Productivity gains made easy

Productivity.

It’s on every small business owner’s mind this time of year.

If we’re not ruminating on how our business could be more productive, we’re asking “how could I be more productive or get better life balance, work smarter not harder”, yadda yadda yadda.

Right now, productivity is all over the news.

Sanna Marin, Finland’s new (and young) prime minister, once suggested working six-hour days or four-day weeks. Admittedly that was some time ago when she was transport minister but hey, it’s making headlines again now.

Perpetual Guardian’s Andrew Barnes and Charlotte Lockhart are on a tour of the United States talking about their successful implementation of a four-day working week (whoop, another Kiwi company punches above its weight – love it!).

Of course, Barnes has a book coming and, in the interim, an interesting read in a free white paper download at 4dayweek.com.

Perpetual Guardian excepted, we’re not very productive in New Zealand.

We know this because our Productivity Commission says so. Yep, they are a real entity with a very informative (although ironically slow loading) website.

They reckon New Zealand’s firms are on average about 30% to 40% less productive than our international counterparts (2016-17 figures).

This week, our Government commissioned them to come up with policies to improve our collective business performance by analysing and extrapolating what works from our most effective firms

These defined, but I’m hoping there’ll be some from the 97% of all Kiwi businesses which employ fewer than 20 employees, including from the 360,000 business owners who work alone.

Perpetual Guardian has 240 employees.

Notwithstanding the difference in scale, some of their white paper suggestions can be easily applied for a small business owner.

Things like focusing on outcomes instead of time spent. Things like being clear about our goals and the payoff of doing things differently. Things like figuring out what we could do with that extra time and making that our reward.

Alex and I are going to test a few theories over the next little while. I think I’ll start with shorter meetings.

I figure if I have 10 meetings a week and they’re 45 minutes instead of an hour, I’ll get two and a-half hours back.

That gets me round a nine-hole course. Or could, if I did it more. Every week.

Food for thought.

Hope you’re having a happy and productive New Year.

☆ Cara Tipping Smith is the director of The Business Hive.

Source: https://www.oamarumail.co.nz/opinion/productivity-gains-made-easy/

Busy? Take a minute to think

June has rocked around as it always does and “busy” is the new “weather” of chats.

How are you? So busy. Can’t believe it’s June already .

In the crush of the busy-blues myself, I went procrastination Googling to see if business owners are busier than anyone else.

Turns out we’re not. But I did find a thing called entrepreneur insomnia.

It’s exactly like insomnia, but made special by putting the word “entrepreneur” in front.

I did find some smug little sayings, “busy is as busy does”, “if you want something done – give it to a busy person”.

“Busy is as busy does”. Thanks, Google, we know we make our own busy.

But whether everyone’s busy is equal or some people’s busy is more equal than others has to be a matter of perspective (obviously not your own though – just ask any project or volunteer co-ordinator).

I’m convinced the “give it to a busy person” saying is only said by reprobates or masochists. Real busy people forget stuff and sometimes forget what they were supposed to do.

Super-efficient, busier-than-other-busy-people – maybe you’re the exceptions.

For the rest of us, the fear of forgetting is real and, come to think of it, most likely responsible for that “entrepreneurial” (or any other kind of) insomnia.

I did find time management advice including strangely animal-focused gems such as “beware the elephants on the horizon” and “how to eat two frogs”.

Those elephants? Apparently, they sneak up on you, like your mother’s 80th birthday that you had all year to organise .. a year ago.

The frogs? Eat the biggest, ugliest first. That way the second will be less awful.

Yes. That’s real advice.

While procrastination Googling might be fun (be honest busy people, you do it, too), I was looking for something simpler and more concrete.

The dictionary says “busy” means one of two things: having a great deal to do, or excessively detailed or decorated.

Hmmm, that sounds a lot like my kind of busy.

So, the wisdom I’m taking is this. “Do less, do less fussing”.

As business owners we’re in charge. Things will crop up, surprises will happen but we choose what we add to our plates (frogs and elephants included).

I wouldn’t give up my day job for a second.

That doesn’t mean I can’t tweak it. Likely so can you.

Why not do that?

Enjoy June.

★ Cara Tipping Smith is the director of The Business Hive.

Source: https://www.oamarumail.co.nz/opinion/busy-take-a-minute-to-think/

The benefits of collaborating

Business is supposed to be competitive, right? You must be better than the competition and win the most sales.

Back when I worked in recruitment, we had sales days that were like sugar-hyped children’s parties.

Imagine, the whole team competitive cold calling; make a cold call (yeah), book an appointment (whoop), pop a balloon (yeeha), win a prize (voucher for Asti Spumante – score) and repeat.

It was chaotic hell and I hated it.

Nothing says “I’m a professional” during a cold call like some woman screaming in the background. Not.

But that was how the business was done.

Doesn’t make it right.

A few decades on, I’ve learned a lot. Like the benefits of collaboration and trusted competitors.

Funnily enough, the seed was planted in those recruiting days when the company I worked for and a major competitor merged.

Management was worried about the two top billers – strong minded, capable women who’d been direct competitors with overlapping client portfolios which were now to be divvied up between them.

Meetings were held.

Concerns were discussed.

Ah, I can still remember their pinched faces.

She and I went for a drink. We shared insights about our (formerly) shared clients. We laughed our heads off about the drama everyone was expecting.

In short, we naturally fell into line with each other because we had something our bosses hadn’t factored in – mutual respect.

Our collaboration made us both better off (and our bosses happy).

It was a lesson for life.

Since then, in every role, collaboration has produced far better results than I could on my own.

Equally, I came to rely on trusted competitors. These were the people I could direct clients to whenever I didn’t have capacity, the right solution or simply didn’t want to take on that job.

They allowed me to work in my sweet spot, develop my niche and build far more profitable and loyal client bases.

That’s why when there was a call for Oamaru retailers to work together, we offered to host a meeting at The Business Hive.

Back in recruiting days, it took just a little initiative and a very short time for my colleague and I to figure things out.

If we’d waited for someone else to take the lead, we might have had a different outcome.

So, when it comes to competition or collaboration, I say both. And retailers, whatever it takes – we’ll support you.

★ Cara Tipping Smith is the director of The Business Hive.

Source: https://www.oamarumail.co.nz/community/the-benefits-of-collaborating/