7 Productivity Hacks For Small Business Owners

Entrepreneurship itself is challenging, needless to say, about owning a small business. As a small business owner, you may have to juggle many tasks to contribute to your organization’s performance. Most of the young entrepreneurs these days have an intense work schedule. They often end up working a whopping 60 hours a week.

Yes, these small business owners work twice as much as their employees or even more than that. It might be a manageable schedule at first, but you will burn out eventually.

As much as you work endlessly, you have to focus on learning skills and improving yourself. So you can lead your team better and run a successful business. In other words, you are the business owner. It’s you who have to run the business and not being run by it.

If you keep filling all your day with tasks, when will you find time to learn about things that will make you a better employee, leader, or business owner? Most entrepreneurs need a change in their mindset regarding work productivity. Rather than focusing on the number of hours, start measuring productivity by the quality of work.

Ask yourself if you are improving at things or just filling hours. Recheck your tasks. Do you need to involve in all of those, or is it your inability to delegate or automate?

However, even by adapting some minor changes, you can drastically improve your efficiency of workflow. Here are some productivity hacks that you can start implementing almost immediately to get things done faster.

Learn When to Delegate

You are a small business owner who has put your heart and soul into your upcoming company. It is quite understandable that you have set standards, and you don’t want anything less than that. That is why it is hard for you to let go and trust others with tasks.

It is acceptable, but it is still essential to delegate. You cannot handle everything single-handedly. You have to evaluate your daily tasks and see whether they are worth doing it. If they are repetitive and monotonous tasks, you have to reconsider doing them. You can invest that time elsewhere, improving your skills and your business.

Hire people to do those straightforward tasks. Of course, small business owners cannot afford many employees to perform every business function. But, you can hire contractors, freelancers or outsource to a third party. That way, you can focus on other crucial tasks that matter the most to your business.

Set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-based) Goals

A typical workday demands a lot of attention that may consume your hours dramatically. Hence, if you didn’t plan prior or set clear intentions, you will end up focusing on less significant tasks that don’t impact your business much.

Be proactive and set long-term goals like a five-year plan for your business. Set SMART goals as they are realistic and achievable. Once you identify your goals, you can start working towards them more clearly.

Break down the long-term goals into small chunks of actionable tasks and start focusing on them every day. At the end of every week, you can track your progress and know how far you have come in achieving your organizational goals.

This way of prioritizing your tasks ensures that you are on the right track and help you reach your goals faster. Plus, having a detailed plan for your workday prevents you from procrastinating or indulging in unwanted tasks.

Work in Time Blocks

People work better when they know what the goal is and why.
- Elon Musk

Now that you are clear about your goals, you should focus on working towards them effectively. The time blocking concept has gained popularity after business leaders like Elon Musk endorsed it for heightened productivity.

Time blocking is nothing but scheduling time for every task of your given workday. All you need is to write a list of priorities for your day and set a time for it. As you finish that task, you can focus on the next task on the list. That will enable you to concentrate on one task at a time, assuring that you are done with all crucial work for the day.

However, do not forget to add breaks. Give yourself a 15-minute break before moving on to the next task. Plus, always make time for your family and friends. Thus, you can stop your workday from consuming your pleasant and relaxing evenings.

Stop Multitasking

As a small business owner, it is easy to get tempted to do it all by yourself. But, multitasking can do more harm than good. Yes, by constantly shifting attention from one task to another, you cannot concentrate on any of them properly.

As per mental health experts, multitasking leaves people drained, and they tend to make more mistakes. Again, that will become an added task for you as you have to fix them.

So, concentrate on one task at a time. Giving your 100% on that work will get you better outputs rather than juggling around many jobs.

Sometimes, it is not intentional at all. But, you are bad at saying NO and end up accepting unexpected sudden work commitments. Learn to say NO firmly yet politely.

Hire the Right People

Hiring the appropriate and suitable candidates is highly crucial for your organization’s success. A business owner cannot know everything and doesn’t need to know everything. Of course, you can’t be a marketer, developer, designer, and CEO of your organization. You will have to hire the right talents for your business needs.

Most business owners hesitate to delegate specific tasks as they find their employees do not have the right skills. That will only add up your workload, and you can’t scale your business if you keep focusing on every little task.

Hence you have to slow down and take time to hire the right people with excellent skills. Thus, you can rely on them for fulfilling your tasks precisely. Plus, by hiring talented people, you can always learn from them. Also, you can incorporate their ideas and thoughts that will bring a positive impact on your business.

Automate Your Business Processes

Though it seems like a big investment initially, it is all worth the cost. Automating repetitive and monotonous tasks will free up you and your employees from doing mundane tasks. That, in turn, will increase the overall productivity of your workforce.

In this technology-driven world, automation is the way of the future. To stay competitive, your organization has to adopt the technology wherever possible.

If not all business processes, you can identify the areas that need automation. For instance, small businesses often automate marketing processes like email posts, chatbots, lead management, etc.

Reward Yourself and Celebrate Successes

As a founder or CEO of the company, reward yourself for accomplishing your organizational goals. Also, appreciate your fellow employees, team members, and colleagues for their contribution. Almost all CEOs will have excellent work ethics and encourage a healthy work atmosphere. Of course, that is why they are in the top position.

Finally, do not wait to achieve something big and postpone your celebrations. Take time out to recognize and appreciate your small successes. That way, you can feel that you are making progress towards achieving your goals. That sense of achievement itself will motivate you and help you stay on track towards a better tomorrow.

In a Nutshell

The company/organization is the happy place for any entrepreneur. Of course, it is your passion, dream, or even call it your baby. It is highly commendable that you have chosen the entrepreneurial journey when the whole world is choosing a secure job that gets them a consistent paycheck.

However, to grow and expand your small business further, you should have the right entrepreneurial mindset. More than hard work and money, your entrepreneurial skills will take you way ahead in your journey.

The productivity hacks said here discussed some of the skills that any business owner should have to grow and thrive in their businesses. Though most entrepreneurs are aware of many things, they tend to forget in their busy schedules. They almost get lost in work.

This is a reminder blog for every entrepreneur to rethink their workday routines and make the needed changes to increase their productivity. Successful entrepreneurs will not settle for the less. They will always keep excelling at their skills, profession, and business.

These productivity hacks are ideal for busy entrepreneurs who do not have much time. Start implementing them into your lifestyle to be a more productive, efficient, and successful entrepreneur.