5 Ways to Increase Productivity in Your Small Business

The size of the business does not matter when it comes to productivity. However, being productive is a must if you want to survive the competition, evolve, make money, grow and prosper, regardless you are a small shop or a huge multinational company.

The difference between big and small is in the little detail called funds. While a big company has everything that it needs to postpone productivity and invest in technological development or expansion, a small business owner cannot survive their first couple of years without being productive. Hence, this is the topic I am going to talk about during the next paragraphs.

But wait… why did I bring up this topic?

Well, productivity has a lot to do with your mindset as a small business owner and the way you manage to create the workplace your colleagues/employees feel good and efficient. According to UltimateSoftware, 92% of the employees are more satisfied at work if they have the technologies they need to perform better. Moreover, 30% would go as far as to quit their job if having to work with outdated software.

Stress is also a major trigger in counterproductivity, especially when it is generated by the continuous need to check the smartphone or when your boss is bullying you or they are treating you without respect or consideration. Work-related stress can also lead to depression and anxiety, two of the most common afflictions in today’s society. They can ruin the work environment and reduce productivity.

According to Mind, stressed staff feels unsupported at work. Moreover, based on this source, 95% of them will lie about their need to take time off from work and avoid sharing their problems with their employers. This tells us more than we would like to know about the working environment, the miscommunication in the workplace, and the toxic relationships some of us form with our bosses.

What did we learn up to this point?

Well, we know that technology is important but at the same time, we also know that there are other important facts that, if combined with the right tools, can increase productivity among employees. I am talking obviously about all those things that go beyond work itself while they relate to it at the same time. Let us find out together what did I mean here:

Prioritize tasks

Whatever you do, it is important to know what lies ahead and prioritize tasks according to their importance. Your colleagues and/or employees will know what to do when to do it and most of all, why do it in the first place, based on priority and timelines. They will work better this way, as you eliminate most of the work-related stress and keep a clean and efficient workflow.

Use an appointment booking app

Nothing tells us more about being productive than the right tool in the right hand. In this case, if you are running a small shop and you based your income on scheduled services, I think you will love Appointfix. It’s an appointment booking app that allows you to schedule your time better, eliminate downtimes and communicate easily with customers and fans.

How can Appointfix help you increase your productivity?

Well, as I have already mentioned above, some features will immediately catch your attention and I am more than sure that at least, you will want to try the app if not using it as your main scheduler right from the start.

Some of its main features include:

• Scheduling. Wherever you are, you can create, view, and update your customers’ appointments with ease.

• Reminders. Appointfix can interact directly with your clientele via messages and send instant reminders, notifications, and follow-ups.

• Online booking. Forget about the traditional phone calls. With Appointfix your clients can now book your services online, 24/7.

• Client management. You can also keep track of your customers, see their appointment history, what services they have purchased in the past, and so on. This will help you have a clearer idea about what works best for them and your business and how you can improve your services to adapt better to your clientele.

• Appointfix allows you to view and save daily, weekly or monthly reports on sales. You can adapt better on the market this way, by analyzing which week or month was better and understanding the reasons behind this.

• You can use the app for marketing purposes as well. How? Well, you can send bulk messages to all your clients and easily advertise sales and special offers.

Now, if you want to try the app, you can access and install it from the App Store or Google Play, depending on the type of device you want to use with it.

Improve communication with your teammates

Every relationship is based on communication. Effective communication. And, as you may already know, there should be a positive relationship between employer and employees, between the employees and the customers, and between the customers and the business as well.

You can build a strong and healthy relationship based on communication and increase productivity by keeping all the communication channels open.

What can you do?

• Be honest and straightforward. People need to know what they have to do and have a clear picture of what you mean when you allocate a task or when you criticize something, they did wrong.

• Keep tabs on personal issues and needs. Not all people are the same. You won’t find two people to share everything in common. This is why it would be best, for increased productivity, to spend some time on knowing your employees and learning about how you can help them perform better at their jobs. You can do this through communication, effective communication but at the same time, a little empathy may prove to be quite right.

• Know your customers. Know who they are, what they want, and learn how to allocate tasks according to these needs, communicate them to your employees and help them get to know how to improve themselves based on this knowledge.

Reduce distractions

Maybe you shouldn’t ban smartphones or personal computers in the workplace right from the start. However, you can encourage a professional working environment where these kinds of devices are being used for emergencies only.

To be productive, people need to be able to focus on the job to be done. For this, they need to avoid distractions. And, you can start by giving your peers a good example. Stop checking your phone instinctively every time you see the screen flickering or every time you hear a notification sound. Don’t interrupt yourself while you are engaged in doing a task.

Work with quality tools and equipment

While your colleagues/employees will perform better if you invest in professional and quality tools, the same thing applies to your customers who will gain confidence if they know you are not selfish and only focused on quick profits.

People will appreciate that you invest in quality and choose the best tools for your industry. For example, if you are just starting a barbershop business, you will want to include in your beginner barber kit some qualitative and useful tools as well. And, you will want your customers to know that you did this. Trust me, they will know it, the first time they go into your shop and leave satisfied, wanting to come back.

Your employees will feel it as well. They will perform better, working with professional tools and at the same time, they will enjoy the positive emotions triggered by happy and satisfied customers, which are also good things when it comes to increased productivity on their part.

Conclusion:

It is essential to be productive in your workspace. There’s no debate here. We all know that time means money and satisfied customers can help you grow a small business. However, in order to make the most of your time and make money as well, you need to be productive. And, as we have learned together through this article, productivity depends on a series of things you, as the small business owner, need to take care of. You need the best tools, a great working environment, a good relationship with your team, and a stress-free workplace in order to focus on quality and not quantity, because quality brings more customers and helps you grow and evolve as a brand and a business.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes​