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How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

I'm finding that a huge limiting factor in scaling my business is the limited amounts of time I have. Especially in the world of stealth, which often means that ordinary tasks have to become more complicated just for the sake of risk management

What steps have you guys taken to save time, 'cut corners', and improve efficiency? Things like thermal printers, virtual machines (as opposed to user accounts), shipping software, etc.

Thanks!

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

Where are your hangups, and maybe we can help with a specific issue.

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

if you dont use shipstation(or similar) and a thermal printer you are wasting half your day.

If you are having a hard time focusing on one task, start using a timer. Do nothing but that one task for 20 minutes.

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

All of the above. Once you have all 3 of those things in place start focusing on finding someone you can pay to help with some/all of your shipping.

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

Thermal printers are a must, so is proper shipping software to bulk print your job so you are doing it in minutes vs hours.

There’s add ons for browsers so you can monitor your time and block access to other things until you have done your tasks if you find yourself wandering.

Opening up a vpn, tethering, logging into your user accounts or virtual machines should take 1-2 minutes total at most. Log your IP and get to work on your task and basic things shouldn’t be a time suck.

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

Mifi, multiple computers, thermal printing, having someone else pack (this huge time saver), proper spreadsheets and ignoring stupid customers...

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

I don't think wasting time is a concern for me, Gladiator, my focus is pretty good. It's just that I can't seem to fit all my obligations within a regular day using current management practices.

Multiple computers? To what end?

I haven't invested in a thermal printer yet because I hadn't previously realized the value in one. Will be looking to purchase one this weekend. And then will look into software solutions and VMs.

Keep em coming guys!

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

Packing is a 6 hr/day thing for me, so that's a big one. Hiring is the obvious solution, but before I get there, I'd like to investigate ways to cut time within my general business/stealth management practices.

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

I multi-task and work on couple computers at same time. While one updating, loading, etc I turn chair and work on other. I don't like the idle time of waiting even a few minutes.

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

Oh gosh. You definitely need to hire a packer! I don't see how you even have time to think about the rest of your business lol

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

This really allowed me to expand a lot.... So much time wasted in past packing. You can 5x your income with all that extra time.

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

Jeez how many items do you sell a day?

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

You have a very general question, you need to be specific.

Automate, automate, and automate....

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

Nowhere near as many as some other members on this forum. But I also do QA on a lot of my items and fix the ones with issues, which adds to the time length. Im sure it would still be lengthy even with the QA component taken out though.

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

I keep all my info on a regular notebook (piece of paper)
and I make a schedule every morning to take care of orders and print labels and list whatever items first.

Then pack all orders.

In terms of management, I try to be manual for my stealth to be extra sure there's no error with the softwares.

Thermal printer and a shipping company are a must.

Honestly it's very straight forward and no cutting corners, what matters is the consistency and discipline.

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

for some reason printing multiple labels at once doesn't work for me..For example, instead of the word "Williamson" it prints like this "W illia mson" . It looks like the it somehow changes fonts once I sent it to a printer. Labels are also fuzzy and not dark at all.

If anyone has a solution for a label printing on OS X - please let me know :)

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

Time to make a new thread...

:)

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

Throw the mac in the trash and buy a PC. Problem solved.

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

Haha I actually didn't mean that, I meant that I was going to make a new thread about thermal printers compatible with Mac. Which I did :)

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

https://m.popkey.co/1789a9/469o8.gif

I am too deep into the Apple game to change.

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

Hahahaha!!

Re: How to be more efficient / time saving tips?
 

Thermal printer - check. Virtual machines - check.

Time to look into shipping software and bulk label printing!