#149: Productivity Hacks to Grow Your Business FAST

Marketing / Automation

This month’s theme is Work from Home Power Hacks & Habits. I’ve got lots of tips on everything from automation tools to building better work habits!

As an entrepreneur, you juggle many tasks at once. So, productivity is crucial. However, you may not realize how minor changes can improve your workflow efficiency significantly.

Whether it’s setting SMART goals or waking up at 4.00 a.m., successful business owners have their own trusted productivity hacks.

Here are the top ones to grow your business fast.

Welcome to a new Systems Sunday. This month’s theme is Work From Home Power Hacks & Habits.

I’m Lisa Wells, your Virtual Assistant Trainer.

As an entrepreneur, you juggle many tasks at once. So, productivity is crucial. However, you may not realize how minor changes can improve your workflow efficiency significantly.

Whether it’s setting SMART goals or waking up at 4.00 a.m., successful business owners have their own trusted productivity hacks. Here are the top ones to grow your business fast.

1. Focus or Fail

As a business owner, you need to have laser focus to be productive and successful. It’s not just about what you’ll focus on, but it’s also about what you’ll do despite the distractions. It’s all about focus, focus, and focus!

2. Time Management

The driving force of productivity and success is how you manage your time. This is the raw material for businesses. With many pieces every day, a business owner must focus on what’s urgent and important. Sometimes it’s tempting to give attention to things that are just pressing, ignoring the most important things.

3. Innovation

Risk-taking, bootstrapping and innovation are the hallmarks of businesses. However, some crucial management aspects like productivity, profits, and systems are overlooked by many business owners in the quest for success.

Sometimes business owners ignore productivity, citing the need for innovation. But in a resource-starved business world, higher productivity translates to better use of limited resources. So, innovation and productivity can go hand in hand if they’re incorporated in the company structure in a non-confrontational way.

4. Delegate, Delegate, Delegate

Many business owners face challenges while building their company, particularly in building a team. There are several tools to help grow a business effectively, but we all have limited time. And while time is crucial in every stage a business is in, it’s even more crucial in the formative stage.

When growing a business, it’s common for most business owners to multitask. But this hampers their productivity because they end up doing many tasks which they can delegate.

To improve your productivity and grow your business, learn to delegate tasks to your team or other contractors or professionals as per their abilities and skills. Delegating is not running away from your responsibilities. Rather, it helps to get more things done in less time – improving your productivity and success. For example, don’t think you have to learn graphic design to create your own logo, go to Fiverr and have a professional do one for you.

5. Bundle Tasks Together

Rather than jumping from one task to another, group similar tasks together. For instance, schedule all calls for specific times, and do all admin tasks together. Doing this will help you save time and it’ll reduce the mental energy it takes to switch from one thing to another. As a result, you’ll do every task faster and more efficiently, which will improve your productivity.

6. Find Your Golden Hours

Some people are more productive in the morning. Others are more productive at night. Stop worrying about managing your time of input and focus more on managing your energy. Take on daunting tasks during your personal “golden hours.” Doing this will improve your productivity and you’ll be able to grow your business fast.

7. Use Apps to Boost Productivity

There are many apps that can help a business owner save time. They have templates that cut down repetitive work. It’s good to explore some of these apps and also use time-tracking apps to know how you spend most of your time. There have been lots of times when I will ask a client how much time they spend on X and what their perception of what time they are spending on something and their actual time can sometimes be way off. Same with using a food journal to track eating habits or FitBit for getting in steps – you can’t hit the goal you don’t see.

All these strategies are easy to implement; they don’t require a lot of effort if you’re a busy business person and already feeling overwhelmed. Try one thing this week to see if your productivity increases.

If you enjoyed this episode and want more work-from-home hacks, check out my new Work Management Hacks Project Plan and Template Kit. The project plan includes a Step-by-Step Marketing Plan, task tracking calendar, checklists, and lots of templates so that you don’t have to recreate the wheel. Most of the documents come in .doc format so that you can customize them to your business needs. But here’s the beautiful part, not only can you use these ready-made templates and plans in your OWN business, but you can also use with your CLIENTS as well!
Here’s how:

  • Use the project plan as your guide while you strategize with your client as you discuss each marketing plan step in depth
  • Walk through the questions with your client, writing out the answers on the pages
  • Wrap up the call with a plan of action for how to proceed and assist your client in their business

You’ll come across as a total pro as you take initiative and have all the bases covered. Create a new service offering with every project plan!

You can find the product below or head over to my VA Business Builder Boutique by clicking on Shop in the menu bar.

Join me next week as we wrap up the month with my 7 best business automation tools. See you next week!

 

Catch up on other “WFH Power Hacks & Habits” episodes + resources mentioned in the video:

Did you enjoy this episode and want to put it into action? Check out this project plan and template kit!

Work Management Hacks Project Plan & Template Kit

$35.00

Work Management Hacks Project Plan

You’re an incredibly talented and creative entrepreneur and people love your work.

But you have to admit, your business feels messy and chaotic and you know that it’s negatively affecting how you show up for your clients.

  • You have trouble managing your time
  • You tend to take on too many clients at once
  • You don’t have an efficient system for doing consult calls and onboarding your clients
  • You don’t have a time limit on your calls, so you always end up spending way too much time talking with clients on Skype about their projects instead of working on them
  • You frequently drop the ball on client communications because your schedule is so overburdened (and your clients wonder where you went)
  • You sometimes make promises to your clients that you can’t keep
  • You allow your clients to control your time and you don’t really have any boundaries in place
  • You have a tendency to hop from client project to client project… doing just enough on each one to keep your clients from complaining about the lack of progress

And secretly, you sometimes get sick of your own drama.

The Work Management Hacks Project Plan & Template Kit includes a Step-by-Step Marketing Plan + Templates + Checklists + More!

Tackle your marketing to-do list and put systems in place using my done-for-you marketing plan and templates!

Here’s what you get:

  • Step-by-Step Marketing Plan (.doc format)
    • Getting Started
      • Marketing Strategy Overview
      • Timeline & Budget
    • Section One: Business & Lifestyle Goals
    • Section Two: Get Clear On What You Do and Who You Work With
    • Section Three: High-Level Planning & Milestones
    • Section Four: Daily Organization & Time Management
  • Templates + Worksheets + Swipe Files + And More! (.doc format)
    • Business and Life Goals Template
    • Ideal Project Worksheet
    • Ideal Client Worksheet
    • Passion Project and Hobby Tracker
    • Client Criteria List Template
    • Ideal Client Avatar Template
    • Non-Billable Tasks Template
    • Life and work Goals Contract
    • 3 Client Response Email Series Templates
    • Daily Calendar
    • Weekly Calendar
    • Monthly Calendar
    • Annual Calendar
  • Task Tracking Calendar (.doc format)
    • This calendar is such a simple but powerful tool with task reminders to help you stay on schedule and meet deadlines.
  • Checklists (.doc format)
    • Client Criteria Checklist
    • Maintenance Essentials Checklist
      • Set-up
      • Maintain
  • Monthly Results Report (.pdf format)
    • A fill-in-the-blank report that your assistant can fill in at the end of every month or the completion of your project. It will give you a snapshot of your business after the new marketing plan has been implemented, what your assistant worked on, what else she can do to help you clear your plate, share feedback, unexpected hurdles, etc.

Your project plan can be used in your own business or you can use with your clients!

These DFY project plans are chock full of automation techniques, time-saving systems, and step-by-step guides to show you exactly what you need to do and when. Most of the documents come in .doc format so that you can customize them to your business needs. But here’s the beautiful part, not only can you use these ready-made templates and plans in your OWN business, but you can also use with your CLIENTS as well!

Here’s how:

  1. Use the project plan as your guide while you strategize with your client as you discuss each marketing plan step in depth
  2. Walk through the questions with your client, writing out the answers on the pages
  3. Wrap up the call with a plan of action for how to proceed and assist your client in their business

You’ll come across as a total pro as you take initiative and have all the bases covered. Create a new service offering with every project plan!

#149:  Productivity Hacks to Grow Your Business FAST
#149:  Productivity Hacks to Grow Your Business FAST

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