if you offer these options. Learn more about online payment services. If you are shepherding your clients towards paying via bank electronic transfer, then make sure you include your business bank account number and sort code number on the invoice. 6) Chase payments Have you got a credit control process? You'll need to follow up with the client to make sure it's being processed. Online invoicing makes this a lot simpler. When you send online invoices, you can see when it's been opened and when it's been paid. If the due date is approaching and it hasn't been paid, send a reminder. You can set your software up so that the reminder email is sent automatically. If the invoice goes past due, it's time to make a phone call. Remember there are several legitimate reasons why an invoice doesn’t get paid. Don’t always think the worst. Try and establish what the reason is and then maintain communication with your client. This really helps with your cashflow planning.

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Developing a strong intellectual property (IP) strategy can be a critical component of a company's success. Here's why: