10 Tips for Small Business Productivity

What is the most important thing a small business needs?

Most business owners say that time is the answer. As a small business owner, you will always long to have extra hours in the day and a third hand. But time is one thing that you cannot produce or manufacture. Running a small business requires you to play a variety of roles. You are the inventor, creative head, marketing executive, business development team, the IT department and the human resource who has to focus on people management and more. You will always be in search of the right strategies to attain you entrepreneurial goals.

A pain point in running a small business is managing productivity. One way to better manage productivity is to better manage the time you have allocated for your work. Here are 10 tips that can help you and your employees increase productivity.

Delegate – You should know how to delegate work and when. The right time to assign work is when you do not have time to tackle small jobs that are on your list. Allocate the small stuff to your team and put your efforts on bigger things. You can either hand-over the important tasks to your employees or hire a part-time assistant to help you. This will lessen your burden.

Routine planning – It is important to plan daily. Start by identifying the meetings, calls and tasks you have for any particular day. Make a list. By doing this, you can figure out whether you have more bandwidth for other jobs or not.

Use latest technology – You and your team can better utilize your time if you integrate the latest technology in work. You can store your documents, files and data in cloud so that they are safe from computer crashes and natural calamities like flood or fire. Your desktop, laptop and mobile devices should be in sync so that you and your team members can have access to information anywhere and anytime.

Regular breaks – Working continuously for long hours is monotonous. So, you should take breaks in between. Even allow your team members to take frequent breaks. Short breaks actually make you more productive. Physical mobility is important in between to keep you energetic. Breaks will boost brain power and keep your team fresh.

Batch work processes – Save time for the whole team by batching like tasks together. For example, return all your emails in the morning. Do sales calls in the afternoon. This way you and your team can stay focused at the tasks at hand without the distraction of multi-tasking.

Invest in technology – Keep checking your computers and software from time to time. If they are outdated, you need to invest in new ones. Old, out-dated technology will slow down you and your employees. On the other hand, new technology will boost them to perform better.

Even distribution of work – Small business are… well, small. Even though your team may be small, you should be entrusting more work to your team members. You may be tempted to extract more from them, but your main focus should be to make sure there is even distribution of work. Nobody should be overloaded as this can result in less productivity and dissatisfaction.

Create a comfortable working condition or space – Your productivity is very much linked to the way your work space is set up. Even very small things matters. Keep your work space clutter-free and ensure there is enough space for mobility.

Prioritize your health – Studies show that poor nutrition and lack of physical activities are linked to low productivity at work. So encourage your team to have good eating habits. The healthier your employees are in the long run, the healthier the company’s future.

Restrict your meeting times – On a routine basis, businesses spend a lot of time holding meetings and discussions. Meetings and discussions take a lot of productive time. Make sure your time spent in meetings is fruitful. Try to make one day free of meetings in a week. This will work wonders! You will find an increase in your productivity.

These are tried and tested tips for improving productivity. Staying productive is a big challenge for your small business, but the odds of staying productive can be greatly improved by taking small steps to lighten your workload.