Written by: Janifer Wheeler, Senior Level Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Small business coaching has been a buzzword around social media recently, and you may be wondering exactly what it is. Well, you are in the right place to find out!
There are two slightly different areas: small business coaching and small business mentoring. While they are very similar, there can be minor discrepancies depending on who you ask. For the most part, though, if you are a small business owner looking for someone with more experience than you have to guide you on objectives that YOU choose, you’ll be looking for a business coach. A business mentor, on the other hand, is a person who directs and guides a mentee.
See the difference? In both cases, the coach and mentor have a wider breadth of experience than the person seeking help, but it is in the approach where the differences lie.
What is productivity in business?
Small Business Productivity is one of the most important metrics a small business can track, but it can be incredibly challenging to put the finger on what it is and how to go about improving it. But what IS it really? According to the Department of Labor Statistics, “Productivity is a measure of economic performance that compares the number of goods and services produced (output) with the number of inputs used to produce those goods and services.” In other words, the object of productivity is to create the most goods or provide the most services with the least amount of effort possible.
So in business systems, this looks like a fully-automated bakery that makes 500 loaves of bread daily with three staff members and sells every loaf. The staff members communicate with their manager when they have issues, have regular days off and vacations, and the bakery always makes a profit.
The key to productivity is efficiency. For the bakery in our example, that means no ingredients go to waste, the shipments come in on time, the necessary ingredients are always on hand, the staff is well-rested and satisfied with their jobs, and the machinery used to make the bread is well-maintained.
As you can see, defining and improving productivity is no easy task.
Within your company, it becomes even more complex, as there are several levels of productivity to consider:
Personal Productivity — How productive is each member of your staff as an individual?
Workforce Productivity — How productive is your workforce as a unit?
Company Productivity — How productive is your company?
What can a business do to improve its productivity?
There are an infinite number of areas that a small business can tweak to improve productivity, and a small business coach can point you and your team in a direction that makes the most sense. Business coaching for a small business typically involves the arduous task of evaluating your existing processes and looking for areas that can be improved.
To improve business productivity, a business coach may implement strategies, such as:
Automation: Implementing a system that can automate your simple or recurring tasks.
Organization: Helping you or your staff set up a unified organization system within their work environment.
Delegation: Making sure that tasks are assigned to the most qualified people who can do them efficiently and effectively.
Consultation: A business coach will often consult each team member to talk about what tasks are delegated to them, to whom they report, and if there is anything they do that could be done more effectively.
What’s a productivity coach?
A productivity coach is a type of small business coach who can step in and help you, your managers, and your staff:
Identify processes for key business workflows
Create those processes
Learn to implement those processes
Develop ways you and your team can collaborate to improve your processes
Productivity coaches for small businesses can have endless benefits for your small business. From achieving your goals faster to improving the happiness of your staff members. Here is a short list of benefits of hiring a productivity coach for your small business:
Reduce team procrastination
Meet your company objectives on a quicker time schedule
Less stress around the office
Reduce staff workload
The improved completion rate for projects
If you have noticed trouble in any of these areas, you should consider hiring a business productivity coach to support your small business.
Conclusion
It may sound like hiring a productivity coach takes a lot of work, and… well, it does! But in the end, you will find that you have a more cohesive work environment, smoother processes, and a happier team. Although it might seem that a productivity coach would only work to improve your bottom line, a happier, more satisfied team is an added bonus.
Your team wants to be more productive, and they want you to be successful, and a productivity coach can provide a roadmap to make that happen.
About me
Mindset Enthusiast. List Maker Extraordinaire. Maximizer.
When I’m not helping you crush your goals and level up your productivity, you can find me in my little RV… by the water, communing with nature. It’s what I do to drop my stress and re-focus. I’m also a super big reading nerd (yes, I’ve totally been known to read on the treadmill like a boss).
I’ve built my life on the idea that efficiency and productivity have the power to make life spacious enough to hold your dreams. If you snuck a peek at my resume, you’d see that I’m a Certified Teacher & Curriculum Designer, Certified Diversity Professional®, International Best Selling Author and I have over a decade of experience as both an adult educator and business operations expert. Did I mention I take getting things done seriously? I can’t give you more hours in the day, but I can help you get much more juice and life out of your hours.
I believe that when you discover YOUR JOYFull zone of genius, you are better equipped to delegate, dump, redesign, or digitize the remaining tasks that must be done to keep your business running.
If you don’t have a lot of internal structure, I’m here to help you develop & document the business systems you need for more efficiency and productivity.
My primary goal is to help other small business owners, coaches, consultants, and entrepreneurs burnout-proof their business with JOYFull Productivity!
Janifer Wheeler, Senior Level Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
After retiring from teaching, Janifer Wheeler realized she had a bigger calling.
She now brings her 20+ years of experience in education to the production industry to help entrepreneurs and teams find the proverbial work-life balance by following her JOYfully method.
She’s also founded The JOYFully BadAss Academy, where they teach people how not only to do more but enjoy every minute of their workday — without taking any excuses or guilt home with them either (we know what it’s like). Give me 30 days, and you won’t regret it! Click here to learn more.
