Are you feeling overwhelmed with your small business? Are you struggling to find time for everything that needs to get done?

In this video, we will unearth three productivity tips that will help you manage your time and business more effectively.

My name is Doug Barra, and I am a small business coach. I have the honor and privilege of working with small business owners to grow their businesses.

I believe that business owners or the owners of small local businesses are the most courageous people in the world. You have the lives of your family, your employees, their families, and even the community you serve in your hands. It’s an honor to be able to serve you. In today’s video, we’ll discuss three productivity tips for small business owners who feel like they’re always busy.

I’m excited to share these with you because they have the potential to change your business and your life! So without further ado, let’s get started.

The first tip I have for you is to schedule everything. That means setting aside time for specific tasks and then sticking to that schedule. This will help you to stay focused and on track. Depending on the roles that you fill in your business, what you schedule will look different.

But here are a few things that you might want to consider:

• customer calls

• meetings with employees

• marketing tasks

• bookkeeping

• inventory management

• strategic planning

The key is to be as specific as possible with your time. Also always remember that you cannot manage time. What? Yes, I’ll say that again. You cannot manage time.

I know, I know that’s the one thing we all want to do, but it’s impossible. Everyone has the same amount of time! You can only manage tasks! A key to managing tasks is to take time at the end of each day to write out a list of all of the tasks that you need to get done the next day, and then prioritize those tasks.

A key to managing tasks is to take time at the end of each day to write out exactly what you need to do the next day, then prioritize them in order of importance to the business, then the next day, do what you wrote down. My second tip for you is to delegate or outsource tasks that someone else can do. This will free up your time so that you can focus on the most critical tasks in your business.

There are a lot of things that you probably don’t need to be doing yourself. For example, you might want to consider hiring a bookkeeper or an accountant. Or, if you’re spending a lot of time on social media, you might want to hire a virtual assistant to help with that. The key here is to identify the tasks that are taking up a lot of your time and that someone else could do just as well (or better!) than you. Then rank those tasks against two criteria, how much value they provide to the business and how difficult they are to do. Then, delegate or outsource those tasks that are the easiest and provide the least value. When we’re talking value here, it’s about how much revenue it brings in or supports bringing in. For example (and this is an elementary example for illustration), let’s say that you make coffee for the office daily.

This simple task provides very little value, so it’s easily delegated. Whereas, doing sales presentations to your best prospects takes a lot of skill and provides lots of value, so that would be something you wouldn’t delegate ( at least not at first).

The third and final tip I have for you is to take care of yourself! This may seem like an odd tip, but it’s so important. If you’re not taking care of yourself, you’re not going to be able to be productive in your business. Remember, when you’re on a plane, they say put your oxygen mask on first, then help others. This is because you can’t help others if you’re suffering from hypoxia (lack of oxygen to the brain). The same is true in business.

You have to take care of yourself first so that you can be at your best for your business. There are a lot of things that you can do to take care of yourself.

But, here are a few that I think are important:

• eat healthy foods,

• exercise,

• get enough,

• sleep,

• spend time with family and friends,

• take vacations and,

• most important, pay yourself first!

I’m going to say that again. Pay yourself first. Remember, if you’re not taking care of yourself, you will not be able to take care of your business. And, your business needs you at your best!

So, those are my three tips for small business owners who feel like they’re always busy. I hope you found them helpful. If you have any other tips that you’ve found helpful, please share them in the comments below.

I’m always looking for new ways to be more productive!

By following these three tips, small business owners can begin taking control of their productivity and businesses. With a little bit of planning and effort, small business owners can find themselves with more time, money, and freedom from their business.

And isn’t that what we all want?

Would you like to discover more about this and other topics essential to business success and growth?

Yes? Great!

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