Are You Sweating the Small Stuff? Maybe You Should Be

e're often told to not sweat the small stuff, relax and go with the flow. But this could be terrible advice if you run your own business. Sometimes, worrying and analyzing the little details is the only thing that keeps your company running. But micromanaging every aspect of your firm will leave you with not enough hours in the day and a never-ending to-do list, not to mention soaring stress levels.

So when should you be sweating the small stuff and when is the bigger picture more important?

Listening to your consumers

As a business grows, it's easy to forget the customers behind your success. This is, in part, because it becomes much more difficult and time-consuming to understand them. When you have a handful of customers, you can easily deliver a personalized service, compared to when you have a couple of hundred. However, it's important that you continue to prioritize them as you grow.

Data analytics software can be a great way to get a good idea of what matters to your consumers, as well as talking to focus groups and using social media to respond to queries or concerns.

Understanding your employees

Productivity and employee morale only become more important the larger your business grows, so it's crucial that you put effort into understanding your staff and making them as happy as possible in their role. However, this is something that is easier - and often more beneficial - for line managers to do. Of course, you can be a point of escalation and approve policy changes, but having someone who works with team members every day in charge of managing their morale is much more effective.

Regular progression meetings, where their concerns are discussed as well as their future goals, will help to keep them engaged with the company and gives your managers chance to understand their pain points.

Benefits

The amount that's set aside for the Christmas party or the annual social budget may not sound like an important task, but these small elements can have a big impact on employee morale and satisfaction. Accounts will try and make savings wherever possible - it's their job after all - but it's essential that employee benefits aren't seen as an optional bonus.

Initial costs of benefits are superseded by the potential financial gains from higher productivity levels, lower employee turnover, and better job satisfaction, so make sure you are advocating it.