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When running a small business, it’s not just what you do that matters but how you do it as well. In fact, what many business owners find is low productivity among themselves and their staff can lead to difficult challenges and even complete failure. This is especially true when the business is still small and there isn’t a lot of accountability. The good news is that it can be changed simply with some clarity and knowledge. Here are some of my favorite ways to increase small business productivity.
Limit Distractions/Stick to Priorities
Distractions are a natural part of human life. We can literally get pulled away from work, family, health, and fun by anything. This happens more when we don’t consider a task especially enjoyable and we don’t set our priorities. For example, if you’re working on a tough project that you really don’t like, it would be easy to step away too many times to ease the stress of it. And, though, I do see the value in taking breaks, consider the reasons you take them. I always try to get the hard stuff done first, so I have plenty of time for fun later. Priority lists that have dates attached are a perfect way to stay on track and produce more discipline.
Minimize Downtime
Next, when it comes to boosting productivity, it’s wise to minimize downtime of staff and the tools you use in your business. One solution is to offer flex time and the ability to work from home. I know this wouldn’t work for some types of business, but it could for some. With cloud technology, this has become an even more popular choice to increase production and give employees flexibility.
It can also help to have an effectively managed IT system like the one www.justright.com offers. Service providers like this monitor your system for security threats and issues that could result in unexpected downtime.
Batch Working
Next, if your small business isn’t already doing this, it may be time to start batching work. The best way to describe this process is to use a simple example. Consider how much time it takes to prepare meals for your family every day. Batching would be choosing one day to prepare all the meals for the week and storing them until you need them. Understand? In business, this could mean your social media specialist creates content posts for the week all at once instead of scrambling to do them daily. This work style can shave off minutes and even hours from tedious jobs like email, social media, accounting, inventory, and even more complicated projects.
Use a Productivity App
Lastly, research and try some of the productivity apps on the market today. You can even track the productivity of your staff with apps discussed in this article at www.businessnewsdaily.com. Of course, your staff could see this as micromanaging and not be too happy, but do what you need to do for your business to thrive. Help them to buy into it by offering incentives for the most productive or most improved employee every month. People usually want to do their best but just need a little help to see what that looks like.
When you know where your weak areas or people are, you and your management team can better know how to help and make adjustments. Even small changes can add up to greater sales, revenue, and happier employees. After all, who doesn’t want to finish their work on time and be rewarded for it?
