One of the more difficult challenges of small business ownership is the need to wear a dozen different hats. From product development to branding to sales to marketing, small business productivity often suffers from the need to do an overwhelming number of tasks. There are a few productivity tips and tricks I use to keep the engine of my small business running smoothly. Here are my top six.
- Create time blocks that increase productivity by allowing you to focus on one area of your business at a time. Set aside two hours for marketing, two hours for sales, two hours for social media scheduling, etc.
- Schedule one day each quarter to write and schedule all the blogs and social media content you need for the upcoming quarter. When I do this, it takes an entire eight-hour day, but then it’s on autopilot for a whole quarter.
- Fire the high-demand, low-paying clients who drain your time yet create very little revenue. Raising your rates and dropping those clients will increase your income and free up time you can use to pursue more lucrative clients.
- Creating your daily to-do list the night before lets you start each day with clear goals in mind. It also increases small business productivity by letting your to-do list start with your already-done list.
- Complete the tasks you’re most dreading first and get them out of the way. Prolonged procrastinating about them leads to undue stress, anxiety, and wasted time and energy.
- Limit yourself to one productivity tool instead of jumping on every new one that comes along. In other words, don’t use Asana and Trello and Evernote. Pick the one that works best for you and stick with it.
In addition to those tips, here’s my all-time favorite small business productivity hack. Outsource the tasks you struggle with most and the ones that take up far too much of your time. Outsourcing blogging, social media content creation, and IT saves time, frustration, energy, and money. When you’re ready to outsource content, blogs, and website copy, visit my website or shoot me an email. Your goal is small business success. My goal is using the power of words to get you there.