4 Ways Small Business Owners Can Increase Productivity by Working Smarter, Not Harder

As a small business owner, your time is at a premium. Sometimes you feel like your work is never done. Even with an updated, prioritized task list, there never seems to be enough hours in the day to feel like you’re making any progress.

 

The best way to maximize your value as the owner is to spend your time wisely. Meaning you have to be efficient. You have to find ways to work smarter, not harder. You have to find ways to be more effective. When we apply the 80/20 rule to productivity for small business owners, we realize that we need to spend our time on the 20 percent of tasks that will result in 80 percent of value.

 

There are essentially 4 ways you can do this. You can:

 

1. Work longer hours

The problem with this method is that it’s unhealthy to work too much and, well, eventually, you run out of hours. What happens is that you spend your time rushing around trying to put out fires and you don’t spend enough time on the high-level value-added activities that grow your business. Plus, eventually you will get burned out and your productivity will really drop. Working more is not usually a viable solution.

 

2. Use more automation

Automation is an excellent decision. I use a wide range of apps and tools to maximize my productivity. However, you can only go so far with automation. At some point, if you want to maximize your value, you need people.

 

3. Hire an employee

Hiring an employee is ideal. No one can grow a winning business singlehandedly. Some have tried, but it is nearly impossible to do so. At some point, the tasks of running a business become to great for the entrepreneur to manage alone. However, the costs of recruiting, interviewing, training, monitoring and managing employees is high (one Forbes article pegs the cost of onboarding a new employee at $25,000.) Not to mention the cost of wages, taxes and benefits. Oh my.

 

4. Outsource the work

You have to remember that implementing practices to increase your productivity will allow you to increase your daily output by 10 times. At least.

 

I owe much of my personal success to outsourcing. My business is able to thrive thanks to intelligent outsourcing.

 

If you use outsourcing intelligently, it maximizes your productivity because it allows you to hand off the marketing aspects of your business, freeing you up to do the most important tasks.

 

Remember, one of the fastest ways to stunt the growth of your business is to try to do everything yourself. Click here to find out what tasks you should be doing as the CEO/owner of your business and what tasks you should be delegating.

 

Think about it.

 

According to salary.com, the average salary for a Marketing Communications Specialist in Colorado Springs is $65,488 per year. Benefits are $29,738 for a total annual budget of $95,226. That does not include your cost for equipment, utilities, training, professional development, office space, office furniture and all of the other overhead costs you incur by bringing in a full-time marketing specialist.

 

If you were to hire a Skilled Virtual Assistant through Vibrant full-time (40 hours per week), the cost would be $4,000 per month or $48,000 per year, which is significantly less than $95,226. Plus you have no overhead. Some small businesses hire based on project blocks of time so their cost is even less. 

 

Plus, you get a trained professional that can help you take your business to the next level using digital marketing best practices as well as oversight from a certified digital marketer with 7 years of experience. 

 

Once you hire a Vibrant Digital VA your productivity will skyrocket and your business will grow.

 

Are you ready to increase your productivity by outsourcing your digital marketing? Contact us here for a FREE MARKETING REVIEW today! 

 

What digital marketing tasks could you start outsourcing today? How much more would you be able to accomplish if these tasks were passed off to someone else who is an expert at digital marketing and can even provide you with guidance and direction? How much faster would your business grow with digital marketing strategy and implementation? 

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