Want the best tips for improving your efficiency at work and growing your small business? Want to know where to put your efforts as a small business owner to get the biggest return on investment when it comes to your time?
We’ve got big tips from small business owners to help you capitalize on your strengths as a small business. Get ideas for building your network, getting it all done, and the very best place to put your money to succeed. Waste less time, get more done.
Being a small business owner is different from being a large corporation, so of course, some of the best tips won’t be what you might have heard from the big guys. But bigger isn’t better. Small businesses have advantages that larger businesses don’t. Find out how you can grow your business with the best tips from the small guys, just like you.
Big Tips for Small Business Owners
You’re Not Running A Large Corporation
Running a small business is not the same as running a big corporation. Sure, some structures may be similar, but most small business owners are trying to run their businesses on significantly smaller budgets and with less resources available to them. Following step by step instructions from large businesses might backfire, so what’s a small business owner to do? Taking advice from other small business owners, who’s been there and done that, is a great start.
Prioritize Your Tasks
While everything you need to do as a business owner might seem equally important, there are some tasks that really are more important than the others. It’s important to figure out which tasks are the most vital, and to have a system that makes sure that they get done. If you have trouble deciding, think about what tasks will move your business forward the most, and make sure those tasks are finished first. If you have other employees, set the same type of priorities for them.
Educate Yourself
Furthering your own education is not a waste of money. If you don’t know how to do something and it’s a significant part of your business, taking a class or course to learn how to do it, is going to save you time. Time you’d otherwise waste googling the answers or taking a trial and error approach.
Free Courses
The internet is ripe with free courses taught by self-made gurus, but are they worth your time? They might be, but usually you pay for what you get. And when a course is free, you’re likely to get little out of it. Even though a proper education can be pricey, learning how to do something right the first time will be worth it. Another benefit of education is that it will likely teach you additional skills that might make you more money. Plus, the added confidence of knowing that you know what you’re talking about.
Work More Effectively
Want to get more done without increasing your time at the office? One way to get more done is to use a productivity technique like the Pomodoro technique. While it doesn’t sound particularly life-changing to do your work in increments, but give it a try. You’ll be surprised at the power of a timer. Many people find that they can get an extra hour’s worth of work in when using this method.
The Pomodoro Technique
To use the Pomodoro technique, you simply work for 25 minutes, take a 5 minute break, and then work for another 25. After four 25-minute work sessions, you take a longer break, like 15-20 minutes. After that you come back and start over. Each Pomodoro session takes about two hours. The Pomodoro technique works well for many because it puts pressure on you to work. Because you only have 25 minutes to work, you are less likely to waste any of them. At the same time, the 25 minute limit takes away some of the stress of larger projects, since there’s no way to finish them in just 25 minutes, leaving you free to start a big project without having to worry about finishing it before you get out of your chair.
Offer To Help Your Peers
As a small business owner you’ll probably feel like you need a lot of help, but so do the other small business owners around you. Instead of always being the one asking for others to help you, consider what you can do for them. One of the best things you can do to help your business and expand your network is to offer help to other small business owners. Do you have knowledge that might help out another business owner? Offer to help them out by teaching them how to do it. You have nothing to lose, and a lot to gain in getting the respect and goodwill of your peers.
Use Your Small Business Advantages
It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that a small business is somehow inferior to larger corporations, but in reality small businesses have advantages that larger businesses just don’t. One of them is that small businesses can afford to be very flexible where big businesses can’t.
Flexibility
A small business owner can easily adapt to market trends with a lot less consequences than a bigger business. As a small business you can let your niches develop and take your time while figuring out the best strategy to go with. This is something that a larger business would not be able to do. So think about the differences in your small business structure as advantages instead of drawbacks.
Personal Touch
Another thing that is difficult to do for large corporations, is getting personal with their customers and clients. As a small business, your biggest advantage is your personal touch. Many people prefer to work with small businesses for this very reason, because they feel like small businesses treat them like they matter, and that the company cares about who they are as people and will work with them to find a solution to their problems.
Wrapping Up
While none of these tips are necessarily implemented in a day, you can work on them over time. If you found a tip you think may help your business, or maybe a couple, there’s no need to feel overwhelmed. Simply add the tips one or two at a time, and with time you’ll see your business grow as a result.
