Managing and operating a small business is dramatically different from that of a large enterprise. To achieve success, small business owners need to evolve their own strategies that can deliver the maximum results with the limited available resources. Typically, small businesses that succeed tend to have mastered the art of finding creative solutions to every business need right from getting adequate funding to hiring the right people and expanding the reach. As may be expected, there is never enough time to do everything required for business success, which is why entrepreneurs need to find ways of improving their productivity to make their businesses sustainable. Some critical productivity tips:
Prioritize Tasks According to Importance
Prioritizing tasks may sound elementary; however, many entrepreneurs make a mess of their business management simply because they take up tasks depending on what is at hand instead of taking some time out every day to think about the tasks that need to be done, and ranking them according to their importance. In fact, not only for themselves, entrepreneurs must insist that every member of their teams focus on completing tasks that will contribute the most to the business. Ideally, the job of prioritizing tasks should be done the first thing in the morning. Making a habit of tackling the tasks in order of importance will ensure that entrepreneurs don’t sacrifice critical tasks for ones that are not so important.
Take Advantage of Your Flexibility
The one major difference between large and small businesses is small businesses are far nimbler and can respond to changing market conditions very quickly. The decision-making process of big businesses is more protracted not only because there are more people involved but because all the ramifications of making the change have to be carefully thought about. A small business, on the other hand, has a small team that can take decisions quicker and less to worry about production processes and market shares. While, if you know what to specialize in from day 1, it can be great to operate in your niche, however, on many occasions, you can explore the market for some time and then decide which niche presents the best opportunities.
Get Help by Helping Others
It is natural for entrepreneurs to be focused on them and look for every opportunity where they can get help from others to make their businesses more successful. However, according to experts like Eric Dalius, it can be surprisingly more effective if you ask others how you can help them. The gesture does not go unnoticed by your peers, and given the opportunity, they will also extend the same courtesy to you and help your business grow at a fast clip.
Institute a Practice for Time Accounting
Time is the most precious commodity, as every harried entrepreneur knows. Even if you don’t want to invest in a dedicated time-accounting software package, you can use a simple spreadsheet where people can put down the time they have spent doing on doing specific activities each day. Not only will you find most people becoming conscious of time management and getting more things done every day but also you can identify clients that are consuming more of your time than envisaged by their retainer agreements so that you can initiate discussions appropriately and boost your revenues.
Employ an Assistant
Due to the paucity of money, almost every entrepreneur has to get used to doing every single thing personally. However, by doing so, he also has to deal with many non-productive tasks like writing memos, fixing appointments, paying bills, attending to routine phone calls and emails, etc. Depending on your workload, it may be worthwhile to hire an assistant who can take these responsibilities off your shoulders leaving you free to attend to the really important task of running your business more productively. Of course, there are other areas involved in running a business where outsourcing might also be beneficial. For instance, if you need some assistance with financial accounting and reporting then a chief financial officer (CFO) could prove to be a valuable asset. With this in mind, you can compare contract CFO rates easily by doing a little research online.
Get Personal with Customers
Everyone, including customers, realizes that large companies cannot extend the sale level of personalized service like their smaller counterparts. This is the main reason why many customers prefer to deal with small companies because the business can make them feel they matter and can attend to their requests in a far more personalized manner. This can be especially important for customers who may need assistance for figuring out solutions to issues that they may not have any answers to, observes Eric Dalius.
Inculcate the Right Attitude in Your Team
Small businesses, especially startups, need to have people who are ready to walk the extra mile to make the business succeed. It is the reason why the entrepreneur must make every effort to hire people that are humble as well as adaptable so that they will enjoy and even thrive in meeting the challenges every new day brings. As important as the delegation of jobs is, it is even more to inculcate an attitude of getting things done or ensuring that it is done properly. It is important to weed out employees who do not want to get off their seats and do things that need to be done; otherwise, your business will suffer.
Adopt Technology and Automation
When every minute of your time counts, the only way you can make your business sustainable is to leverage technology that increases your productivity. The time you can save by using computers and productivity tools can easily justify the investment you make in them. There are too many productivity tools for you to evaluate personally. The best way is to identify your concerns and ask around for suggestions or read reviews on the internet to make a considered decision. Business automation can be a big boon when you need to do repetitive tasks. Simple things like paying your utility bills or credit card statement dues can be taken care of by giving your bank standing instructions to pay them off on the due dates. Similarly, instead of writing out checks for your vendors, you can make wire transfers to their accounts.
Conclusion
In addition to adopting the tips outlined earlier, you can make yourself and your business far more productive by taking a hard look at all the things you need to do regularly and eliminating the ones that waste your time the most and don’t help in growing your business.
