Making sure that your business is as productive as possible can be a difficult task. Many business owners are unaware of some of the simple things they can do to streamline their business. There is a big difference between being busy and being productive – confuse the two and you may end up losing money. Fortunately, we have a guide that will help you improve your business’ efficiency tremendously.
Pause Your Communication
Communication is one of the most important components of a successful business. Unfortunately, too many businesses try to be available to everyone all the time and “multi-task”, which really means “spreading yourself thin, stressing out, and not always accomplishing as much”. Using technology to pause your inbox, silence your calls, and redirect inquiries can help stem the flow and allow you to focus. We use Boomerang for Gmail to help us and have a receptionist to help manage our calls.
Outsource the Little Stuff
If you know where you are losing the most time – perhaps running to the bank, scheduling travel, or grabbing supplies – consider outsourcing. Resources like Upwork, TaskRabbit, etc can find you just about anyone to help you with just about anything. Technology and apps are also amazing for helping to automate and streamline. We implemented an Acuity scheduler to eliminate the back-and-forth “does Wednesday at 10:45 work for you?” emails which allow us to provide better customer care with less time. But don’t go so tech-crazy you spend all your time managing the tech patchwork. My general rule is that any new technology should solve at least three pain-points to be worth implementing,
Stay on Task
Budget your time and allow flexibility. Block out time on your calendar to get important tasks done while allowing some mental downtime. (And don’t freak out too much about employees who spend too much time on social media.) Need help getting out from under all that stuff? My two favorite books are Getting Things Done by David Allen and Clockwork by Mike Michalowicz
Here is another great article talking about a similar subject!