For small-business owners and entrepreneurs, productivity often feels easy to measure.
Emails answered. Proposals completed. Customers contacted. Websites updated. Invoices sent. Problems solved. Tasks crossed off the list.
When you’re sitting at your computer working through those tasks, you feel productive.
But small business productivity isn’t simply about how many hours you spend working or how long your hands remain on the keyboard.
Some of the most valuable work you do for your business happens when you’re nowhere near your desk.
Thinking about a problem while driving, listening carefully to a customer’s complaint, observing how another business operates, taking a walk while considering a new service, or simply giving your mind enough time to develop an idea can all contribute to your business.
For entrepreneurs, consultants, freelancers, and small-business owners, learning to recognize this less-visible work can change how you think about productivity—and ultimately help you make better business decisions.
What Does Productivity Really Mean for a Small-Business Owner?
One of the challenges of running a small business is that there is always something you could be doing.
You could answer another email.
You could check your website traffic.
You could make another social media post.
You could reorganize your files.
You could adjust your advertising.
You could spend another hour making small changes to your website.
You can easily fill every available minute with activity.
But being busy and being productive aren’t necessarily the same thing.
Small business productivity should ultimately be measured by progress and results, not activity alone.
Ask yourself whether the work you’re doing is helping you:
- Attract and retain customers.
- Increase revenue or profitability.
- Improve customer satisfaction.
- Reduce unnecessary expenses.
- Improve business processes.
- Save time.
- Solve recurring problems.
- Develop better products or services.
- Identify new business opportunities.
- Build a stronger, more sustainable company.
A business owner can spend ten hours completing minor tasks while avoiding the one important decision that could significantly improve the business.
Sometimes an hour spent thinking about the right problem is more valuable than several hours spent completing the wrong tasks.
Thinking Is an Important Part of Small Business Productivity
Small-business owners often underestimate the value of thinking because thinking doesn’t always produce an immediate, tangible result.
Spend an hour designing an advertisement, and you have an advertisement.
Spend an hour thinking about why your advertising isn’t generating customers and you may have nothing visible to show for that time.
But the second hour could ultimately be far more valuable.
Strategic thinking helps business owners ask better questions before investing additional time or money.
Before spending more on advertising, ask whether lack of traffic is really the problem.
Before redesigning your website, ask what specific business or customer problem the redesign needs to solve.
Before adding another service, ask whether customers actually want it.
Before hiring another employee, ask whether you have a staffing problem or an inefficient process.
Before lowering your prices, ask whether price is really why customers aren’t buying.
Before purchasing new technology, ask whether it will actually solve a business problem.
This is the difference between simply working in your business and taking time to work on your business.
Both are necessary.
Your Brain Keeps Working After You Leave Your Desk
Have you ever struggled with a problem for hours, walked away, and suddenly thought of the answer while driving home?
That’s not unusual.
You might be taking a shower when you think of the perfect marketing message.
You might be walking the dog when you realize how to improve a service.
You might be eating dinner when you finally understand why a particular business process isn’t working.
You might wake up with the solution to a problem you couldn’t solve the previous afternoon.
Your hands may have stopped working, but your brain hasn’t necessarily stopped processing the problem.
Stepping away can give your mind an opportunity to make connections that were difficult to see while you were intensely focused on finding an immediate solution.
For entrepreneurs and small-business owners who spend much of their time solving problems, that mental processing is part of the job.
Stepping Away Can Improve Problem-Solving
Determination is valuable in business.
Stubbornness isn’t always as useful.
Most business owners have experienced the point where they’ve spent so much time working on a problem that they can no longer see it clearly.
You keep trying different solutions.
Nothing works.
You become frustrated.
You try increasingly complicated approaches.
Eventually, you’re no longer solving the problem efficiently. You’re simply determined not to let it beat you.
Sometimes the smartest business decision is to walk away temporarily.
Get lunch.
Take a walk.
Run an errand.
Work on something completely unrelated.
Then return to the problem with fresh eyes.
You may discover that the problem hasn’t changed at all—but your ability to see it has.
Everyday Experiences Can Teach You How to Improve Your Business
Small-business owners have access to an enormous amount of informal market research every day.
Every time you interact with another company, you have an opportunity to learn something.
Pay attention to your experiences as a customer.
Was it easy to understand what the company offered?
Could you quickly find its hours, location, prices, or contact information?
Was its website easy to use on your phone?
Was the purchasing process simple?
Did employees communicate clearly?
What increased your confidence in the company?
What caused frustration?
What almost made you leave without purchasing?
What made you want to return?
Then ask a much more important question:
Could my customers be experiencing the same problem with my business?
You can learn from companies completely unrelated to your industry.
A restaurant can teach a technology company about customer service.
An online retailer can teach a local contractor about simplifying the purchasing process.
A hotel can teach a professional-services company about communication.
A grocery store can teach a website developer about navigation and making choices easier.
The industry may be different, but many fundamental principles of the customer experience are remarkably similar.
Customer Complaints Can Reveal Business Opportunities
Entrepreneurs are problem solvers, which means complaints can contain valuable business intelligence.
Listen when people say things such as:
“This takes forever.”
“I can’t figure out how to do this.”
“I wish somebody offered…”
“Why do they make this so complicated?”
“I can’t find anyone who does this.”
“I hate having to…”
These aren’t merely complaints.
They’re descriptions of problems.
And businesses exist largely because people are willing to pay someone to solve problems.
Sometimes these comments reveal opportunities to improve your existing products or services.
Sometimes they expose weaknesses in your competitors.
Sometimes they identify opportunities for entirely new services.
You don’t need to turn every conversation into a sales presentation or formal market-research session.
Just develop the habit of listening.
Repeated Customer Questions Are Valuable Business Data
Pay particular attention when customers repeatedly ask the same questions.
One customer asking a question may not mean much.
Ten customers asking the same question means something.
Perhaps your website isn’t explaining the subject clearly enough.
Maybe you need a frequently asked questions page.
Perhaps your sales process needs improvement.
Maybe customers don’t understand the differences between your services.
The question could even reveal demand for a service you don’t currently offer.
Repeated questions identify gaps between what your business communicates and what customers need to know.
Smart businesses close those gaps.
Capture Business Ideas When They Happen
If ideas frequently occur when you’re away from your desk, create a simple system for capturing them.
Use the notes application on your phone.
Record a voice memo.
Send yourself a message.
Keep a notebook in your car or office.
The method doesn’t matter nearly as much as developing the habit.
Don’t assume you’ll remember the idea later.
Capture it and evaluate it when you return to work.
Not every idea will be worth pursuing.
That’s fine.
The goal isn’t to act on every idea. The goal is to avoid losing the good ones.
Today’s random thought could eventually become tomorrow’s blog post, marketing campaign, process improvement, product, service, or new source of revenue.
Conversations Are a Form of Business Research
Formal networking can be valuable, but some of the best information business owners receive comes from ordinary conversations.
A customer mentions something they wish you offered.
Someone explains why they stopped doing business with one of your competitors.
A friend describes a frustrating purchasing experience.
Another business owner discusses a problem they can’t solve.
Someone asks you a question you’ve heard repeatedly.
These conversations provide information about customer expectations, frustrations, competitors, market gaps, and potential opportunities.
Listen carefully.
People regularly tell businesses what they want.
The challenge is recognizing the opportunity hidden inside the conversation.
Rest Can Actually Improve Entrepreneur Productivity
Small-business owners are often reluctant to stop working because there is always another task waiting.
If your definition of being finished is having nothing left to do, you’ll never be finished.
There will always be another email.
Another customer.
Another invoice.
Another website update.
Another marketing idea.
Another problem.
Another project.
Eventually, however, additional working hours begin producing diminishing returns.
Fatigue affects concentration, creativity, patience, problem-solving, and decision-making.
You make mistakes you wouldn’t normally make.
Simple problems become difficult.
Decisions take longer.
You become frustrated more easily.
At some point, three exhausted hours tonight may produce less useful work than one rested hour tomorrow morning.
Rest isn’t the opposite of productivity.
For a business owner responsible for making important decisions, adequate rest helps protect the quality of those decisions.
Stop Measuring Entrepreneur Productivity by Hours Worked
Entrepreneurs sometimes take pride in extremely long working hours.
“I worked 12 hours today.”
That certainly demonstrates that you spent a lot of time working.
But what did those 12 hours accomplish?
Did you gain a customer?
Improve profitability?
Solve an important problem?
Develop a better process?
Create something valuable?
Reduce unnecessary work?
Improve your customer experience?
Make a decision you’ve been postponing?
Move an important project forward?
Or were you simply busy?
Hours measure time.
They don’t automatically measure productivity.
The objective of running a successful business isn’t to maximize the number of hours you work.
It’s to maximize the value your business creates from those hours.
Make Time to Work on Your Business, Not Just in It
One of the biggest productivity challenges facing small-business owners is that daily operations consume nearly all of their attention.
Customers need assistance.
Phones ring.
Emails arrive.
Employees have questions.
Invoices need to be sent.
Bills need to be paid.
Problems appear unexpectedly.
The urgent can quickly overwhelm the important.
That’s why business owners need occasional time to stop reacting and start thinking.
Ask yourself:
Where is my business going?
What is working particularly well?
What isn’t working?
What are customers repeatedly telling me?
What takes too much time?
What could be automated?
What could be delegated?
What could be eliminated entirely?
What am I doing simply because I’ve always done it that way?
What opportunities am I missing because I’m too busy handling today’s tasks?
These questions probably won’t appear on your daily task list.
But the answers can have a greater impact on your long-term success than dozens of routine tasks.
Small Business Productivity Is About Progress, Not Constant Activity
Running a small business requires action.
You still have to serve customers, answer emails, manage finances, maintain your website, market your services, send invoices, handle paperwork, and solve the countless problems that come with owning a business.
But don’t confuse constant activity with productivity.
Your hands don’t always have to be on the keyboard for you to be working on your business.
You’re working when you’re thinking through an important problem.
You’re learning when you’re observing how another company treats its customers.
You’re conducting informal market research when you’re listening to what people complain about.
You’re improving your business when you recognize a process that needs to change.
You’re developing ideas when you give your mind enough room to explore them.
And sometimes you’re protecting tomorrow’s productivity by knowing when you’ve done enough work today.
Small-business owners inevitably spend a tremendous amount of time working in their businesses.
The successful ones also make time to work on their businesses.
So the next time you step away from your computer, don’t automatically assume you’ve stopped being productive.
Sometimes getting your hands off the keyboard allows your mind to do the work that matters most.