March 2022 - Success With Savitha

Month: March 2022

How to Set Good Client Boundaries

By Bhumika Ramesh

As one ventures into the world of business, setting good client boundaries becomes a priority. As hard as it is to navigate around learning how to best-set boundaries, it can be an easy task if you already know your limits and convey them to the people around you. Doing so makes sure you’re leaving ample time to stay focused on the client as well yourself and not rushing about after work hours, trying to finish up pending assignments.

Here are a few tips on how to help you figure out the best client boundaries and relationships:

Have it down in writing : When setting up a deal with a new client, putting the terms of your relationship legally in your contract is a great way forward. This lays down the groundwork for future interactions and makes it official. The document also helps the client understand the boundaries to which they’re entitled and which they’re not. Any problems that arise during the relationship can look back at the set precedent. This should include how to contact you what to do in case of an emergency, what are office hours etc

Don’t succumb to scope creep – This occurs when the projects and assignments start taking more time than usual and for more than the agreed amount. You find yourself accommodating small requests and they pile up. You also start to put more time into finishing work rather than on yourself. When this occurs, it’s best to retreat to your original contract and go through the terms established. You may be entitled to extra compensation for the increased workload, but avoiding scope creep is a better alternative altogether.

Create preferences around the way you want to communicate – Each person prefers a mode of communicating with others, whether it be through text, phone calls or a video call. Apart from your preferences, setting up schedules and topics to discuss during the call is a great way to make sure you guys stick to your communicated boundaries. Doing so also puts the client and you at ease during conversations.

Put down what works for you and what doesn’t – Set down timings and schedules which work for you. Find out when you’re most focused at work and center your client interactions around that. This will ensure that you meet the client during your productive hours. Blurring out timings for a client isn’t a good thing to do. Make your health and yourself a priority as well.

Making sure you achieve success along with your clients requires professionality as well as loyalty. Boundaries help you reach those goals in a much more comfortable manner without the guilt of over-working or saying yes to things that make you uncomfortable.

Hoping these tips help you progress those client relationships!

See this post on Forbes for more on client boundaries.

Also see this post on finding your ideal client.

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3 Reasons why you need to use a calendar

By Vaishnavi Kumar

Calendars reflect what is important to us.

Managing a business isn’t just hectic but also stressful. One does not want to remember and keep track of all the work & events planned just via memory. Instead using a calendar is crucial to success. A good work-life balance is possible we use our time efficiently. This where living by your calendar helps.

Here are 4 major reasons why you should set up the and follow a calendar for life and business:
1. This is a no brainer, a calendar can help us stay organized. Being organized is crucial to success in any area. Calendars help us plan ahead and prepare well for what’s to come. It helps us prioritise. Work-life balance is something everybody struggles to achieve in today’s time. Having a calendar is one of the ways to achieve it.
- Jot down all the work you need to finish for the coming week, month or even year.
- Fix a particular time.
- Mark it in your calendar.
- You can use different colours. For instance, red for important tasks and emergencies, light yellow for tasks that aren’t urgent and so on.
- You’ll now have a proper schedule. You can inform your family and friends well in advance of your availability.
1. Next, it keeps away unnecessary anxiety which can ruin one’s productivity. This is another reason why a calendar is important. Therefore planning your week and setting a schedule where you can give time for work as well as personal commitments may help reduce stress levels.
- You can share it with your family and friends, so that their invites can be accommodated within your schedule.
- This can help deal with the anxiety of not being able to complete your tasks.
1. Lastly, calendars also do the job of reminding us to take a much-needed break. We’re conditioned to believe that taking breaks is unproductive. In reality, taking breaks increases our efficiency and productivity. It recharges our mind and body. A fresh mind and healthy body have a better capacity to handle upcoming tasks and challenges with ease and competence.
- While setting up a calendar make sure you set apart enough time just to look after yourself and your loved ones.
See this post for more productivity tips from us.

See this interesting post from Lifehack on how not to use your calendar

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Why showing up consistently is important?

By Vaishnavi Kumar

Consistency means abiding by the principles that are or will prove good for you soon. A very famous quote says, “Consistency is more important than perfection”.

If you want to be successful then consistency is one trait you must develop and adhere to.

Let’s understand why consistency is important:

Showing up persistently is the pathway towards success in all segments of life. Refraining from committing the same mistakes and following your ambitions is what one needs to learn. When you make your efforts and intentions clear by showing up consistently, you are paving the way for a success.

For instance, if you want to get in shape, subsequent dieting and working out for one day won’t make any difference. You need to show up to the gym every day, work on improving your eating habits and over time, you’ll see the fruits of your consistency.

Similarly, building good relationships requires patience, understanding, and communication. Again, if you aren’t doing this every day or if you aren’t showing up when they need you the most, you may have a lower quality relationships.

The same goes for businesses.

Incorporating consistency in your life will take you to new heights. This particularly holds for people involved in business. Businesses require 4 C’s- Capability, Capital, Customers, and Consistency. If any one of these is missing or lacking, especially the last one, then all the other elements count for nothing. If a person is inconsistent with their work or efforts, nobody will want to invest or deal with such companies.

Suppose you have extraordinary skills and enough capital as well as valuable customers and dealers ready to collaborate with you. All you lack is consistency. You interact with your customers or dealers once every 6 months. Eventually, they’ll be disengaged and you’ll never know when your business has been overtaken by competition. On the other hand, if you show up consistently but lack in the other three elements, your efforts will be acknowledged and you will witness your business booming.

Showing up regularly will not only reveal your efforts but also hone your skills and help you gain more knowledge. Opportunities will make their way towards you. Everything gets easier when you show up regularly.

How do you start to show up consistently?

Focus on what you want to achieve – Don’t get distracted. Pour yourself into the things that you want to accomplish. Give your 200% and you will enjoy the outcome.

Be organized – Start with a schedule and plan how you are going to complete what you set out to do. This way you won’t forget your commitments and you will be regular.

Find ways to fulfil commitments even if it seems impossible – There’s always a way to make things happen. You just need to find which one works for you.

Never give up – No matter what the situation, never give up!

For more on showing up see this post here on Medium

See this post on sustainable habits here

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5 Life Lessons we learned from Coco Chanel

By Bhumika Ramesh

One of the most famous designers in the world, Coco Chanel never gave up a chance to help women rise to the top. She made her way from the bottom and redesigned the idea of womanhood in everyone’s eyes. Her fashion empire remains one of the largest to date. Leading a completely innovative life compared to the society prevailing back then, there are many pearls of wisdom Coco Chanel hoped one would implement in their lives.

Here are a few of them:

1.Keeping it simple – Simplicity remains one of the greatest hallmarks of fashion and rightfully so. Simplicity makes way for the things we focus most on. Clutter which isn’t useful just slows down the process of absorbing new events and tasks. Coco Chanel made sure she didn’t add more to create more; the opposite is what she followed. Happiness arrives from the small simple moments.

2. Experiment creatively – Messing around sometimes comes with a silver lining. Coco realised her freedom was essential to experiment with her business and clothes the way she seemed fit. The massive positive response she received from women all around the world speaks for the results she achieved. Sticking to old ideals and traditions may not always be the way forward. Creativity helps you look at problems differently.

3. Staying Authentic and Unapologetic – Self-belief was the core that allowed Coco to shine. She never really took people’s criticism seriously and went forward with the designs she believed in. The little black dress remains one of the most iconic fashion pieces today. Entrepreneurs of this age can look up to this lesson: second-guessing oneself can be one action left in the past.

4. Taking risks – Every successful person has taken risks. In the 19th century no one expected women’s fashion to change from corsets and ball gowns to petite dresses and relaxed clothing. However Coco was instrumental in making this possible. Don’t try to fit in and do what the majority does – standing out does more good than harm if you get the timing right.

5. Dreaming Bold – One of the most famous perfumes in the world, Chanel No.5 wouldn’t have existed if Coco restricted herself to only developing clothes and not broadening her sights. She set the perfume revolution in motion and it is said that a bottle of the Chanel No.5 perfume sells every 30 seconds. Growth always favours the bold who dare to reach for the stars.

Coco’s empire stands strong and her lessons are as valuable, if not more, in the 21st century for anyone looking to improve the quality of their lives and their businesses.

Want more of these kind of posts – see this post here on women entrepreneurs we admire.

For more on lessons from Coco Chanel see this post by Career Girl Daily

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How to build a community for your brand?

By Bhumika Ramesh

A brand is what makes your company stand out. Investing in your brand through posting on social media or making use of various online platforms is great. But it isn’t good enough. To have stability, building a community is a priority. A brand community is a group of people who connect with your brand in all possible ways – they will buy/use your product, recommend it to others and consume your content proactively. Building a community ensures your brand gets feedback for new updates. It also creates engagement among other features. Let’s look into how we can build such a community.

Invest in email newsletters and blog posts

When you provide your audience with information regularly they’re more likely to remain engaged. You’ll see a rise in those click and open rates. When you communicate with them through personalized emails, people feel connected and engage more since the content is broadcasted regularly.

Share testimonials and stories

When you appeal to the emotional aspect of your customer, they tend to invest more of their time. This can be done through sharing client testimonials or stories from employees or yourself. A humane aspect to the company is never considered unnecessary. Authenticity is extremely attractive to people.

Online social communities

Communicating to your audience through platforms such as Instagram or an exclusive member-only site can foster spaces for people. To help build engagement through discussions and with your content. People perceive added benefits as great features most of the time, so free workshops or downloadable guides can be an excellent incentive.

Focus on your brand

Before building your brand community, dive into what your brand stands for and its essence. When you have your brand’s identity in place, you can develop appropriate elements. Think about what you’re trying to achieve, your company’s visions for the future and your goals. The more qualities you showcase, you attract like-minded people.

And lastly, give yourself time to build and grow your community. Rushing it is going to be of no advantage. Slowly but surely, you’ll find your engagement metrics going up. Building a trusted community is no easy feat, but the investment pays itself back tenfold.

For more on this topic, see this post from Forbes on Building a Community.

Also see our post on on building an email list to help grow and engage your community

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5 beauty hacks for the girl boss

By Vaishnavi Kumar

It is hard to be a woman.

You must think like a man, act like a lady, look like a young girl, and work like a horse.

Beauty hacks that deliver a punch is what we all need. Women are always juggling their personal and professional lives. In between their daily hustles, there is usually no time to take care of their beauty. Taking care of your beauty is one of the best forms of self-care as it gives you a sense of confidence and happiness. There is a strong relationship between self-care and mental health. Accumulated stress seems to disappear as you start caring for yourself and your beauty. It helps to increase one’s self-esteem, self-love and aids in the flow of positive energy within your soul.

Here are 5 beauty hacks that make your self-care time much more effective:

Liquid lipstick hack:

Many women struggle to apply liquid lipstick perfectly. The difficult part is the lining of the lips. If you have run out of your lipstick liner, use this simple and quick hack – use a toothpick. Apply some liquid lipstick on the toothpick and outline your lips with it. This is a very effective way as toothpicks have a thin and sharp edge. After this step, fill in your lips with the liquid lipstick brush. This way you won’t have to struggle for a long time with the lipstick and get perfect lips in no time.

French manicure hack:

No time to rush to the parlour, but need to get your nails done? Here’s a quick hack to get the easiest and classiest french manicure in no time. Use an eyelash curler. Yes! You heard it right. Place the eyelash curler vertically on your nails in such a way that the extended part of your nails are out so that the nail lacquer does not affect the inner part of the nails.

Ponytail hack :

Tie a quick and voluminous ponytail in no time. Brush your hair into two parts. Follow by tying two pieces of hair in such a way that both of them are independent of each other. Now you need to pull the ponytail that is below, however before that, you need to split the top one into two parts with your fingers and simply pass the other piece of hair through it. This is a very simple and quick hack to get a perfect pony.

Makeup hack :

Use multi-tasking products instead of a dozen different makeup products. A great example is the BB cream which can be used in place of a moisturizer, foundation or a primer. Using an all in one makeup product saves your time and gives you the same look. Use lip cheek tints. It can be used as a lipstick, eyeshadow or blush.

Perfume hack :

Everybody loves to smell good and smelling good is one quality everyone wants to attain. Want to keep the perfume fragrance longer? Most often the fragrance of even the best perfumes seems to fade away after a while.

Here’s a hack to prevent this. Apply the perfume immediately after showering. The steam from the shower opens the pores of our body and spraying the perfume helps the fragrance last longer.

These are simple beauty hacks that according to us will help busy girls take care of their beauty even in their busy schedules.

Let us know in the comments below what your favourite beauty hacks are.

For some kickass boss babe tips see this post here about Jessica Alba

See our Blog post here on making self care a priority

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Why you should pay yourself first?

By Bhumika Ramesh

We all would have come across the phrase – pay yourself first – without ever really grasping its meaning. Plenty of newspapers, magazines and blog outlets mention it as well, but what does paying yourself first really mean? Well, it simply means setting aside part of your income for your savings and for your salary even if its a negligible amount and then spending the amount leftover. It revolves around budgeting and prioritizing purchases.

Let’s look at a few reasons as to why you should implement it:
- Paying Yourself – Any Business Owner tends to pay themselves last but just as you would prioritize paying your staff make it a standard practice to pay yourself too, even if its a small token amount. It’s a way for you to not just feel in charge but also feel good about your business. Of course it’s a also reverse budgeting strategy.
- Funds for a rainy day : Setting aside your income in a savings account when you get your paycheck, ensures that there is enough to rely on during hardships. Doing this also saves time when you do it at the beginning of the month, rather than sitting down on the last weekend and fumbling about with your bank statement.
- Assists in Budgeting : When you set aside a portion of your income, you learn to work with what you have left. Prioritizing purchases and implementing a budget for the entire month helps you to utilize the rest of the funds. This also ensures that work with a plan and a budget and prioritise savings, investments and retirement plans. This prioritizes savings, but not at the expense of necessary expenses like housing, utilities and insurance and building your Business.
- Low maintenance : Paying yourself first doesn’t involve going to the bank or setting up a new account. It is an extremely low-cost method and tolerates not mentioning every detail or making a tally of your purchases. A small piece of paper and a pen ensures you’re ready to go for the entire month.
- Big picture focus – When you start saving up, you tend to learn to focus on achieving your long term goals. It stops you from splurging on short-term impulses. And instead you learn to use your savings to purchase things you need or value.
- A sense of reward : At the end of the year, when you sit down and look at your statements, the amount of money you have ended up saving tends to act as a reward for all the hard work you’ve done. This reinforces the habit of saving up and you continue to do so with the anticipation of the reward.
Our lives revolve around how well we manage our finances and paying yourself first is an excellent manner to start. This strategy can help anyone who’s looking to prioritize how and where they spend: from teenagers to even 80-year-olds. Having control over your funds is how you dictate your future.

For more on this topic see this article here

For more posts around Money see our Blog post here

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