The results of the research conducted by the JP Morgan Institute about the share of small businesses in the US economy showed that 33% of the US export in 2015 was produced by small businesses. The same report indicates that about 48% of US employees work in small business ventures.
If small businesses represent the backbone of one of the most powerful economies in the world, it’s clear that other economies should follow suit. Since the key feature of every small business is work efficiency, new business owners should take some time to master the hacks of optimized productivity. We’ve put together some handy ideas to improve your productivity.
The end-of-the-day analysis vs. the morning preps
A rule of thumb is that good preparation is often a half of success. Translated to small business productivity, this means that you should continuously assess the goals you’ve achieved and the planned things that you haven’t put into practice.
Naturally, as a business owner, you’ll perform your weekly and monthly accounting reviews, to check the income and expenditure, so as to adapt to them.
But preparing well for your business tasks doesn’t only mean conducting analyses of financial reports. You’ll properly prepare for the next work day if you analyze the previous one and make a list of things you should do during that following day.
This procedure can be done in two different ways.
On the one hand, you can get up early in the morning and spend a half an hour or so writing down all the business tasks you should do that way.
On the other, you can perform this analysis after the workday. The last half an hour of your work is the perfect time slot to do that task. This end-of-the-day analysis will be extremely useful in optimizing your productivity since you’ll be ready for your new workday before it’s even started.
Getting a continuous insight into your work will help you focus on details and immediately react to any unwanted situations.
Work less, find balance
According to an analysis published by Economist, longer work hours might lead to lower productivity. Therefore, the Economist experts advise business owners to shorten the work days. They can retain the same output, given that they improve their work organization.
These tips can be applied to SMB-owners, as well. Instead of working your head off at your desk, you should find some balance in work.
SMB-beginners might think that this isn’t applicable to their case. While you’ll definitely need to work hard until you form a firm base of clients and customers, you should always bear in mind that you’re working on your own in order to make your work life more comfortable.
If you accept every single project, regardless of the payment, you won’t optimize your work.
Working long hours won’t add to your productivity, but it will have a completely opposite effect. Click To TweetImagine your workday as a funnel. The wider part is your energy and focus at the start of the workday. The narrow part represents those two features at the end of a workday.
For all these reasons, finding a balance between work and free time is one of the pillars of a productive entrepreneur. And when you find this balance, your balance sheet will also look better.
Go for big projects
Although this might sound like too pompous a tip, it’s actually one of the best tips you can get. Indeed, why would you gnaw at small tasks if you can take a big bite and do a great project?
That being said, it’s important to say that we know what it looks like to be a new SMB-owner or a freelancer without a project. Your bills and everyday expenses are piling up and you can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. The harsh truth is that during this initial period you’ll probably have to do to some projects for peanuts.
However, as new clients keep rolling in and your rates start growing, don’t feel obliged to work for those first clients and their low rates. If you act like a true professional, you’ll always pursue the deals that are best for your business goals.
Get an extra hand
The more work you have, the more variables will affect your productivity.
As a result, the increased workload will inevitably lead to complicated situations with deadlines, milestones and your payments.
In order to keep things simple, productivity-wise, you should start thinking about hiring additional staff before the work heat hits your schedule.
You can do that in two different ways.
The first one is to search for skillful professionals in your niche online. Freelance websites and social networks like LinkedIn will help you narrow down the number of candidates and choose the right one(s) for your business. Contacting them and establishing communication before the workload strikes in high gear will spare you some work stress in the future.
As opposed to that, you can hire temporary workers if you realize that the increased workload isn’t a temporary situation, but a long-lasting condition for your business. Still, this means that you won’t be a solopreneur anymore, but you’ll become an employer. Even though you’ll only hire temporary workers, you might need to change your business type from a sole proprietorship to an LLC. Check the legal terms of hiring before you make any practical steps.
If you wouldn’t change the type of your business, you can always work with outsourcers to get your things done. That way, you can keep your productivity at a high level, while optimizing your workflow.
Develop efficient habits
Efficient work habits are extremely important for sustainable business productivity. In order to turn something you do into a habit, you’ll need some time and some persistence. Some scientific data show that it takes about 66 days on average to develop a new habit. Of course, this period might vary, due to different personalities, living conditions and many other features.
Nevertheless, if you want to automate your productivity, working on these daily business routines daily is a must.
That way, the workday analyses from the first paragraph will become an inseparable part of your business planning if you pursue them long enough.
Similarly, once you find reliable business associates, you’ll be able to automatically delegate some extra work to them. Such productive hacks can mean a lot to a sole proprietor who wants to grow a successful business.
By forming productive work habits, you’ll both improve your business performance and set an example for your employees and collaborators.
Conclusion
Keeping your work organization simple is the fastest lane to optimized productivity. This simplicity doesn’t mean taking things for granted, but quite the opposite – approaching seriously and committedly to every business task. Only constant supervision and frequent analyses of your projects will give you a chance to take your work to another level. Further, this will lead to a simplified, yet more effective work process.
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