Productivity Tips For Small Business Entrepreneurs That We Love

Owning a small business is one of the best jobs in the world.

You choose how to spend your day, how to find your clients, and how to offer a service that people love. You have complete control over what your business has the potential to become.

There’s nothing more nourishing for the human soul than creativity and freedom. If you run a hair salon, spa, barbershop, or a wellness company, you are in one of the best jobs in the world.

You’re in the business of making people feel good. Could there be a better job out there?

But running a small business is also challenging. Behind the scenes, you’re responsible for everything. That means you need to wear multiple hats—you’re the owner, accountant, marketing and business development person, all rolled into one!

That’s on top of the expertise that you bring to the table.

Most likely, your training was in becoming a beauty, or wellness expert. You may have never learned this “other stuff.” But often, you spend more time thinking about the “other stuff” than focusing on the reason why you started your company in the first place. At Booksy we call them distractions—stuff that takes you away from doing your best job.

Running the business side of a brand is very different than managing the business aspects.

That’s why even the most successful and experienced entrepreneurs can feel like they’re in over their heads. From paying staff to ensuring products are stocked, to-do lists are never-ending.

Once your business hits a growth spurt, the challenges can feel more intense. As the saying goes, more money more problems, right?

That’s why you need to work smarter and not harder. After all, your brainpower is your superpower.

We’re here for all of you—here’s why

Over the last 14 years, the Booksy team has been on a mission to make small business owners’ lives easier. We’ve seen, and we know that it’s small businesses like yours that are going to, together, help people around the world feel better and healthier.

That means, as a small business entrepreneur, you need the time and mental bandwidth to practice your own self-care.

Since day one of our company, we’ve been researching ways that business owners like you can relax, decompress, and get more time back in your days. While there are many things you can do—yoga, meditation, getting more sleep—you need time in your day to make these things happen.

So how do you get more time, when you’ve dedicated your career to taking care of other people? In other words, what can a business do to improve its productivity?

Well, we’ve dedicated our careers to taking care of you. From our hearts as entrepreneurs to yours, here are the best lessons we have to share. Get more hours back in your day while getting more done. Here are some of our favorite productivity tips we’ve learned from fellow beauty, hair and wellness business owners like you.

Our 3 Favorite Business Productivity Tips

1. Focus on one task at a time

As humans, we tend to convince ourselves that we’re amazing multitaskers. While it’s tempting to check email while updating your social media accounts and listening to voicemail, you may be exhausting your brain more than you realize.

That’s because context-switching makes us more tired than we realize. Believe it or not, switching tasks takes four different parts of your brain. So if you’re trying to do multiple things at once, you’re exhausting your already valuable energy.

The simplest solution to this challenge?

Focus on one task at a time. Be strong in your boundaries, and divide your workday into well-defined components.

Here’s a simple schedule to follow:

• Spend your mornings checking email, reviewing messages, updating bookings, and managing social media.
• When your shop opens, spend your time with your team and your customers. Be fully present.
• Make sure that you take enough time for breaks, including a lunch break.
• As your day winds down, check your email, respond to social media comments, and review your schedule for tomorrow. Clean up and prep for your next day’s appointments.
• Designate specific days of your week for payroll, accounting, and admin.
• Set aside specific time for team meetings
• Set specific days of the week for sourcing product inventory and getting your salon retail display in order.

These routines will help you improve productivity, avoid distractions, and allow your mind to relax.

2. Set aside time for extended breaks

When you have a jam-packed schedule, it’s easy to fall into the temptation of working harder or faster. Believe it or not, you may be tricking yourself.

Downtime may be what you need to get more done. That means working fewer hours, when needed, committing time to exercise, and taking vacations. Human psychology researchers have found that:

• Forcing employees to take days, nights, or extended periods of time off actually increased productivity
• Periods of downtime can restore focus and energy
• People perform best when they switch between periods of intense focus
• Taking more time off can make you feel more creative

Being more productive—and working smarter—means getting more sleep, spending time away from work, and taking extended breaks.

Looking for ideas to help you decompress?

• Take a walk. Studies show that spending time outdoors soothes the mind, relieves anxiety, and helps people stop thinking about the negative aspects of their lives.
• Take a meditation break. Hop on YouTube or find an app like Headspace. Close your eyes, and let the world disappear for a while. Even five to ten minutes of meditation can help you clear your mind and feel better.

By doing less, you’ll perform better. So make sure that you’re getting enough rest to maintain peak performance.

3. Let the software do its magic

To run a barbershop, spa, salon or wellness business smoothly, you can depend a lot on software solutions.

In fact, there are numerous software companies that are devoted to helping you run your business with more efficiency. Many of these applications are easy to use, inexpensive, and support teams of all sizes.

Think of these applications as robot assistants that are here on this planet to make your lives easier and help you add more hours to your week.

Here are a few ways:

• Online scheduling, so that customers don’t need to call in and book appointments. Instead, they can see, search, and schedule services.

• Secure payment processing so that you can spend less time maneuvering through different systems for getting paid. Use one app to make sure that your cash flow stays stable.
• A mobile app so that you can work from your couch, under a tree, or anywhere else that you consider a comfort zone. Why be chained to a computer when you can stretch, relax, and easily transition into your next brain break.

Booksy has all the above-mentioned features—from online scheduling to a PCI compliant interface and a mobile app!

Final Thoughts

Your creativity and passion are the lifeblood of your small business. That’s why you need to spend less time confining your brain to the tough business tasks that nobody wants to do. As an entrepreneur, you have an alter ego as an artist. You have the most important job in the world—taking care of people.

So why not use these productivity tips so your brain can be it’s beautiful, manifesting best?