How Do Entrepreneurs Become More Productive in their Businesses?
Ask any entrepreneur, the one thing that they wish they had more of is TIME. Time to meet more clients, see their loved ones more or go on a vacation. Sadly, many do not have the tools to get more done in their day.
Productivity is so important for every entrepreneur. It can be the secret to business growth. One successful company hired an analytical expert to measure productivity. He was tasked to design a system that executives could use to measure the operational effectiveness of all the company’s divisions.
When the results came out, it showed that none of the company’s divisions was efficient. Management then scratched their heads and wondered how is it possible that a company that generates billions in sales can show such low levels of productivity? A question, the expert could not answer. He was only tasked to measure the productivity levels and that’s all he did.
As you may have guessed, the analyst was fired and his system scrapped. But, what we learn from this example is that:
- A company may be successful in sales but have disappointing productivity levels
- Managers and executives are not quite sure how to measure productivity
How do we solve this?
The answer lies below. To help you become more productive, we’ve collected productivity tips from other entrepreneurs like you.
Define productivity
Productivity = units of output/units of input
Ironically, when asked, over 50% of entrepreneurs did not define productivity correctly. They would simply take a person’s time and weigh it against their tasks. What they do not consider is the complexity of the job at hand.
Say you’ve got a worker who spends 1-hour sending five emails, and you’ve got another worker who spends 30 minutes sending the same emails, you can say that worker B is more productive than worker A.
If we change the scenario and say that worker A develops a complex system which takes him 10 hours, whereas worker B develops a simple system which also takes him 10 hours, do they both have the same level of productivity?
Certainly not! Productivity must be measured relative to the complexity of the task.
It’s even more important to define productivity in a remote working environment because you’re not watching over your employees. If you need a Virtual Assistant to call 50 prospects per day for example, first identify whether an average person can complete this task before you can go ahead and measure productivity.
In addition, always tie productivity to an expense. If it costs you x amount to have a Virtual Assistant make calls for you and you’re expecting 50 calls a day, how much are you paying per call?
Measure productivity
Measuring productivity is the second step to solving any issues related to it. You may have an inkling that your productivity levels are low, but you will not know its true effects unless you measure it. Many of the entrepreneurs that we spoke to measure their productivity with a task tracker.
It’s also important to document your productivity expectations and sending it to all your remote workers. This way, they understand what is expected of them daily.
You can document productivity on a shared spreadsheet where you list the tasks required along with the number of hours required to complete the task. Then add four extra columns:
- Actual time taken to complete a task (Your VA must complete this portion)
- Pay per hour (You can input the pay rate)
- Level of difficulty (Easy, medium or difficult)
- Productivity level (Insert a formula to calculate this)
Of course, there are simpler ways to do this. Our favourite tool is Time Doctor. This tool is useful for remote working employees as it records internet usage and takes a screenshot every 3 minutes to show you what your employee is doing. Then, it will send you a report on your worker’s productivity levels.
Not only that, it has multiple features for improving productivity such as prioritising tasks, removing distractions and removing multitasking.
So, try this tool and let us know how it works for you?
