KPIs provided businesses with defined, measurable goals to clearly see where businesses are succeeding and where you need to focus your efforts. They offer valuable insight so that business owners can make the right decisions to amplify revenue and profit. 

Clear objectives and deadlines can also boost employer and employee productivity, cultivating an important team ethos. They do not need to be in-depth, or convoluted. Just clear and can be used in all areas of your business. High-level KPIs might focus on sales or revenue, while low-level KPIs tend to focus on smaller areas like employees or marketing. 

As valuable as KPIs are, it is important to remember than no business is immune from distractions that compromise the ability to meet objectives. Here are 7 business distractions to avoid at all costs.

Not Having Achievable Objectives

Let us start with an obvious one, for your business to meet its objectives, they need to be clear. KIPs are only as good as how achievable the objectives are. You may want your business to grow by 45% year-on-year, but is this achievable?

Many businesses make the mistake of setting objectives that are too ambitious, broad or of little value in an evolving marketplace. If you want to meet your objectives, you need to make sure that they are realistic. Don’t get distracted by future potential, concentrate on setting achievable objectives today. 

Not Understanding the Needs of Your Customers

One of the biggest mistakes that business’ make not understanding their customers. They may assume that everyone will want to buy their product or service, but will they really? Look at marketing, don’t you think that creating target personas and tailoring content to what they want, like and expect would be far more beneficial than just assuming that everyone is the same?

You can’t set achievable KPIs if you don’t understand your customers. It’s vital that businesses use data to learn and evolve their businesses. Look at customer behaviour, examine sales data through a CRM, carry out survey polls. These all provide valuable customer insight. Don’t get distracted and spend too much time on other areas of the business. Make understanding your customers a priority. 

Meeting after Meeting

As valuable as meetings can be, there is no denying that they can be distracting, especially if you’re in the middle of something important. Losing an hour might not seem like much, but if you have a deadline to hit, an hour can be a huge chunk of time lost.

One way to minimise this is to schedule a ‘Got a Minute’ meeting time every day. Tell colleagues that unless an interruption is imperative to bring it up at the ‘Got a Minute’ meeting. Host these 10-minute meetings during the day and say goodbye to repeated interruptions. 

Spending Too Much Time on One Area of the Business

We all know that tasks can be all-consuming, especially with deadlines looming. However, it’s important to train yourself to manage your time effectively. 

If you’re about to launch a new product, service or website, for instance, it’s natural that you spend much of your time focused on hitting a deadline. However, don’t let yourself become overwhelmed or distracted by one task. Make sure you allocate enough time to complete all tasks. This will save you a lot of headaches. 

Not Having the Right Digital Infrastructure

These days businesses are blessed with abundant technological innovation to help streamline time and cost, whilst intensifying productivity. From cloud computing to online accounting software, businesses no longer have to be distracted by laborious, time-consuming processes to complete tasks.

No matter how generous your SLAs or KPIs may be, not having the right digital infrastructure will hinder any business’ chances of providing an efficient, streamlined service, one that customers and employees admire. 

Not Optimising Organisational Operations 

A disorganised business doesn’t just become problematic for employees but customers too. If you’re disorganised, mistakes will occur, and distractions happen. It’s just inevitable. 

By optimising organisational operations, you’ll significantly reduce the chance of any confusions, distractions and mistakes. This can be as simple are clearly communicating responsibilities will colleagues or having the right apps for teams. Do this and you’ll keep colleagues and clients happy and be able to set and meet KPIs with ease. 

Having Too Many Decisions to Make

No matter how rational and high-minded you are, every decision requires thought. Some decisions require just a few seconds of thought, others might take days or weeks to wrap your head around. The more decisions you make, the more likely you are to become mentally fatigued – and distracted, leaving you unable to concentrate. 

One way to fix this is to reduce the number of decisions you make daily. You can do this by delegating responsibilities or automating specific tasks, like email responses or scheduling meetings. Do this and you’ll avoid becoming distracted and be more productive.

Overcome Distractions and Grow Your Business 

So, there you have it. Seven distractions that impede modern business growth and how you can avoid them. Put these into practice and we guarantee that you’ll have a happier, more productive workplace and be able to grow your business!