Traction vs. Distraction: Productivity Hacks for Busy Franchisees

Everything we do either creates traction in our business or a distraction from our business. As business owners, we have a lot on our plate regarding our franchise: business management, issues with the team or with the operations, numbers to look at, and strategies to follow up. Plus, there are tons of emails, telephone calls, text messages. Let’s not forget our families and friends, and also save some time to enjoy a hobby, a sport, a movie, and care for ourselves.

Yes, it can be overwhelming. This is especially true because, as business owners, we want to succeed and achieve our business and financial goals, as well as our personal dreams. 

Are you balancing your time effectively? Spending too much time on distractions instead of focusing on what can truly generate traction for your business could derail you from what you want to achieve.

To prevent that from happening, I want to share in this blog post a set of productivity hacks and time management tools to identify the things that cause distraction and those that cause traction. That way, you can be more proactive with your time and start building the business you want and the results you deserve.

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Traction vs. Distraction

• The things that give you traction are those that align with your franchise business goals and help you boost your productivity.
• Anything that takes your time, energy, and resources away from achieving your goals is a distraction. 

Of course, you need to have some distractions, spend time with your family, and fulfill your personal needs. But you must be aware of how much time you spend on building your franchise business and how much on those that distract you from it, especially on less valuable things, such as social media scrolling. 

Franchisee’s Time Thieves

Franchisees have many distractions. Some of them might not be seen as such, but they are if they are not well managed: 

• Overanalyzing data

You have a lot of reports, financial statements, and dashboards with all kinds of data and information from everywhere in your franchise organization. While data is important, you must identify which is worth monitoring and which you can dismiss, as well as how much time you will spend analyzing it. That will determine whether this activity is a distraction or a traction for your business.

We highly recommend that you focus your analysis on three specific numbers, which we call “the Business Trinity.” These are the three Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that have the most significant impact on your business, so you should look at them every day.

You should also develop a weekly dashboard to monitor the next 5 to 10 KPIs, which follow in order of importance. Finally, review your profit and loss statement (P&L) monthly and learn to interpret its numbers to get the complete story of your business.

If you analyze beyond these reports, you might get distracted unless you identify an issue and must investigate deeply. Don’t fall into analysis paralysis! That will only distract you from accomplishing your business goals. 

Keep learning: Business Trinity, the 3 most important numbers in your business

• Chasing trends

Another common franchise distraction is chasing trends. We’re constantly bombarded with emails showcasing the latest technology, platform, or special vendor for this solution and another for that problem. 

While some may be helpful, they become distractors if you spend much time investigating these “shiny objects” that you will not even implement. Don’t waste your time and resources on them; select only what truly resonates with your business goals.

• Micromanagement

If you're a one-unit franchisee, you need to train your people to do a great job and execute the tasks on their own. If you have more than one unit, you should train your Unit Managers and their leaders to manage the store by themselves without you micromanaging them during day-to-day operations.

The better you train your people, the more you'll be able to focus on traction strategies and activities for your business. 

Don’t miss: Build a Dream Team for Your Franchise

• Social media

Of course, you must be wherever your customers are and monitor your social pages and the customer’s comments regularly. You can also use these platforms to train yourself or learn something new. 

I'm not saying you shouldn’t use social media for fun. I certainly do. They help me decompress so that when the traction activities come, I have the necessary energy and the correct state of mind to execute them.

Understanding how social media affects time management is vital because these platforms might be a source of traction or distraction. However, if you use them correctly and in moderation, they can benefit you and your business.

Learn more: The Power of Business Texting: How & Where to Use It

• Unnecessary or unstructured meetings

I spent many years in the corporate world, and one of the things I don’t miss is that we had too many meetings. I love Zoom, texting, and short emails because they are a great way to communicate and send information quickly.

Yes, business meetings are necessary, but they must be structured, well planned, have clear objectives, and even a time limit. 

You only have a certain amount of time and energy to spend on things. But if you use this productivity hack with your meeting agenda, you can turn meetings from a distraction into traction for your business. And remember: fewer meetings are always better! 

Discover Your Biggest Distractions

Reflecting on your daily activities can help you identify your biggest distractions. Track everything you do during a week, categorizing it as traction vs. distraction. Eventually, you’ll be able to decide which ones boost your franchisee productivity and move your business forward and which you should manage better to prevent them from becoming distractions.

• Even if you still do these distraction activities, at least you’ll be proactively and consciously deciding instead of being dragged into things that are not producing traction. 

That way, you can own your time and activities and focus on what matters, both for your business and yourself, to help you achieve your goals.

Make The Most of Your Time!

Once you identify the distractions from your business and minimize or eliminate them, it’s important to plan what you’ll do with that extra time you have gained. Why not invest it in actions to elevate your business? Here are some effective productivity hacks to maximize your time:

• Set clear goals for your business. Break down your goals into daily and weekly priorities, and then define your routines. Knowing what you will do every day to achieve your goals will help you focus on traction strategies and activities. 

• Delegate effectively. Examine your Traction vs. Distraction list and determine whether the daily activities in the “Traction” column have to be done specifically by you or if you can delegate them to someone else who might do them even better than you. 
• Mark and follow your calendar. Batch together the activities you can’t delegate and block times in your weekly calendar so you can focus on them. Check your calendar at the beginning, middle, and end of your day to remember your tasks and increase the likelihood of completing them. Over time, these actions will become part of your routine and bring positive traction to your organization. 
• Create systems. To help you stay on track and be able to measure the results, you should develop systems, processes, and tools to accompany your daily traction strategies and activities. 

Don’t miss: The Art of Delegation, Best Practices for Franchisees

I hope reading about traction vs. distraction helped you reflect on which activities you should dedicate more time to because they grow your business and boost your franchisee productivity and which ones you should let go to have a better focus and results.

I also hope you understand the importance of owning your time and deciding what and how you will invest the hours of your day. If you do this, you will:

• Increase your revenue and profitability because you’ll execute activities that produce more sales and maximize your profit. 
• Have a better work-life balance because you'll get rid of time thieves and distractions that are wasting your time.
• Achieve your business and financial goals faster because you'll focus your time on the things that will actually make a difference.
• Be more productive and effective thanks to the routines in your calendar.

Implementing routines is one of the most critical skills we teach our franchisee clients from our Mastermind COMMAND program, the District Managers from the LEAD program, and the Unit Managers for our MANAGE program. This alone helps them become much more successful at what they do every day.

The American Franchise Academy can also help you and your franchise leaders achieve your business goals by providing knowledge, tools, support, and resources to develop the systems, processes, and routines to be more effective. If you want to learn more, click below:

Explore AFA’s programs here!

Reflections:

• Are you spending time on things driving your business and profitability forward, or are you derailing from your dreams?
• How can you stop time thieves from getting in the way of reaching your goals?
• What do you need to delegate critical activities with confidence?
• What kind of things do you implement to produce traction in your business?

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