Enterprise Nation

Mark Bellinger is a home business owner who is supported by employees who work from their own homes. In his experience, he’s found that setting tasks is a much more effective route to getting good results, as opposed to setting the hours of work.

A change of approach

Unless you have people covering the telephone or some other time dependent job, then I would suggest that you throw the eight hour day 9-5 concept in the trash can....it doesn't work in this scenario.

The way I work is like this:

I set people a list of tasks that I want completed for the week, detailed as to what needs doing and the exact time deadline for each task.

I do not set a daily start time or finish time, or even stipulate days of the week, just simply what needs to be achieved by when.

Phone calls, conference calls to discuss things are scheduled in wherever possible and key personnel made aware when their time may be required.

So, if I have someone who is an early bird that wants to get up at 4am and work through to have everything completed by lunchtime so they can go to the beach, what is wrong with that?

I am happy, my team is happy...and trust me it works, good quality work, delivered on time.

Someone asked me recently, "So, if they have everything done by Wednesday lunchtime, do they get the rest of the week off?"

The answer is of course, YES, I pay people for production and results, simple as that.

My advice is … treasure and guard your own time and value and respect others.

• Mark Bellinger, Singularis Media Group