As you take a moment to assess where your small business is at, are you happy with what you see?
Many fellow small business owners will say running a company seems more than a full-time job.
With that in mind, what are you doing to limit or even end any distractions coming your way?
Don’t Get Sidetracked in Your Daily Operations
So that you take a stand against distractions in your small business day, remember these keys:
- Stay focused – To start, make sure you stay focused. From the Internet to family matters, it can become easy to lose focus in the workplace. When you work for yourself, it can be more of a challenge. Since you do not have a supervisor over top of you, how do you stay disciplined while on the job? You want to be sure that focus never becomes an issue. If it does, your day can get sidetracked in a hurry.
- Outside distractions – Are you a small business owner who receives a lot of phone calls during the day? If so, how many of them are meaningful to your business needs? Are you left asking at times who is calling me? From being on the Do Not Call Registry to finding the right call blocking app, take action to end such calls. Calls related to your business are of course fine. Those calls trying to sell you something or even trick you into something are a hassle and need to end.
- Inside distractions – The matter of distractions can also end up being an inside issue. For example, do you have one or more employees causing you problems? Those problems can range from office gossip to not getting jobs done because they’re on their cell phones a lot. No matter the distractions, it can hurt your business over time. Be sure to nip such problems in the bud before they get out of hand. While most offices have some drama, you do not want it becoming an everyday occurrence.
- Social media buzz – Last, one distraction that has grown in the last decade or so is social media. Do you get distracted by negative comments folks leave on Facebook and other sites? If so, do you take time to respond to them? Along with web surfing, you or your employees may spend too much time on social networking. When this occurs, it takes away from work getting done. If you or your employees need some social media time, do it on breaks or lunch hours. Going back-and-forth on social sites at work can be a major distraction.
Do You Need a Break?
If distractions have been getting the better of you and your small business as of late, do you need a break?
In some cases, taking a little time off can give you a chance to reflect on what is and is not working with your company.
If you have friends who run small businesses, talk over how they deal with distractions at work. You may find you’ve been missing something all this time.
As you look to keep your small business moving forward, don’t let distractions be a speed bump along the way.
