Management Skills

Many small business owners find that they have endless energy, ideas, and opportunities, but they are missing one key resource - time. There is no time machine that can add eight hours to the day, but there are ways to better utilize the time that is available to free up valuable hours for productive use.

Here are a few tips to improve time management for yourself and employees:

Set goals and monitor progress - Establish clear business goals and how they will be achieved. Create tracking mechanisms for measurable components and keep employees informed on a regular basis as to the progress of each. Identify and address deviations early before they become major problems. Small departures from anticipated results are much easier to fix than major issues that take considerable time and effort to resolve. And, it never hurts to celebrate progress!

Keep a prioritized to-do list - Brainstorm about important items that need to be accomplished to achieve established business goals. Identify four or five major areas of focus for the day and list all the tasks to accomplish those items. Rank them with letters (A through E): A - Urgent, must do; B - Important, should do; C - Worthwhile, nice to do; D - Valuable, able to delegate; E - Unnecessary, eliminate if possible. Work on the A's and B's first when your energy level is high and you have total focus. If you spend the entire day taking the easy path working on C, D, and E items, before you know it, your workday has passed without any meaningful accomplishments.

Avoid distractions - Technology offers mixed blessings... don't we all know that! The positive side of the equation is increased productivity, but the negative side is wasted time and attention spent answering personal emails, surfing the Internet, social networking, texting, and cell calls. Interruptions generated through modern technology create a loss of continuity in thinking that prevents the ability to totally focus on what has to be achieved. Some individuals can multi-task better than others. As a countermeasure to these issues, establish timeslots during the day with no interruptions and distractions so you can focus on one task at a time.

Delegate - A small business owner cannot do everything. As a business grows, talented individuals have to be hired to manage functional areas allowing the owner to work on higher-level management and planning activities. Micromanaging must be avoided to achieve maximum efficiency. As employees demonstrate their competencies, additional responsibilities can be added.