When it comes to running a small business less is more, especially true when it comes to distractions. The fewer the distractions, the greater your productivity. For many business owners, their dashboard is their email account. There are a few problems with this. Let’s dive into these issues.
Distraction Zone
Aggravation Station
I consider my email inbox a distraction zone. With the sheer amount of new alerts bombarding our inboxes, checking for customer information can be difficult. That is why relying on your inbox to be your central location for managing tasks can quickly become overwhelming. For instance, you will find that people have fallen through the cracks, as emails drop lower and lower in your inbox.
No, I am not saying that getting rid of email is the answer. Far from it, more people use email than social media. But when it comes to managing your business, you need a distraction free alternative.
Your Business Process
As you continue to run your business day in and day out, you will find better ways of doing your job. Sometimes there are better tools or better steps that you can take to improve your process. Without a central respository for your information, you will consistently repeat your mistakes. And those mistakes are valuable, because they lead to more efficient processes. But only if you learn from them, and change your process consistently.
This will also affect you when you decide to expand. Without a place to track your updated process, your employees will repeat your mistakes as well. And because you have so much on your plate, your first instinct may be to blame your “incompetent” employees. Those dang Millenials, you can never trust them to do anything right. They just don’t have the drive we had back in their day. If this sounds like something you’ve said in the past, hear me out.
Your Business As A Living, Breathing Organism
If you think of your business as an organism, the goal of the organism is to survive and to grow. You do this one day at a time, and with consistency. Every day waking up, getting enough nutrients, spending time preparing for the future, and even helping others.
If you don’t set aside time to take care of your body, then it will atrophy. The same goes for your small business. You will begin to hate what you do, and you will spend much of your time trying to put out fires. You won’t have time to grow your business or to even take a break from your work.
Consistency is the key
For a business to be successful, one of the most important things it can be is consistent. Providing a consistent price, providing a consistent product, and consistently asking for feedback or reviews not only looks good to others, but also allows you the opportunity to change when customers are unhappy with the product.
All your tools, in one place
This all needs to be managed on a daily basis for the business to thrive. All this information needs to be available at your fingertips if you want to be able to disconnect from your business when it’s time to relax. If you are constantly scrambling for what to do, when you leave the office, or if you constantly have to babysit your employees, then when you remove yourself from the business, it becomes utter chaos.
Trello as a Small Business Dashboard Solution
In my opinion, the solution for this is a flexible business dashboard that is easy to change as your business changes and evolves. Change is constant, whether we like it or not, so being quick on your feet, especially when it comes time to change business processes is a must.
I feel that Trello achieves this perfectly for most service-based industries. It allows you to visualize your business and processes using a board based interface. Within this interface, you can create lists and processes to your heart’s content. Because of the simple nature of the program, changing your process is as easy as finding the correct card, and changing the checklist items.
In my next blog post, I show you how you can unlock the power of Trello.
