Entrepreneurship is a long, often rocky, usually challenging road that sometimes climbs to dizzying peaks but just as often peters out into worrying valleys. Running your own business is, for most, a dream come true and despite the ever-present obstacles and challenges entrepreneurs near unilaterally agree that they’d never look back.

When you’re just starting out in a small to medium-sized enterprise it can seem like you’re best on all sides by challenges. Motivating your staff, keeping your cash flow healthy, managing overhead costs, maintaining great relations with customers and clients. It can all get a bit much even for a stalwart entrepreneur.

Yet, all of these challenges are so much more manageable when you harness the power of productivity. Maximizing your business’ productivity is the Holy Grail for entrepreneurs and if there were a single, set way of doing it… everyone would be running their own business.

What you can do, however, is nip these common enemies of productivity in the bud before they become a drain on your time, energy and resources that could hobble your business.

Distraction

Any self-employed freelancer will tell you, if you work at a computer you’re at a virtually constant risk of productivity destroying distraction. Many businesses have tried to tackle this issue head on by blocking access to content that could be considered a drain on productivity like social media or shopping sites.

There’s an argument for this, but a better solution is to allow the use of these sites during regular rest breaks. Employees are more productive if allowed to work in sprints with frequent rest breaks to allow them to rest their minds.  

Technical difficulties

There’s nothing more frustrating than when your IT and communications infrastructure lets you down, draining your productivity and potentially costing you real money. As important as it is to manage overheads, under investment in your IT infrastructure can cripple your business.

Outsourcing to a local IT support company can be a cost-effective solution that keeps your productivity optimal. There are many areas in which cutting costs is counterproductive, and IT is most certainly one of them.

Stress

A little stress can be good for you, but too much can damage productivity in a range of ways. It can impede cognitive function, causing us to “freeze up”. It can compromise the relationships between your employees, souring the atmosphere of the workplace and, perhaps worst of all, it can sap your passion for your business.

Ensure that your employees have frequent rest breaks, team building activities and (if possible) flexible hours to mitigate the effects of stress on yourself and your workforce.

Lack of direction

What is your business’ mission statement? What are the ideals upon which your business is founded? Your workforce needs to be united in pursuing a common goal (P.S. that goal needs to be more than just “make money”).

A lack of direction can lead to a lack of motivation and if motivation is low there’s no way that you can expect productivity to be high.

 This post has been contributed by Ryan Gatt, it may contain affiliate links.