Business and Finance
5 Tips to Improve Small Business Productivity
Last Updated on September 10, 2025 by Daily News Staff
5 Tips to Improve Small Business Productivity
(Family Features) Businesses that run efficiently often find continued, long-term success. However, running a small business comes with a multitude of challenges that can hinder productivity.
Between hiring employees, managing payroll, handling customer relations, delivering products, meeting with staff and other tasks, it’s important to take steps to help your business work smarter, not harder, while maintaining productivity. More efficient workdays mean more projects or tasks can be completed, giving you an advantage in a competitive marketplace.
To help improve productivity and create a more efficient work environment, consider these tips from the experts at Pitney Bowes, a global shipping and mailing company that has worked for more than 100 years to provide technology, logistics, financial services and solutions that help enterprises thrive and small business owners operate right from their homes including the PitneyShip Cube, which simplifies shipping packages and e-commerce orders while saving time and space.
Set Goals
Setting goals for your operation is vital to building a productive business and ensuring your employees understand your vision and how they can actively contribute to the company’s success. Whether you’re a startup or an established business with multiple employees, set realistic, well-defined goals that are in line with your business strategy, like investing in office tools and solutions that can help you discover efficiencies. Periodically revisit those goals to ensure you’re on track to meet them and make any adjustments as necessary. For example, working from home may provide an opportunity to save on rent and enable you to allocate those savings toward upgraded office equipment.
Delegate Less Critical Responsibilities
Remember, you can’t do it all by yourself. In the same way it’s important to prioritize your list of tasks, delegation is key to improving productivity. Passing on some of the work, such as designing email templates, writing blog posts, creating white papers and more, to your employees allows you to maximize your limited time. Think through additional ways for others to lessen the load, like using a cloud-based shipping solution to streamline the process and ensure alignment in task sharing. Even if you’re a solo entrepreneur, look at what tasks you may be able to outsource to a third-party vendor to free up some of your time.
Simplify Shipping
If your business sells a product, shipping may be a time-consuming, expensive part of your operation. Leave the post office behind and save valuable time with an option like the PitneyShip Cube, an all-in-one, Wi-Fi-enabled thermal shipping label printer with a built-in scale. It includes companion software and can integrate with your current online store to automatically import order details then easily print the shipping labels and postage. You can weigh packages, compare discounted shipping rates and automatically share tracking notifications via email.
“One of the biggest barriers for small businesses are shipping costs,” said Shemin Nurmohamed, president, sending technology solutions, Pitney Bowes. “Our goal is to allow clients to take advantage of what larger shippers get in terms of discounts while saving them the critical time they need to work on their core businesses. With the PitneyShip Cube, the first shipping label printer of its kind with a built-in scale and companion software, users are able to ship faster and smarter. This product is ideal for both e-commerce and office shippers looking to save time and space by streamlining their processes and eliminating unnecessary equipment. Plus, it can save users money as it provides a discount of 3 cents on First Class stamps, up to 89% on USPS Priority Mail and up to 82% off UPS standard rates.”
By completing all the necessary tasks beforehand, you’ll skip the post office line and allow yourself to focus on more profitable endeavors. You can also track parcels throughout their shipping journey with data that can be shared with customers for a smooth shipping experience.
Streamline Software
A quick and easy way to increase productivity and efficiency is taking advantage of technology like software as a service platforms. Particularly true in this age of hybrid and remote workers, cloud-based communications software can keep your team members on the same page, regardless of their location, to help your company keep up with important information such as ever-changing carrier rates to quickly identify the best shipping and fulfillment options. With available platforms that combine team messaging, video conferencing, task management, file sharing and storage, it can be simple to stay connected with your employees. Additional cloud-based software for everything from payroll to word processing and graphic design is also readily available to help further streamline your business’s technology. Knowledge is power and combining all this information in one place can give you greater control over your organization as a whole.
Learn from Your Customers
When looking for ways to improve, start by asking your customers for honest feedback. Creating customer satisfaction surveys provides you with a fresh perspective while giving customers a voice so they can feel valued. Plus, it can help you build a rapport with customers as they know their voices are heard while you discover what’s working, what isn’t and ways you can improve the business.
Find more solutions for improving your productivity and efficiency in the workplace at pitneybowes.com.
Photo courtesy of Getty Images (businesswomen)
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News
Money Management: The Importance of Financial Literacy
You may have mastered the core subjects like math and grammar in school, but financial literacy – or understanding the basics of money management in order to help you make better financial decisions – often goes overlooked before adulthood. It’s not so much a course of study as it is a plan of action. When you understand how to earn, save, spend and invest wisely, you aren’t just building a stable future for yourself, but your family and community as well.
(Feature Impact) You may have mastered the core subjects like math and grammar in school, but financial literacy – or understanding the basics of money management in order to help you make better financial decisions – often goes overlooked before adulthood. It’s not so much a course of study as it is a plan of action.
Financial literacy in the United States has remained stagnant at generally low levels for several years, according to research from TIAA Institute and the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center, with even lower levels among Gen Z. Yet greater financial literacy – including key aspects such as goal-setting, budgeting, saving, credit management and investing – is strongly linked to better financial outcomes, including lower rates of debt constraint and financial fragility.
While emboldening yourself to understand financial terms can be a little overwhelming at first, once you have a grasp of basic concepts you can begin to get a handle on your money and make better financial decisions. Simply put: When you understand how to earn, save, spend and invest wisely, you aren’t just building a stable future for yourself, but your family and community as well.
From nonprofit partnerships to volunteer-led programs and fee online resources, Schwab and its employees help millions of people every year build the knowledge and confidence to take charge of their financial futures by serving as board members, mentors, role models and educators.
Because financial health is a lifelong journey, the earlier people learn vital money skills, the better. That’s why the financial advisory services provider develops education programs geared toward kids that continue into adulthood, helping people no matter where they are on their journeys.
Talk Money
It’s never too early to start a conversation about financial literacy. Having teens identify goals that are important to them – such as concert tickets or a first car – can kickstart coversations about money. Working with your child (and a financial advisor, if necessary) on a plan for saving to realize those goals can serve as a jumping off point. After achieving some success, their enthusiasm may grow, which is a powerful motivator to keep saving.
Support School Initiatives and Programs
Outreach programs that empower young people to make smart financial decisions is key to a bright future. Programs like Money Matters – Schwab’s flagship financial education program utilized by the Boys & Girls Clubs of America – gives young people hands-on experience with all aspects of money and investing.
This example, and others, don’t just include program funding – they build partnerships that create impact and opportunity with national collaborations that reach more than 17 million youth annually, empowering young people with the tools and confidence to make smart financial decisions for life.
Spread the Financial Love
Championing financial literacy empowers everyone – individuals, families and communities. By serving as a board member, mentor, role model or educator to help bring financial literacy to others in your community, you can supply the tools and knowledge to lead programs that focus on giving back, empowering future generations in countless ways.
To learn more about financial literacy and find resources to empower your local community, visit SchwabMoneywise.com.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock
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Travel
Tighter Budgets Haven’t Stopped Travel. They’ve Changed How Americans Plan
Tighter Budgets Haven’t Stopped Travel:Tighter budgets are altering American travel plans, but most still prioritize vacations despite financial concerns.
Last Updated on April 12, 2026 by Daily News Staff
Tighter Budgets Haven’t Stopped Travel. They’ve Changed How Americans Plan
(Tiffany Miller for ALG Vacations) The flight search is open, but many travelers are pausing before they book. Prices feel higher than last year, headlines are heavy and budgets are tighter. Still, the question isn’t whether to take a vacation, but how to make it work.
A November 2025 survey from ALG Vacations of U.S. adults planning to travel in 2026 shows that financial pressure is reshaping how people approach vacations, not whether they take them. While 81% say they have at least some concern about their household finances in the months ahead, 92% say they would still travel even if tighter finances required scaling back.
Financial pressure shapes decisions, not demand
That shift shows up in the small moments of planning. Travelers are taking longer to compare prices, reconsidering timing and adjusting expectations before they book.
Inflation and rising prices top the list of concerns, cited by 61% of respondents, reinforcing why travelers are rethinking destinations, trip length and overall costs.
Concerns about global events and safety follow at 39%, with broader political and economic instability close behind at 38%.
Still, those worries rarely lead travelers to walk away from travel altogether. Instead, many describe pulling back in measured ways, scaling down plans, rethinking details and making trade-offs that keep a trip possible, even if it looks different than originally imagined.
Experience changes how travelers move from planning to booking
Not all travelers navigate those trade-offs the same way. For some, uncertainty slows the process. For others, familiarity helps clear the final hurdle.
Among respondents who have previously booked a packaged vacation through a major vacation brand, 80% say they plan to take an international trip in the next year, compared with 46% of those without that experience.
That confidence carries into spending decisions as well. Sixty-seven percent of packaged-vacation travelers expect to spend more than $2,500 on their next trip, compared with 47% of those who have never booked a packaged vacation.
Taken together, the findings point to a confidence gap, with prior experience linked to greater comfort committing to international travel and higher spending.
Professional guidance plays a larger role when planning gets complex
For many travelers, planning no longer stops at picking dates and destinations. Rising prices, shifting availability and higher expectations have turned vacation planning into a series of decisions that feel harder to navigate alone.
That complexity shows up most clearly among travelers with prior packaged-vacation experience. Ninety-four percent say they plan to use a travel advisor, compared with 81% of those without prior packaged-vacation experience.
The gap suggests that familiarity with structured travel planning often leads travelers to seek expert guidance. As trips become more layered, getting the details right matters as much as the destination itself.
Travel remains a priority, even as decisions slow
The findings suggest that travel is still very much on the table, even as decisions take longer to make. Travelers are weighing trade-offs, seeking guidance and leaning on experience as they plan, rather than walking away altogether.
The flight search may stay open a little longer this year. But for many Americans, the trip is still happening.
Methodology
ALG Vacations commissioned Atomik Research to conduct an online survey of U.S. adults planning to travel and travelers with prior packaged-vacation experience in the United States.
The survey included 1,000 adults planning to travel and a subsample of 502 respondents who had previously booked a packaged vacation through a major vacation brand.
The margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for the full sample and 4 percentage points for the packaged vacation subsample at a 95 percent confidence level.
Fieldwork was conducted in November 2025. Atomik Research, part of 4media group, is a creative market research agency.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock
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Community
McDonald’s First Job Confessional Turns Career Stories Into Free Meal Opportunity
McDonald’s is launching First Job Confessional, a campaign inviting fans to share first job stories for a chance to receive a $15 gift card in select cities.
First Job Confessional
McDonald’s is putting first jobs in the spotlight with a new campaign that asks fans to share the real-world skills they gained early in their working lives. Launched on National Employee Appreciation Day, the brand’s First Job Confessional invites people to reflect on how those first roles helped shape their careers — and, in some cases, earn a free meal in the process.
The campaign is built around a simple idea: first jobs often teach lasting skills that deserve more recognition. Whether someone learned problem-solving while babysitting, communication during a lunch rush, or teamwork behind a counter, McDonald’s is framing those experiences as valuable career foundations. The company says those are the same kinds of skills employers continue to prioritize as workplace demands evolve.
How the First Job Confessional Works
In select cities, McDonald’s is setting up confessional booths designed to look like ordering kiosks. But instead of placing a meal order, participants can record a story about their first job and the skills they picked up along the way. Those who take part in person will have the opportunity to receive a $15 McDonald’s gift card, while supplies last.
Fans who cannot attend in person can still join online by posting their stories using #FirstJobConfessional. McDonald’s says selected videos may also be featured on its YouTube channel, extending the campaign beyond the live events.
External Related Links
- McDonald’s corporate article: McDonald’s is Asking Fans to Get Real About Their First Job Skills in Exchange for Free Meals
- McDonald’s 1 in 8: First Job Confessional
- McDonald’s 1 in 8 home page
- Marketing Dive coverage of the campaign
- Parade coverage of the First Job Confessional tour
Source Links
- Original PRNewswire press release from McDonald’s USA, LLC
- McDonald’s official corporate story
- McDonald’s 1 in 8 First Job Confessional page
- McDonald’s 1 in 8 official website
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