How to be more productive and grow your small business

You are working hard at your business. You are definitely putting in the hours but are your activities actually contributing to the growth of your business?

How do you measure how productive you are being?

An effective way of measuring productivity is to look at how much time you are spending being re-active and how much time you are being pro-active.

Do you spend a lot of time re-acting to emails/requests/social media posts or are you in control of your time and are you actively creating new projects/campaigns to move your business in the right direction?

Your re-active tasks keep your business ticking over.

Your pro-active tasks help propel your business forward.

I would suggest that once you are halfway through your day look at the tasks you have been doing. If a large proportion have been re-active then get pro-active! A whole day spent re-acting is basically a day of admin and can make you feel quite sluggish. Yes, these tasks are necessary but you need to mix it up a bit if you are serious about growing your business. Energise your day and get excited about your business by getting pro-active. Start that new project; try out that new marketing approach; contact those ‘hot leads’; launch your next product… Pro-active tasks will take you a step closer to where you want to be in your business.

So start looking at your activities in this way. If you are feeling uninspired - we all go through those phases – stop and add something pro-active to your day. Take charge and get growing your business!

‘re-active’ definition: “acting in response to a situation rather than creating or controlling it”

‘pro-active’ definition: “creating or controlling a situation rather than just responding to it after it has happened”