Why Small Businesses Should Track Their Productivity

Starting a small business is a lot of work and keeping it running is yet another Herculean task. Your task as a business owner is to not only increase sales, but to increase and track your productivity as well. You may have an increase in sales, but it is useless if you spend a lot of time and money for every profit you make. Small businesses should track their productivity to ensure that they are getting more from their time, effort and money.

Take Notes

The simple yet vital task of note-taking can save a company from going downhill. Your brain may be a sponge back in college when you can remember just about anything, but it’s not the case anymore especially if you are leading a relatively new business. Bits and pieces of information are vital especially for a budding business tycoon. And they need to be somewhere where you can look them up anytime.

Scheduled meetings, client interviews, and even product inventory should be available at your fingertips whenever possible. Racking your brain about simple information may mean a lot for your business. You may miss important business opportunities because you just forgot to call a potential investor. Write down outlines, to-do’s, reminders, and even business ideas to clear your brain of clutter and focus on your current tasks.

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Go Mobile

If you have a 9-5 job, it is easier to leave your work on your desk at the end of the day. However, as a small business owner you should be thinking about your businesses most of the time. Whether you are on a business trip, at home, on vacation, or while driving, you should be able to at least check on how your business is doing (all the while still being able to enjoy rest, from time to time).

The problem with most owners nowadays is they’re not mobile at all. You really need to bring your businesses wherever you are. Applications like Dropbox or Google Drive can let you access your documents wherever you are. You can have your inventory right on the Internet through spreadsheets on Google Drive. You can even see your employees working real-time as you view your document. Going mobile will save you a lot of time driving to your office just to retrieve an important document or check the day’s sales report.

Hire Productive People

Owning a business does not only mean working your butt off to make it successful. It is unavoidable and necessary to hire people who will help you with your business. Productivity will only increase if you have competent, multi-talented, and creative workforce who believes in your businesses. Look for people who are passionate with what they do, who have the necessary skills and develop them to work with you in your business. You want a salesman who can boost your profit? Hire someone who loves talking to people. You want a person to oversee your business while you are away? Hire managers who are analytical and passionate.

Normally, having the skills and experience meant “older” people. However, the young generation today is equipped with raw talents that can be an advantage to your business (or you as a business startup owner might be in this generation). Having decades of experience means an expertise in a particular job, but it can also mean that the person already developed working methods and mindset that are not suitable to your needs.

Prioritize

You can only do so much and spreading yourself too thin will mean an average to disappointing output. Clear your mind and set your priorities accordingly. Choose the right activities that will focus your small business on tasks that contribute to your company’s long term objectives. After all, you are not building a company that will only last for 5 years. Write your goals and list tasks associated with each goal. By seeing them on paper (or on your screen), you can then focus on each task and decide which is important and urgent. Marketing efforts, administrative tasks, business activities, developing products and people are just few of the goals that you need to consider if you want to build a business empire.

Take Advantage of Technology

Technology today permeates even the most intimate activity of anyone’s day. Therefore, there is no reason for you to keep traditional methods of doing business. They may have worked in the previous years, but your productivity will suffer if you continue to use them despite the availability of today’s technology. There are thousands productivity tools out there which are available to you at no costs.

Technology, taking notes, going mobile, hiring productive people and prioritizing are only few of the factors that can help you increase productivity. Today, it is not enough to work harder; you also have to worker smarter to accomplish a lot of things with very little time.

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