8 small business productivity tips to help you make the most of 2015

Where do you want to be this time next year? What do you want to have achieved for your and your business?
Published:
April 13, 2015
Category: Productivity

It’s vital, in our fast paced world, to appreciate the importance of being flexible and working quick – and working smart, to get great results from our marketing.

Read more in the following 8 top tips – helping you take another step towards your business taking off.

1) Set some business goals & targets

Where do you want to be this time next year? What do you want to have achieved for you and your business? Be specific. Is it time to write your first book? A certain level of turnover? Get recognised with an award? Create an e-learning product? Win that dream client? Whatever it is, don’t allow fear to hold you back. You can achieve your goals, with attainable steps, anything is possible.

2) Budgeting

Once you have a good idea of what you are planning to do, set a realistic budget for the project. Take into consideration staff whose time you will need, additional consultant fees, raw materials and any marketing to launch the project. Use our marketing budget calculator to help discover a realistic marketing budget for your business. It is also a good idea to keep a small fund to one side for any unexpected costs that may come up that you have not foreseen.

3) Spend time each day performing activities that will help you find and keep customers

In micro business, it’s incredibly easy to get overwhelmed by the day to day stuff. And whilst you can’t afford to let this slip, you also need to maintain that forward thinking perspective. That’s because without it your business will at best stagnate, or worse back pedal. To avoid this it’s well worth spending 60-90 minutes each day focusing entirely on finding and keeping customers.

There are a whole host of activities you can do in this time, such as:

  • Work on your social media.
  • Plan your first email auto-responder campaign.
  • Write for your own blog – or better still, guest blog.
  • Send handwritten notes to your best customers.
  • Plan an offer that helps you stand out from the competition.
  • Get super clear on who your target market is.

Don’t be mis-led. There are a whole heap of things you can do to market your business for free. If you want some ideas, check out this great post by Chris Dyson.

4) Seek out the great people

Surround yourself with people who inspire your business goals and support you to achieve your potential, the people you choose to surround yourself with could make or break your business. And that means you need to select your network wisely. Watch the people who doubt your dreams or undermine your confidence. For sure, they may have something to teach you, but this negative energy could seriously undermine your potential.

In comparison, hunt out those people who challenge you to succeed. Who inspire you with ideas. Who believe in you and who open up doors for possibilities that alone you could not have imagined. You may find these people in your family or your friendship groups, but you may also find them on Twitter, through networking or by Hanging out with the Hub. The trick is to keep an open mind.

5) Work hard then reward yourself!

Never forget what this is all about. You should work to live, not live to work. At times this can be a challenge. Especially if your business is an extension of yourself or your passion. Don’t lose sight of what else is important in life, burnout never helps anyone!

6) Outsource & delegate

Get help with things where you can, this could be in the form of a cleaner doing a couple of chores at home, an admin assistant in the office doing an afternoon a week, or a book keeper popping in to make sure you are staying on top of that big yearly tax return. If you free up your time by delegating some of your non-core responsibilities, suddenly you’ll discover more time to focus on those aspects of your business that only YOU can do.

7) Implement your ideas

One of the key differences between competant business owners and super successful business owners is simply the amount of stuff they make happen. All those big ideas you have, implement them – or at least some of them! Don’t put it off until tomorrow, take steps today and you will feel the benefits.

8) Plan ahead

And to make implementation possible, you need to plan ahead. Lists are a great discipline to adopt and work really well. List your annual goals, then break these into monthly objectives. Next plan your activities for the week and finally before each day ends, plan for tomorrow. Then tick stuff off when each task has been completed. This simple working practice can quickly become addictive. Try Brian Tracy’s Eat That Frog and Dan Kennedy’s No B.S Time Management for Entrepreneurs.

For our advice on your next move in marketing your business, get in touch today for a chat about how we can help. Call us during office hours on 0845 6422005 or email us using our enquiry form here.

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