Here’s the understatement of the decade — running a small business is tough. You’re always being pulled in 20 different directions, you’re tasked with putting out the “fires” that arise every day, and you’re charged with making weighty decisions that have the power to make or break your business.
There are all sorts of wisdom we can cull from the small business owners who had come before us and walked through the fire, follow your passion, pay attention to the small stuff, make time for yourself. Here’s the problem: you’ve heard all of it before. So much so that it’s become almost meaningless. That’s why we’re here to offer some tips that might be new to you.
IMAGE: PEXELS
1. Stay Away From Your Inbox
Don’t look at your emails, at least for the first few hours of the day. Why? Studies have shown that the monotony of going through a landslide of business-related emails can lead to “decision fatigue.”
According to the research, making a bunch of decisions can be psychologically tiring; the more you make, the weaker your decision-making abilities become throughout the course of the day. To be more productive, don’t waste mental energy on mostly meaningless emails. Instead, use your “fresh” morning time to make the big decisions and save emails for the end of the day.
2. Forget About Multi-Tasking
In the old days, businesspeople used to crow about being great “multitaskers.” Thanks to countless studies, we now know that multitasking isn’t actually possible and, in fact, leads to less productivity.
Don’t buy into the lie that you can get some social-media marketing done while you’re on the phone with a client or knock out some bookkeeping while you’re going over the minutes from yesterday’s meeting. Instead, focus all of your energy on just a single task at a time. You’ll absorb information better, you’ll be less frazzled, and you’ll ultimately do a more competent job.
3. Take Time To Train Employees Well
Many small business owners hire someone new, thinking that they can relieve some of their work burdens. In actuality, if you’re doing things right, your workload will go up when you bring in a new hire, at least temporarily.
That’s because you can’t expect new employees to hit the ground running, even if they’ve done the job before and they’re the best in the business. They’ll need time to acclimate to the nuances of your business. It’s worth putting in the extra time to train them well. In the end, you’ll run into less turnover and have more competent employees.
4. Invest In Education
Because entrepreneurs are self-starters, they often think they can teach themselves everything. Cut to five months later and 60 hours of YouTube videos, online research and trial, and error, and they’re still not getting it right.
A business degree or degree in finance is a hefty investment, but it can more than pay for itself in the long run. Not only will you learn to avoid costly mistakes, what you learn will teach you to make even more money. Also, if you don’t go for a full degree, courses in web design, business management, or accounting are a worthy expenditure.
5. Go Pomodoro
The Pomodoro Technique works like this — you set a timer for 25 minutes and work. Then, you take a 5-minute break and do another 25 minutes of work. You do this until you’ve done four 25-minute sessions, and then you take a more extended break.
By parceling your time out like this, you’ll be driven to do something productive with each 25-minute chunk, and work won’t seem as exhausting. The Pomodoro Technique is just one of the tons of time-management and productivity techniques out there. Pick one that works for you and stick to it.
If you are interested in even more business-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
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