HOW DO YOU CULTIVATE PRODUCTIVITY?
Entrepreneurs share how they keep their businesses operating at their best
“At some point your sales get large enough and the operation gets big enough that you really need a team. A lot of us who have gotten into running small businesses don’t have any formal training on how to be good leaders, how to be good motivators and on how to be good managers... I hadn’t spent a lot of time in my life managing people. For me, productivity is learning how to really leverage an executive team to get the most out of them and in turn how to get the most out of the organization.”
BILLY FRILEY, founder of Village Ice Cream , villageicecream.com
“How do we measure productivity? For one, knowing our numbers. We know we’re more productive if we can get more work and more profitability out of the same number of people. We want to continue to get deeper and deeper with that same team instead of continually hiring and trying to spread out. Also our tools. We have cloud- based project management tools ( Asana) … so I can at any time open up my computer and see immediately if we’re off track.”
CHRISTY SWITZER , co-owner of I Know A Guy Renovations, iknowaguyrenovations.com
“Everyday we have huge production meetings where we’re looking through the traffic coming through the agency. I look at it like landing planes ... we have to make sure that ( the staff) are very productive. We actually have a traffic department in the shop. In my whole view on productivity is do things that are smart that make you money and at the end of the day you’ve advanced yourself ( your goals) ... Sometimes you need that reality check ( and say) let’s get back to basics, let’s focus on what we need to do to make this company profitable and productive.”
RYAN TOWNEND, CEO of William Joseph Communica-tions, williamjoseph.com