By Ashley Nielsen
Utilizing micro-habits is breaking larger tasks within your business into smaller pieces that are performed regularly to ensure that the larger task is successful. An example of using micro-habits within a business is performing weekly or monthly audits of finances so that when the end of the year arrives, there is no scramble to find and process a year’s worth of financial information. Taking advantage of micro-habits within your business can help your business remain aligned with your goals while maintaining a competitive edge and simplifying long-term goals.
The practice of using micro-habits can provide advantages for businesses large and small, alike. Whether you implement this practice on a small scale with room to grow, or go all-in with spreading the practice across your business operations, taking advantage of using micro-habits can help your business achieve its long-term goals, while freeing resources that can be used for other business operations to further grow your business.
Developing micro-habits
If you want to see just how effective employing micro-habits across your business operations is, it is best to start small. As with any change to your business operations, implementing a few micro-habits at a time will allow you and your employees to adjust to them to be more effective in improving your business’s operations. Taking a major long-term task, such as reaching a sales goal or performing an internal audit, understanding your new business software, establish a timeframe that you can work with to build a set of micro-habits spread over a reasonable period of time.
Establishing and implementing micro-habits
As you look at establishing micro-habits, it is important to get input from the individuals who will actually be employing these habits. This input will help you craft habits that are easy for your team to understand and implement, while still super-charging your operations to obtain marked results in completing long-term goals. It is best to try and establish at least five micro-habits, but the specifics of the long-term task will dictate how many habits to instill within your operation. Using these micro-habits should be thought of as achieving small tasks that, when combined, lead to the overall goal.
Utilizing software solutions to gain insight and respond quickly
In today’s fast-paced and dynamic business environment, the right software can mean the difference between remaining relevant and having to close the doors for good. Software is used throughout your business as a tool to help you run things, but have you ever explored using software to enhance your business and how you respond to and assist your customers? Having to learn how to use another piece of software is too time-consuming and not worth the hassle.
Making software an integrated part of your solution
However, if you take the time to explore how a particular software solution could help your business reach new heights, and then make training your employees on the software a micro-habit, you will quickly discover that the overall goal of implementing the software across your business is not so much to do. In fact, once you have trained all your current employees on the new software, you can utilize a micro-habit to train new employees individually or in small groups.
As far as using a software solution to improve your business, a micro-habit of staying informed about your customers and business solutions via a software solution will help keep you abreast of changes that need to be addressed quickly. Over time, your business will become more adept at analyzing data with the help of software and addressing customer challenges, which will free up time and resources to reinvest into growing your business long-term.
Turning routine tasks into micro-habits for long-term business success
When operating a business, there are certain things that you do on a repeating basis: filling orders, advertising, internal analysis, etc. But if you have never looked at how these individual, repeatable tasks are contributing to your overall business operations, considering how these tasks may be replaced or enhanced with micro-habits could bear fruit in your business. Not only will you gain additional insights into how your day-to-day operations are contributing to the long-term success of your business, but you may be able to identify those tasks that you are doing that may not be contributing to your overall goals.
Using your daily or other routine tasks as a starting point for establishing micro-habits will help make the transition to using this process easier. Once you have taken the time to make micro-habits of those processes you are already doing, you can take what you have learned to other areas of your business to develop and implement new micro-habits. When you are evaluating how best to convert established routine tasks into micro-tasks, it is important to look at the long-term to see how the established tasks contribute to your goals, or if they could be eliminated to free up resources that do align with your overall objectives.
Finding and retaining top talent for businesses, large and small
Regardless of the size of your business, if you want to grow you will need to increase the size of your team. But how do you go about finding the best candidates to meet your unique business needs? Enter the micro-habits. With a long-term goal of hiring new employees for your business, you can establish a set routine of micro-habits as a process to find top potential employees.
Filling vacant or new job openings
There are a number of resources that employers take advantage of when seeking candidates to fill an open position. With a micro-habit to check the results from those resources, whether they be actual applications or leads to reach out to potential candidates, you will keep the overall goal of hiring someone at the forefront of your team’s daily or weekly processes. As you begin to narrow down the field of candidates, having micro-habits established to streamline the interview process will ensure each candidate follows the same process and help your team manage and maintain appropriate contact with each candidate.
Retaining the team you have built
Retaining those quality hires your business makes is just as important as finding those new employees. Using micro-habits, you can help guide new employees as they become integrated within your business team. Moving forward with providing appropriate feedback to your employees, new and established alike, micro-habits will ensure each employee receives the types of feedback they need to start a performance period with established expectations and finish that period strong.
About the Author
Ashley Nielsen earned a B.S. degree in Business Administration Marketing at Point Loma Nazarene University. She is a freelance writer who loves to share knowledge about general business, marketing, lifestyle, wellness, and financial tips. During her free time, she enjoys being outside, staying active, reading a book, or diving deep into her favorite music.
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