Unlocking Productivity for Entrepreneurs

It is one of the topics that I've discussed a number of times , and people have downloaded some of the podcast episodes we've done in the past on productivity and really enjoyed them , and I think part of that is because people want to know how can I be more productive , how can I make my business work for me rather than me just working for my business ?

So many of our listeners are either people who want to set up a business or who already have a business and are just looking for better ways to manage their business . So what I want to do is to provide you in every episode , with some great tools and some great insights on how you can do that and things that you can use right away .

So today , talking about productivity , what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you some insights that I have gathered over the years as a multiple business owner on what productivity actually is , and then give you three tools that we use in our businesses which I think you'll find really helpful and you might want to adapt for your business as well .

Okay , well , let's have a look at what is productivity for your business as well . Okay , well , let's have a look at what is productivity .

So , according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics , productivity is a measure of economic performance that compares the amount of goods and services produced so the output with the amount of inputs used to produce those goods and services . Okay , so that makes sense . You know , how much are we putting into the business and what are we getting out of the business ?

In that sense , how do I define productivity ? In terms of running your own business , productivity is the positive output you or your business creates in order to move your business forward . So you might think that equates to sales . Well , it sort of does , but it sort of doesn't .

If we think that sales and revenue are something that comes straight out of a linear process , we need to think again . So there's no linear 10-step manual for sales . There just isn't . It doesn't occur in a linear fashion . You want to think of productivity as different strands moving forward in the same direction .

You might want to say it's comparable to creating a harvest . You don't simply plant a seed and right away see a harvest . It takes different factors . So we need good seed . Faulty seed will not produce a healthy harvest .

There are external factors , such as you know , we need sunlight , wind , great biodiversity , water and the regularity of nourishing the seed towards growth and the regularity of nourishing the seed towards growth . And , of course , the ground . You know good , solid ground and we know this .

As you know , many of you are Christians as well , so this will resonate with you . You know we need a good foundation , we need some good ground , and the ground really , in terms of business is is where are you trying to be productive ?

Are you in a marketplace that will allow you to be productive , or are you trying to sell something that you know it's just not going to work in that area that you are costing your business ? So people themselves have to be the right type of people for the business they're in .

So if you run a business , it should be something that aligns with your passion and your skill , so sure .

So if I look at myself , yes , of course I could try and start up a , an accountancy business , but at this point in time I can tell you that would not line up with my passion and also it would not line up with my skills or any of the training that I've had , so that would not be a good idea . Equally , people need to be well and well-rounded .

It's difficult to be productive you know , at the level you would like to when you're not feeling well or your mind is all over the place , or if you're just low on energy . So at this point , though , let me say and I hope you're listening not being well or not as energetic as you would hope to be does not stop you from being productive . Not at all .

The only difference is that you need to reassess how productive you want to be and by what time . The biggest mistakes business owners make is to overestimate how much time they have or can give , or how much brain power they can give to their entrepreneurial endeavors .

Successful business owners know that , and they know that setting a goal is key , but setting the right goal is even more crucial to success , more than that setting the right goal and achieving it . What does that do ?

Well , it propels you to greater productivity because , in the long run , as you're seeing success along the way , because in the long run , as you're seeing success along the way , you're motivated , you're excited and productivity then picks up over time .

So on the other side though , on the flip side if you set a goal too high and you don't achieve it , clearly you're going to get frustrated . And you don't achieve it , clearly you're going to get frustrated and a sense of failure kind of sets in no-transcript people who started a business because they felt failure right away .

They set their goals too high , they couldn't meet the goals . Well , they don't continue . So my biggest advice is , if you're starting a business , set your goals slightly lower within your ability to meet those goals in terms of productivity , achieve those and then move forward with greater goals , bigger goals , and you know , don't rush .

You don't have to rush necessarily . So , coming back to people , if you hire people , be it as employees or freelancers or service providers , you'll also want to know that they can meet the productivity goals you have set . Even that might mean that you're asking them not to contribute too much . That has happened as well .

So sometimes people who come in as freelancers , they have wonderful ideas , but you've got your goals and you actually don't want to be overwhelmed , particularly in the beginning . So you know , be okay with saying to them you know what ? I love your ideas , let's capture those , but right now . That's not something we're going to pursue Externally .

Business productivity of course , depends on your supply chain . So how easy is for you to get any materials you need ? We know from COVID-19 , you know that era well , supply chains were really heavily impacted by lockdowns and businesses actually closing . Have you considered where your materials are coming from ?

Do you have a backup plan in case your supplier closes down or suddenly raises prices ? You know even our freelancers . You know they might suddenly choose to raise their price . Do you have a backup plan ? Do you know who else you can contact ? So let me give you an example . Let's say you're running a coffee house and a bakery .

All is going really well , you're on form , your staff is tip-top and then milk prices shoot up . You know , because of information that you have , that this is only temporary , due to a shortage in the market .

But are you resilient enough , flexible enough to make a change to your business model so that you can still be productive or so you can prepare for greater productivity in just a little while ? So you might remember this case of KFC .

You know they had an issue with their supply chain and turn that into PR opportunity with some great posters and social media posts as well . Productivity might go down for a short while , but could spike as you gain more customers after a while and more people are following your brand .

So if you see something happening and your business has to slow down in terms of productivity , keep going with the same goal in mind , but arrange things so that you can pick up again at a slightly later pace . But take that period of time as an opportunity for other things . It could be an opportunity for PR , an opportunity to reorganize , for instance .

So that would mean you're still being productive , but maybe in a slightly different way . So , apart from being clear on your goal , not over committing and being flexible , the type of tools you choose will make a difference . So if we come back , you know , to that example with the harvest , well , of course it will matter what type of watering equipment .

You know to that example with the harvest well , of course it will matter what type of watering equipment you have the harvesters , you have tractors , animals , but it doesn't mean you need to have the most expensive or the most high tech , but you need to choose the tools which help you for your setting and your context , and you know the tools are going to help

you achieve your goals . So if someone comes and says to you hey , you should really be using this social media management tool for $300 a month , well , you might not need that . Don't spend money on productivity tools . You don't need Assess what your goal is , how are you going to get there and choose the right approach as well as the right tools for that ?

So I said in the beginning like I'm going to share some tools with you . So what I want to do here is to share three productivity tools that we've used . There are many more and we use more than that , and I will share some of those in another podcast , but I thought these could be quite useful to you .

We use them for our two businesses Zeitgeist Communication in the UK and also Devinition Masters here in the US . A very new business just started up . Okay , so the first two tools I'm going to share with you are notebooks . Now , that sounds potentially a little bit boring , but bear with me .

The very first tool , and , in my mind , the most important one , is a physical notebook . Now , I don't use just any notebook . What I use is a traveler's notebook . I'm just going to explain what I do with that and why I think it's really helpful .

So I've learned over the years that creativity flows when you use your hands . You doodle , you make notes , maybe you draw something .

Your thoughts can flow much more freely when you do that than when you use a computer , because a computer of course has limits and while you might use a pen on an iPad , there's still some limitations and a notebook and some paper . There's just something special about it and it's really particularly helpful in terms of your brainstorming phase .

So it's definitely my number one and I have several of those , one I created myself and then the other one I have compiled by getting different notebooks and putting them into a leather binder . What does that look like ? So the different notebooks essentially have different topics .

I have one notebook in this binder , in the traveler's notebook , which I just capture ideas . So I can highly recommend , if you run a business or you're about to have a small notebook in your bag or , you know , in the car or wherever , and if you have an idea , write it down .

Someone else is telling you something about a great idea they've heard or something they've seen and you really like it . Write it down , use it as a repository for interesting , stimulating , great ideas and then use those later on when it comes to your next planning stage . You'll be surprised how it really sparks your thinking and your team's thinking .

I then have other sort of segments or other smaller notebooks in this traveler's notebook . One of them is a calendar , and then I have another one for long editorial type pieces that I like to write , and then I have another one for long editorial type pieces that I like to write , and then I have one with scripture comments .

So scriptures as well as scripture commentary , things I've heard in a sermon , things I've read in the Bible , and all of that is captured in this one notebook . And why do I do that ?

Well , this notebook shows quite a lot of who I am and what I do and really is a reflection of the person I am and I want to show up in my business , the person you know as the person I am and not as a different persona . So that's why I really like this notebook and it kind of just , you know , it just resembles part of , or most of who I am .

So I highly recommend doing that . And now the second tool is also a notebook , but this is a digital notebook . It's a bit of an older tool Many of you probably have it or have seen it .

It's called Evernote , and Evernote allows you to create several digital notebooks with whatever topics you want to have and in their different notes , and I really love this tool because it allows me to capture , you know , web links , documents , ideas and to categorize them in a certain way .

I can find them through tags , for instance , I can put them in different individual notebooks , like I said before , and also you can view documents just as they are . So if you , if you put in a PowerPoint presentation , it isn't just an attachment , but actually you see the PowerPoint presentation in this notebook .

The beauty of this for me as a consultant is that I can go to a client with a digital notebook and have all the links in there for everything I want to show them , as well as some additional information , maybe about the client or maybe some points that I want to make a bit later on in the conversation . So a really good one .

So that's Evernote , and just to say I do not earn any affiliate . You know anything on these as an affiliate . I'm just sharing tools with you that we like to use . Okay , so the third tool is really a wonderful project management tool and I love it and the team that has worked with me .

They were fully integrated and we use it whatever client we work with , and the beauty is you can pull your client into this project management tool as well . You can share information with them . The tool is called Asana , so it's a project management tool . You can use it as an individual , but mainly the benefit is to use it as a team .

This project management tool allows you to create tasks . These show up in your calendar . You can link it to your own calendar . You can have a timeline , you know , like a Gantt chart . You can also show it as a Kanban . You can get people to send in information through a form which then populates your tasks . I mean , it is so versatile .

I love this tool and I love how easy it is to assign tasks to other people and to communicate with them on , you know , things that have been done . So my team members can communicate and say , hey , I wasn't quite sure what you meant by this task , is this what you wanted ? And you know I can communicate with them really easily and things just get done .

And that , of course , is what we want when we talk about productivity . We need things to get done , course , is what we want when we talk about productivity . We need things to get done and we want to turn the idea of us doing things for you know , for the business , slightly on its head .

We also want the business and the tools we use to do things for us . I don't want to spend hours trying to manage and project manage . I want a good tool that's going to serve me , and I think Asana really does that . So , as I said before , there are many digital tools we use and I will share some more on some of the other episodes .

I really want to say to you just one more time when it comes to productivity , you set the goal , you choose the tools and you make all these work for you . Do not become a slave of productivity . Too many people do that and they get , you know , burnt out and just so tired of it all that that beautiful business idea they had just shrinks and fades away .

So be clear on what you're trying to achieve . Set your goals only as high as you know that you can deliver on and use some great tools . You know some great digital tools and paper tools that are just going to help you manage things better .

Okay , so we also , of course , use a planning system , and I'm not going to talk about that today , but I wanted to let you know that in one of the episodes , I will talk you through how I plan my day .

How do I plan a workday , where do I begin , how do I set priorities , how do I manage to keep my mind focused but also continue to have joy throughout the day , and I'll explain that in one of the next episodes . In the meantime , however , if you have any productivity tools or tips that you'd like to share , send me an email .

Send it to hello at devinishmasterscom . That's , hello at devinishmasterscom , and we'd love to feature those , or some of those , in one of our upcoming episodes . I'll put all that in the show notes , as well as the tools that I've shared today .

So , really , I just wanted to wish you a really good rest of your week and a blessed Easter , and I look forward to our next episode next week .