Why Time Shouldn’t Hold You Back From Running a Successful Business
In a study HubRunner recorded through Google Consumer Surveys, targeting 1,000 small and medium business owners and managers, we found that 33% believe time constraints are the biggest obstacle they face when trying to run their business.
That shouldn’t be too surprising given how demanding being a business owner is, but you can achieve your goals despite how fast the days fly by. Here are a few ways to improve efficiency, maximize your company’s time and get the most out of every minute.
Delegate
You’re not Superman. Even if you were, Superman needs the Justice League. Utilize your team. Each member of your team comes with a unique set of skills that can help push your business towards success and take some jobs off of your plate.
Know Your Expertise
As a business owner, you’re clearly doing something right. But you can’t expect to be great at everything. Knowing where your strengths and weaknesses lie is paramount to discovering the most efficient ways to delegate tasks to your teammates.
Know Your Team
Figure out what your team likes and what they’re good at. You might find out they studied graphic design in college for a semester, or they have a passion for a subject your company desperately needs to utilize.
Letting your teammates tackle new projects can increase their morale, make them feel needed, and inspire them to work harder to further carve out a position that makes them happiest.
Find Ways to Maximize Efficiency
Delegating your workflow among your coworkers is great, but that doesn’t necessarily guarantee efficiency. Sometimes, there are tasks that need to be done that no one currently has the skillset to tackle.
Oftentimes, in these situations, outsourcing is a solution. There are plenty of companies that specialize in just about any area that you suffer from a gap in skills. Look into pricing and competitors to supplement your business with third party partners – or just delegate someone on your team to do it!
Create a Plan
Creating a marketing plan was something we touched on in an earlier blog, but creating plans for your company can help you maximize your time commitment and help you push your business to the next level.
Beyond just creating a marketing plan, you need to have a business plan to share with your team, allowing visibility to the clockwork of the company, the opportunity to see where the company is headed, and steps to take in order to be successful.
Set Deadlines
You’re not in high school anymore, but setting deadlines can help you prioritize your time and avoid burnout from procrastination. Creating and sticking to your deadlines can help increase your overall productivity.
Short and Long Term Goals
Making lightning fast deadlines for projects can be incredibly effective, but it’s also important to balance those deadlines with long term goals. That way, everyone can see how each individual piece creates the whole picture.
Setting goals in the short and long term for your business plan helps your team understand the big picture and stay focused on the tasks at hand.
Find Measurable Metrics for Goals
Finding measurable metrics for long term goals is important because you might not be able to set a hard deadline for some tasks. For example, if one of your projects is to increase traffic to your company’s website, that job doesn’t really end. You will always try to increase traffic, and you will be expected to adapt to changes internally within your company and externally within your target markets.
Setting measurable metrics can keep your projects in check over time so you don’t have a panic attack six months down the line when you realize your strategy might not have worked the way you wanted it to. Measurable metrics allow you to rework your strategies and find out what does and doesn’t work, empirically, so you won’t spend all of your time trying to force a square peg into a round hole.
Balance Your Work and Life
There will never be enough hours in the day. You will always be able to find one more thing to do as a business owner, but working around the clock has been shown to do more harm than good. Happy workers produce good work.
Have a Leaving Time
Burnout does nothing for your productivity. You hear stories all the time about great, hardworking people who push too hard and break down. You won’t do your business any good by working to the point of exhaustion.
By setting a strict closing time for yourself, you guarantee that you’ll get the time to relax, give your brain a break, and get back in the office to work hard the next day. You will also be able to give yourself a hard stopping point, so you can prioritize your tasks.
Take Frequent Breaks
Sometimes you just have to stop what you’re doing and go for a walk. And, as you will find when you start taking breaks, your productivity will increase.
Studies show that taking breaks throughout your day keeps you focused, attentive, and, generally, happier. Putting your computer on sleep and getting your blood pumping can give you that extra boost to get more work done during the day.
Take Your Vacation Days
You know when you need to take a vacation. The days trudge on, you can’t sleep at night, and the work is piling up around you. Studies show that getting away from the office entirely will increase your productivity and make you happier.
Leaving your business behind can be scary as a business owner, but taking a vacation can do more than give your brain a rest. You can give more responsibility to the team you leave in your place, allowing them to feel valued and trusted.
There is no perfect way to add minutes to your day, but you can maximize the time you have to get the most done. Sometimes it involves admitting your teammates can do something better than you, or creating a decisive action plan for the company to untie around, or getting away from the office for 30 minutes to stretch your legs.
Don’t let Father Time keep you from making your business the best it can be. To learn more about how to save time and get results, contact HubRunner today.
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