Responding to Business Challenges: Work Harder and Faster

We often heard this advice: Work smarter, not harder. It’s a great advice, but in my years of entrepreneurship, that advice becomes more a mantra than a real plan.

I keep on failing in working smarter because, in my line of business, there are plenty of surprises on a daily basis. Of course, working smarter works, but it won’t be effective in its own.

Dealing with business problems: Why work smarter is not enough

Here are the possible scenarios; these are real situations I’ve experienced in my webpreneurial journey:

Situation #1: My website is down. For hours. I’m losing audience, and new visitors will think that my brand is crappie.

Situation #2: A client of mine is telling me that there are some delays in getting my invoices paid. That’s fine. What’s not fun is when he comes back and tell me, “Sorry – the deal is off. We deliver the wrong project.” Okay – that’s fine. Really. I’m a flexible guy.

The problem is, the service has been performed, and I didn’t charge a down payment for that because charging upfront has proven to lose me 60-70 percent of business. That’s not nice.

Situation #3: In another day, I’ve just notified that Google has slapped a blogging network in which I am a part of, as I always source for content and potential partners. The problem is, many of my sites are the members of that blogging network. So, Google penalized the network – and all the members, too.

I had to work on putting off the fire for months. Ugh.

Situation #4: Here’s another one: A client of mine is mad because I edited and rewrote many parts of her content. To tell you the truth, the content is, um, sub-par, and I don’t want to publish that on my blog. I’m the owner AND editor of my blogs, and I deserve the right to improve the quality of the content. My bad. Maybe.

The point that I’m trying to make telling you the above is this: Things happen. And that’s okay. The problem is, what if all of those happen at once, creating “the worst day of the month” situation for you and your business?

I’m not an expert in time management and all, but all I can say is this: You need to solve the problems fast before they get bigger.

“Take a deep breath and analyze the situation” advice works for others, but not me. When I see problems, I’m anxious, and I want to find solutions, fast.

I scramble for solutions, and I’m going to take BIG steps in fixing things up.

I’ve done drastic measures in dealing with my problems: “Firing” customers, taking myself out of bad business deal – and do it fast, overhauling my websites as soon as the problems are detected, changing my tactics and strategies in record-breaking turnaround time, etc.

As you can see, my sense of urgency is alleviated when it comes to business continuity, as I believe that in online business, every minute counts.

Again, work smart works, but not on its own. Well, at least in my case.

Just like what my man, Gary Vaynerchuk, says about finding time for working for clients vs. branding for your own company: “You need to work harder and faster.”

I agree, there’s no magic answer here: In your working hours, work harder and faster.

You can add work smarter in the mix, though – which will leverage your effort on things that are repetitive. But when it comes to grabbing opportunities and recovering from business crisis, work harder and faster is the only way to go.

What working hard is not

Now, please remember that “working hard” means a different thing from one person to another.

Some people think that they work hard when they are working 12, 14, or 16 hours a day, but they procrastinate for hours during their work days – watching fail videos, checking sport scores, hanging around on Facebook, etc.

I’m sorry, but to me, that’s not working hard; people think that working hard equals clocking in longer hours at work. It’s not.

Working hard is when you give all you got during your work hours. If you work 8 hours a day, working hard means you don’t waste a single second of your working hours.

To me, working hard means exactly what Gary has said in his video: Not wasting every single second of your hour – and work on what you’ve got to do, fast.

Takeaway: Work hard, fast and smart

I love basketball. I love the hustle and the pace (perhaps an exception would be San Antonio Spurs – the game is too slow, too fundamental,…) I use the principles of basketball as an inspiration for me in running my business.

I treat my work hours like a 48-minute competitive NBA basketball game: Focus, determination, hustle and quickness – all the qualities in a world class basketball game. No tweeting for fun, no funny pets, no celeb gossip, nothing. Give your all when you are in the game. This is what I call work hard and fast.

And when the time comes to stop working, I’ll disconnect from work – and I turn off my mobile devices. This is what I call work smart.

Let’s get better in those, shall we?

So, how about you? What do you think about the “work hard, work fast” mantra? What’s your definition of “working hard”? Please share your thoughts!