Ep 2 | Three Life-Changing Ways to Increase Productivity

We are really excited to be back with another episode and this one is going to be packed with real, practical productivity tools that you can implement right now. As a boutique owner, you may be juggling a lot of different things in one day, and you struggle with time-management and yearn for higher productivity and organization. And you know you need structure and better planning and starting this month if you’re like us, you're ready to get out of the place of doing everything “just in time”.

In today's podcast we are giving you three life-changing tools and practices to implement in your life now - we are passionate about helping you increase your productivity for boutique success - and to give you back that precious time with your family that the business and a lack of productivity may be stealing right now.

Productivity Tool #1: The First Step to Knowing Your Numbers

It's getting your books organized so you can increase your overall productivity in your boutique business - which actually affects every area of your life. Today we want to give you one first step to doing this if it's something that you've felt totally overwhelmed by, or your books are a mess, and you feel unorganized and all over the place - we are here for you - getting this part of your business straightened out and on the right track changes everything. We want to help you know your numbers so you can get out of fear or overwhelm and get back to doing what you love and giving you more headspace and actual time to be with the ones you love! This is a way to boost productivity in your life so you have the freedom to be with your family more, while you run your boutique business.

Here's the first step to knowing your numbers. Get your bookkeeping up to date and current whether you’re doing it yourself or outsourcing - you are capable of doing it yourself with many resources available at Boutique Bookkeeping Co and outsourcing it also an option. The important thing is that you get your bookkeeping up to date to bring more clarity and direction in your business. This way, you’re not in the dark about your business, in confusion, not knowing if you’re profiting, not knowing where to expand and where to pull back. All these things are clear to you once your bookkeeping is current and you have REAL data in front of you and know the direction your business is heading in.

Productivity Tool #2: Batch Working and Eliminating Distractions

The truth is, we get more done when we plan ahead. Being a good steward of our money, time and everything we have, takes good planning. Planning is wisdom. Having a content calendar, planning for events, even family time is wise and planning can make all the difference. Our second life-changing productivity practice is Batch working. This is taking your plan and executing it in batches. You’ve probably implemented batch work on some level already. But today we want to focus on one key to batch working—eliminating distractions. Batch working is taking a certain chunk of time or days of the week and dedicating them to one task only. This method is for increasing productivity, boosting creativity and redeeming the time. For boutique owners, with so many moving pieces in your business, batch work is especially beneficial for social media marketing. Not only does this keep your boutique moving forward, but it frees you up mentally and frees up your time to focus on other parts of your boutique you love—as well as more time away from the business and the ability to be more present with your family. Implement batch working now or up your batch working game, with a focus on eliminating distractions. So, what are some ways you can do this? You may need to use your phone for producing some of your content but when you don’t need it, remove it from the room. Turn off all notifications. You can even think about time blocking for when you reply to messages in a day - we know this isn't always possible, but start to create some type of boundary and organization with your phone and replying to messages. A recent study showed that even a small interruption like a text message coming in - even if you don't reply to it - is a distraction that interrupts your focus and it will take 15 minutes to be able to fully focus on what you're doing again - our brains are simply not able to do both things at once. If you're working from home a lot and you have small children, book your batch work while your baby is napping or when the children are preoccupied with something and they won't need to interrupt you. Whatever cutting distractions out looks like for you, do it.

Productivity Tool #3: Operating as a Family Unit

If you're a mother and an entrepreneur we're going to share with you one of the most life-changing tools you will ever implement - and it benefits the whole family. You will be able to create a high level of productivity and usefulness in the home with this one simple but profound change: Operating as a family unit. This means everyone is expected to help. Having multiple children means you have extra hands to help. Many hands make light work. You can get the children involved in all different tasks and responsibilities in the home and this trains them up to be responsible adults - they can learn these things now - as early as two or three years old. There is room for children to be children and we don’t want to erase their childhood by running them on a military mindset of do, do, do but at the same time we don’t have to train them to be children; if we don’t train them to be adults they won’t come into it naturally. You want to train them to find the joy in working together, serving others, serving in their family, so they can be a well-rounded adult. Your children can learn these things now. Even young children. My two year old is so excited and feels so accomplished whenever I give him a job and he can see real results in that moment; my seven year old - when I ask her, “hey, can you chop this onion for me; we’re going to put it in the soup” she’s ecstatic. It’s not a burden when you instill in your children at a young age the joy, the sense of accomplishment, the love that comes from being able to contribute in the family - lifting the burden on everyone. Your husband and children who see you in your good and in your bad, don’t want you to be over worked or feel over burdened, and they don’t know how to help until you give them instruction, until you are intentional in training them to help. I harp on cooking because I do pull my kids into the kitchen all the time, but there are many different ways you can operate as a family unit; it doesn’t have to be chores; it can be fun and time that they see as a blessing and not a burden. You’re training them for adulthood and teaching them how to serve others. You have more time to do fun things with your children when the work and burdens are shared. You'll have to find your own incentives for your children or you can train them and create a routine where the children are just expected to help. The best part is you can even think of creative ways in involving them in the business—and eventually start paying them tax free! More on that in future episodes so stay tuned.

Conclusion

Running a boutique or any small business is hard work and we know so many of you are mothers and we love nothing more than helping entrepreneurial mothers maximize productivity and manage their time so they can experience the joy of motherhood while owning a boutique! After all, a big reason you started your boutique business is so you would have more freedom to be with your family.

We are so excited to share simple, real ways you can increase your productivity to impact not only your business but benefit your family and increase the quality of your time when you are together because you will feel more calm, organized and productive in every area of your life. If you haven't joined Boutique School yet - now is the time. We have created modules in Boutique School about productivity along with everything you need to know about boutique bookkeeping and running a business. Boutique School is our membership that pairs a training program to help boutique owners reach their goals with a community of likeminded boutique owners and our boutique bookkeeping experts. If you have felt overwhelmed by your numbers, struggled with time-management and productivity and you want to truly learn how to run a business so you have the freedom you always wanted to be with your family and do what you love, this is the place to start. So we invite you to join us, check out Boutique School.

We want to hear from you! If there's topics you want us to focus on in the podcast - send us a message in the Boutique Bookkeeping Facebook Group or over on Instagram @boutiquebookkeeping.co or email us and we can answer all of your business questions here - and maybe do some Q&A style episodes, too. We'll be back next Thursday in our next episode.