I have often brought here articles about the importance of leadership in a company, but today I would like to address the reality of other types of entrepreneurs: those who are not leaders and do not have a leader.

In these cases, the entrepreneur works alone and faces a daily need that imposes many challenges: self-management.

Staying productive at work is never easy, and entrepreneurs know this very well: not working in an office certainly has its advantages, but one must be able to manage oneself.

Otherwise, problems can arise that compromise the proper performance of each task and even risk neglecting one’s private life.

Therefore, let’s see how a solo entrepreneur can be more productive and efficient and take advantage of all that this type of work has to offer.

Demand x Productivity

When working alone, one of the first things to learn is the importance of balancing the scales by putting demands on one side and productivity on the other.

The fact that you have to manage yourself and accomplish each task in the time it requires can be liberating on the one hand, but on the other hand it can mean a real risk that you will not achieve your goals.

To keep that balance, here are some tips:

Make a plan

As a solopreneur you have to plan your activities in advance, taking into account the amount of work and the deadlines you have to meet by fitting them into your personal agenda every day.

Don’t rely on your memory or papers lying around the room, set a real schedule (daily, weekly, or monthly) to be respected so that you are productive and can sleep soundly. 

Use technology to your advantage

If you have multiple projects to manage during the day, plan at the beginning of the day the right amount of time for each and set timelines within which to complete the various small tasks. 

Use technology to your advantage by using apps that help you create lists, time your tasks, and don’t let any appointments or insights get missed.

Everything in its own time

You need to learn to set a time to accomplish each task, otherwise you will accumulate too many worries and not take action to solve anything.

In order for your tasks not to be seen as an insurmountable mountain, it is necessary to set goals that help you to be more conscious of the work accomplished.

Cut out distractions

When we are in an office, working in a team, we wouldn’t dream of interrupting our work, would we?

Working alone, on the other hand, allows us to be more flexible, of course, but we should never exaggerate this freedom as an opportunity to leave all tasks to the last minute. 

Now, what to do when the conversations that distract us are often those of our customers? This is another challenge that the solo entrepreneur must go through.

To control this impasse, set a time in your day just to answer clients and avoid being “available” at any time.

Don’t forget your health

Make sure to set strict times for snacks, lunch, and especially for ending the workday. 

Even if you do a job that is very satisfying for you, it is still a job and your body needs a break, even if your mind doesn’t realize it. 

If you have to be your own boss, always try to be the boss we all want to be: a boss who understands the needs of his employees and cares about their health and well-being while respecting the right amount of rest time.

The process of virtualization of business organizations has become a widespread reality, and with this comes a new challenge for companies: remote work groups and their complexities. 

However, we cannot forget the undeniable advantages of remote work as a lever to make organizations more agile and successful.

Next, let’s understand the challenges of remote teams.

Is remote work new to everyone?

For some time now, geographical distances and time zones have not limited work teams; in fact, some companies have been adopting remote work for some time.

With the pandemic, these issues have definitely ceased to be obstacles and have become a reality.

And it has changed the reality for companies that had not yet thought about this possibility, either because of the limited size or because of the traditional leadership approach in which people can only be managed if they are around.

Why create remote work teams

Globalization and the information revolution have broken down organizational barriers and allowed companies to work with teams without limitation of space and time.

However, companies that practice it do not necessarily know what remote working entails and how virtual teams should be created to bring effectiveness and advantage. 

Sometimes remote teams are adopted in organizations out of obligation, (as with the Covid-19 pandemic) while the attitude should instead focus on creating virtual teams as a strategic resource to increase overall organizational performance.

The organization of remote teams should be a strategic choice, that is, the search for a new dimension of the organization.

How a remote team is organized

A remote work team is composed of members who are geographically and organizationally distributed.

Often they may even be in the same city, but not near each other.

Remote work teams come together thanks to communication systems and computer infrastructures to carry out an organizational activity.

An essential element is the ability to cooperate quickly, flexibly, and effectively despite geographical, logistical, and organizational barriers, often even temporal, with time zone changes.

Advantages of remote teams

More fluid work, as groups are constantly learning how to organize and reorganize tasks;

Technology as an aid to make work more collaborative and effective;

Exchange of ideas and proposals between people in an open and continuously accessible technological environment.

Disadvantages of remote teams

Communication through technology can limit nuances of a face-to-face relationship.

Mutual trust may emerge more slowly than in real groups.

Language barriers and culture clashes may arise between team members.

Conclusion

The great challenge of remote teams lies in transforming virtual groups, with their complexities, into an element that makes the organization more agile and successful.

Therefore, this reality will probably be part of more and more companies and the movement of creating remote work teams, if it is not yet part of your life, get ready, you will soon be able to do it.