When it comes to running your own business, time is precious.

Productivity and profits work hand in hand; when you increase one, the other increases too. So, what can self-employed micro business owners like ourselves do to ensure we’re increasing productivity, and in turn, escalating our profits?

We’ve put together 5 important steps you can use to overcome your business challenges and gain the most out of your time.

1. Get organised and identify your business challenges

Firstly, organisation is key.

Start by identifying the obstacles you commonly find your business facing and write them down on a piece of paper. Once you’ve made a note of them, start to brainstorm the possibilities for moving forward – writing each option down in front of you so you can visualise your options.

Next, brainstorm the key areas you find your business struggling with, so you can see the areas you need to focus on going forward. Once you’ve identified your main business challenges, make a commitment to working on these throughout the upcoming weeks and keep referring back to your notes so you can cross off challenges as you overcome them.

If possible, ask trusted friends or family how they might work through the same challenge so you can gain more perspective.

By focusing your attention on your business’ challenges, you’ll be able to ensure your future endeavours are more beneficial to your business. Additionally, as you take steps to overcome these challenges, you’ll find yourself with more time to boost your productivity and escalate those profits. It’s a win-win, right?

2 Set business goals

Next, set aside some time to work out your business’ future goals. Sort these into short term goals and long-term goals so you know how to divide your time, and continuously revisit them to keep them fresh in your mind.

Once you’ve identified your goals, brainstorm ways to help you achieve them in a timely manner and work on taking small steps every week to help you reach them.

Setting written goals is so important to keep you on track and ensure you don’t find yourself losing sight of your business’ possibilities. Revisiting them often will also allow you to stay motivated and reduce the likelihood for procrastination. At Pocket PA, we believe that holding yourself accountable is key!

3. Know your priorities

Once you’ve identified your challenges and goals, it’s important to add structure to the day to day running of your business by making a note of your priorities. Keep higher-level priorities at the forefront of your mind and focus your time and energy on achieving these.

By setting priorities, you’ll be able to keep yourself disciplined on a daily basis and make the most of your time.

This will contribute to the smooth running of your business and will also ensure you consistently meet your daily goals/objectives whilst boosting your business’ productivity to increase profits.

4. Time Management and Workflow Organisation

When it comes to productivity, time management is key. At Pocket PA, we highly recommend setting up a structure around your time to maximise efficiency and keep on top of your day to day activities. Using a colour-coded diary helps with this beautifully as its fun to look at and easy to set up.

However, as well as boosting efficiency, time management is also vital for avoiding burnouts and making sure you don’t overcommit yourself. To avoid this, make sure you carefully plan out every day and allocate yourself some extra buffer times for additional tasks and projects that you may need to focus on when they crop up last minute.

Set aside time for breaks to avoid tiredness or overwhelming yourself as these are 2 of the main things which can significantly reduce productivity and in turn slow down profits.

5. Build a relationship with clients

Finally, building a relationship with clients is key to helping you increase your productivity and profits. Spend time on your businesses social media pages to interact with followers and build a positive relationship and good brand reputation.

This is important as positive reviews and social media recommendations are 2 key methods to attract new clients, so you should focus a lot of attention on enhancing these.

Once you start building up a regular clientele, you’ll also find your productivity and profits increasing as you’re able to attend more appointments and stick to a consistent work schedule.

We hope these 5 tips help you to make the most of your time and maximise your businesses productivity and profits; stick with it and let us know how you get on!