11 Clever Ways To Increase Your Startup’s Productivity
You hear that?
That endless buzzing sound … It won’t let up.
It’s infuriating every fiber of your being.
And more importantly, you can’t concentrate on the task at hand.
So you’ve made it your life’s mission to destroy the source of this buzzing.
You finally have it in your crosshairs — it’s a fly. Just as you suspected.
(Splat!)
Finally, peace and quiet.
And now you can concentrate again.
Just as this scenario played out in AMC’s “Breaking Bad” demonstrated, humans are easily distracted.
Walter simply couldn’t continue doing his “job” until the fly was terminated.
In turn, his productivity plummeted.
And time is money, as they say.
See, a big company can absorb a loss in productivity here and there.
But for a startup, it could spell disaster.
Because a startup is still in its infancy.
And needs every break it can get.
This resource is your break.
In it, I’ll outline:
- The business costs of being unproductive.
- 11 ways that your startup can increase productivity.
- What you can do to get more out of your employees.
First, let’s talk about how gloomy the business world can be when employees are not putting in much effort.
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The Scoop on the Modern Startup
As you may know from our blog post, “17 Easily Avoidable Startup Mistakes You Should Know,” running a startup is difficult.
In fact, 9 out of 10 startups fail.
From not meeting market demands to failing to make a pivot,, there’s a variety of reasons why startups fail.
But one thing’s for sure: An increase in productivity can help prevent most reasons for failure.
Between social media apps and Google, wasting time at work has become a common theme.
According to Salary.com, 89% of workers admit to wasting time at work every day.
Of that, 57% waste at least an hour per day.
This is pretty jarring to any business owner like yourself.
Because there’s only so much time in the day to get things done.
And a percentage of your payroll is being wasted.
It’s no surprise that productivity goes hand-in-hand with your bottom line.
In its “State of the American Workplace Report,” Gallup found that disengaged employees cost the U.S. $483 billion to $605 billion per year in lost productivity.
And in total, SurePayroll says lost productivity costs employers $1.8 trillion per year.
There’s a wide range of reasons why you and your employees may slow down in productivity.
Perhaps there’s a health issue. Or too much time is being spent on unnecessary tasks.
Whatever it may be, you can always make a change.
That way, you and your employees get the most out of every working hour.
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How Your Startup Can Increase Productivity #1: Have a Tracking System in Place
When legendary entrepreneur J.P. Morgan was asked what his secret to success was, he said that he would simply write down every task that needed to be done each day and he wouldn’t stop working until each task was finished.
So not much of a secret. But more of a good work ethic.
By sticking to a list, you avoid procrastination.
Also, it helps you stick to a task before moving onto a new one.
One of the biggest issues organizations face are the adverse effects of multitasking.
According to a study by the American Psychological Association, multitasking can decrease productivity by as much as 40%. But staying focused on individual tasks can mitigate this loss.
Having a solid task management system in place will help you set up a daily schedule.
For example, you can use something like the DDOME Task System.
What’s the DDOME Task System?
Well, let me just outline what each letter stands for.
D: When is the task actually done?
D: When is it due?
O: What order are you going to prioritize each task? (#1, #2, #3, etc.)
M: How many minutes will it take?
E: What kind of enthusiasm do you have for it?
With a DDOME Task System, you’ll know exactly what tasks you’re going to carry out each day. That way, you stay committed to starting and finishing a task before moving on to another one.
And you can also prioritize your most important tasks as well as commit to a time frame for how long each task will take.
To learn more about this simple trick that can double your productivity, check out Matt’s video breaking it all down.
How Your Startup Can Increase Productivity #2: Eliminate Distractions
The majority of business output problems can be helped with a simple process: Find out what’s distracting you and eliminate it.
As reported by Udemy, 75% of employees say they get more done when they’re not distracted.
And 1 out of 2 employees say distractions make them significantly less productive.
If things are going slowly, what’s distracting you? Is it coffee breaks that are too long? Are you spending too much time copying and pasting files? Too much gossip?
As a suggestion, conduct an A/B test where one day you don’t do “X” activity and other days you do. Then compare your results.
You just may find a correlation between a factor and productivity.
How Your Startup Can Increase Productivity #3: Keep Your End Goals in Mind
You need to set clear goals that you and your team can work towards.
And then keep an eye on your efficiency as you go along the way.
If you find that worker output slows down, have a team meeting. Make sure that everyone is on the same page.
According to the Southern Management Association, 60% of startups fail because of something wrong with the team.
And in a study carried out by Harvard Business Review, they found that prior experience alone was not enough for startups to succeed. Among the top reasons for the failures were a lack of shared entrepreneurial spirit and not having a cohesive strategic vision.
How Your Startup Can Increase Productivity #4: Limit the Amount of Meetings You Hold
Sometimes, a meeting is absolutely necessary, for example, if there’s going to be a change in the core business vision.
But for the most part, meetings are not all that helpful.
In fact, Atlassian found that 91% of employees surveyed said they daydream during meetings and 47% say meetings are the biggest time-waster at work.
So if you’re going to hold meetings, just make sure it’s going to keep everyone engaged.
Or if you find appropriate, just send messages through your team chat platform of choice.
Another suggestion is to hold smaller meetings for specific people that really need to be involved. For example, just the department heads. And allow your other employees to carry on with their daily tasks.
How Your Startup Can Increase Productivity #5: Reduce Stressors
In a Colonial Life study, it was reported that 41% of employees are less productive when stressed.
And 1 out of 2 employees say they lose between 1 and 5 hours per week due to stress.
If your yields are not up to par, take a look at what’s going on in your life that could lead to this.
As an entrepreneur, you may be overworking yourself. Same goes for your employees or co-workers.
In a startup, a lot of people must wear a lot of hats, which may make them a bit overstretched.
As we all know, when you’re exhausted all the time or feel burnt out, productivity is obviously going to suffer. And you may even lose your drive.
But if you approach your business venture with emotional well-being prioritized first and foremost, you’ll reduce the financial toll that stress brings to businesses.
Of course, there are things outside of your control, such as an employee’s personal life.
However, you can still give a helping hand by looking out for signs that someone is not their usual self.
And act like the leader you are by asking them privately how you can help them in any way.
How Your Startup Can Increase Productivity #6: Prepare for Growth
As an entrepreneur, you know that scaling up doesn’t happen overnight.
It takes patience and a lot of hard work.
But while you’re getting ready for that transition, prepare for it.
Don’t wait to set up productivity schedules.
Instead, you can start thinking about what additional tasks would be required now.
With that, you can set calendar templates that will make each day run smoothly.
And you can also consider some project management tools that could be useful.
The more prepared you are for growth, the easier the next stage will be for your startup.
How Your Startup Can Increase Productivity #7: More Training
Although most employees say training would help circumvent distractions, 66% of them haven’t mentioned this to their managers, as per Udemy.
The thing is, a lot of employees simply don’t use their time all that wisely.
Sometimes, it’s their own fault for being too easily distracted.
But other times, it’s due to a failure from the business to properly train its employees.
Granted, employee training is much more common in large, established firms.
As reported by Statista, small businesses invested just 41.7 hours of training for each employee in 2020. Meanwhile, large companies with 10,000 or more employees invested 102.6 hours in training per employee.
While it may be true that big firms are more inclined to provide training, there’s no reason you can’t do so too.
Regardless of your size, employee training yields the same benefits.
Some of the key areas you could offer training in are:
- Technical knowledge
- Quality standards
- Adaptability
- Emotional intelligence
- Listening skills
- Group collaboration
- Conflict resolution
Now, a lot of small businesses look at employee training as too expensive for them.
According to Training magazine, companies spent an average of $1,111 on training per employee in 2020.
But the investment is well worth it.
According to a PR release from a talent development platform called Bridge, 70% of U.S. employees are at least somewhat likely to leave their company to join one that offers more employee learning and development.
Today’s employees are more educated.
They’re more aware of what value they hold to a firm.
Accordingly, they expect more empowerment.
And providing learning opportunities for future growth is one of the best ways to empower your staff.
In a survey carried out by robotics company UiPath, 80% of global workers believe they’ll be more productive if they learned new skills.
How Your Startup Can Increase Productivity #8: Motivate Your Employees
Motivated employees are engaged employees.
And when your employees are highly engaged, they’ll get more done each day.
According to a Galup poll, engaged employees are 17% more productive than their peers.
At the heart of employee motivation is appraisal. This is performance management 101.
In general, people want credit for their hard work.
In fact, Office Team found that 2 out of 3 workers would leave their job if they felt unappreciated.
And if you’re wondering the fairest way to go about performance management, follow McKinsey & Company’s research findings:
- Link employee performance goals to the business vision
- Turn managers into coaches (this is YOU)
- Reward above-and-beyond performances with social appraisal and financial incentives
How Your Startup Can Increase Productivity #9: Use Email Sparingly
If your startup uses email for internal communications, then you’re doing it wrong.
As tempting and convenient as email is, it’ll hurt your productivity.
For one thing, it can take a long time just to sort through your inbox.
According to Atlassian, the annual losses per employee due to email inefficiency are:
- $1,250 from spam
- $1,800 from unnecessary emails
- Up to $4,100 from poor communication
There’s just so much going on in the average email inbox that you and your employees are bound to miss important information from time to time.
Plus, there’s better tools out there to communicate with team members.
Slack, Microsoft Teams, Coast and Flock — among others — are some good team chat platforms that are much more time efficient than email.
And if you ever worked with the Growbo platform, you’ll know that we use our own in-house project management chat for team collaboration.
With our chat feature, you can send text, images, video and audio to the team members assigned to your marketing projects.
We find that it really streamlines the process and allows us to differentiate ourselves from our competitors.
How Your Startup Can Increase Productivity #10: Just Say No Sometimes
As an entrepreneur, you’re already burdened with a gazillion tasks.
And you likely receive a lot of requests that promise to add value but they require more time commitment.
You see, you’re going to just have to learn to say no. As enticing as something may sound, rarely does its offer match real-world results.
For example, some employees may suggest creating a new department.
Or an investor might want you to expand too fast.
They may sound like great ideas.
However, the projected results are based on hypotheticals in an ideal world.
But you have a clear vision for your company. So you must not lose focus on your vision in exchange for a coulda-shoulda-woulda.
Moreover, you and your employees will have less time to accomplish pending tasks and projects if you take on something new.
Saying yes to new proposals too often sets a bad precedent for your business.
And it’s a slippery slope.
Before you know it, none of your projects will get completed.
Instead, you need to be disciplined.
Wait for the right opportunities in due time.
How Your Startup Can Increase Productivity #11: Do Not Become a Micromanager
It’s natural for you, as the leader, to feel emotionally attached to everything happening with your startup.
But you must catch yourself before you turn into a dreaded micromanager that nobody wants to work for.
Maybe you’ve even had a manager this way before. If so, would you want to be that way too?
Of course not.
It’s one thing to oversee the marketing department, but it’s something entirely different to monitor every little piece of copy that is used in campaigns.
From your employees’ perspective, it’s downright disrespectful.
And it shows that you don’t value them.
Even if you have good intentions, it won’t matter.
It cripples your company culture.
According to an Accountemps survey, 68% of workers said micromanagement decreases their morale.
Not only that, but 55% say it decreases productivity.
Conclusion
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A loss in productivity will negatively affect companies of all sizes.
And a startup will get hurt the most.
Because you only have so much margin for error.
If you fail to increase your output, your competitors will leave you in the dust.
But with this article on 11 ways your startup can increase productivity, you’re one step closer to growing your capacity each and every day.
With these talking points, you can start identifying key areas for improvement and start to address them.
As a startup, you have limited resources. So if you plan to prioritize increasing productivity for your business but can’t spend as much time on marketing as you wish your team could, consider reaching out to Growbo.
Our team of digital marketing gurus will take the pressure off you.
We’ve helped numerous small businesses like yours establish a firm foothold in their industries.
All you have to do on your end is delegate projects to us. Then, you can sit back and see it all unfold before you. Of course, you don’t have to sit back. You always have the option to get more involved if you wish to.
We understand you want the best for your brand. And we look forward to helping you realize your vision.
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If you have any questions or insights on productivity or about Growbo’s services, let me know in the comments below.
Until next time!
Keep Growin’, stay focused.
Mark
