One of the biggest challenges for business owners is time. Deadlines and goals all take time to reach, but every single business out there could be doing more to give themselves more time. Efficient practices mean that your company won’t be too hung up on the wasteful processes that cause deadlines to be delayed. Businesses that aim for maximum efficiency can manufacture their products, offer comprehensive services and meet all their goals with the least effort. Of course, every business puts effort into what they do and how they do it, but if you’re not looking at HOW you are getting to each goal and tightening that up, you can bet that your processes will be slower and more sluggish.
There isn’t a one size fits all solution to being more efficient in business. And yet no matter how big or small your company, you can make your life easier and your business more productive. You may think you are as productive as you can be, but when you look right into your business, you could find that you’re not getting things done as efficiently for your time or for your budget. Don’t panic, though, there are plenty of solutions out there to make your business run better. You can focus on improving the efficiency of your business with some of the tips that we have below:
Automation
It doesn’t matter whether you are issuing payslips to employees or you’re sending receipts to vendors, you can automate that. You can even automate your social media posts with special websites like this, which can save your people man hours typing out posts to various social media websites. Automating these tasks is a necessity in today’s business world, as many business owners are time poor while trying to be cash and asset rich. At the start of your automation, you may find that things are pricier, but in the long run automation will cut your business costs.
Outsource
You are running a business, but it doesn’t mean that you’re going to be a marketing expert or an accounting expert. Instead, it means that you should look at all the avenues for help. Outsourcing is going to give you the expertise you need, with less to spend out on the whole. A document scanning service, for example, can free up your admin team to better and more efficient daily tasks. It’s up to you where you decide to outsource your business practices, but don’t rule it out for your company. It’s going to cost you less money to give tasks to an outside agency than it would to pay out the overheads and the insurance costs of extra staff in your business.
Communication
It’s going to seem like it’s far easier and quicker to drop a colleague an email from across the room when you need something, but emails can often get lost and not picked up fast enough. This then stalls your own work process. Encourage staff (and you!) to communicate by getting up and having a conversation about what is needed. Face-to-face interaction massively speeds up the process of getting things done. If you encourage this type of interaction and encourage an office chat, you can really create a steady flow of information. Chat websites always have their place in the office, but keeping your business moving with an actual conversation can mean you avoid a 20-email conversation.
Interruptions
Friday has a staff meeting at 9am. There’s also going to be lunchtime training at 12pm. Then there may be a coffee meeting at 3pm. Each of these interruptions can be great for personal development, but detrimental to your business efficiency. Don’t scatter your business meetings throughout the week; it’s best to keep them all to one day if you can manage it. It may also help your employees to block out their work time on the shared calendars in the office, so that you can all focus on concentrated work time. Meetings won’t be the only thing that causes interruptions in your office, either. Email alerts, computer updates and chat notifications can stop the flow of work to answer queries, but you can see above about encouraging actual conversation to know how to solve that one!
Huddle up
Every morning, it is beneficial for your staff to come together in the boardroom and have a ten-minute, quick-fire meeting to detail what their plans are for the day. Meetings are a necessity, but the longer they go on for, the shorter the focus on actual work. A ten-minute huddle can get everyone in the loop about important business updates and answer any questions about projects going forward.
Software
There are plenty of options for software for your business that eliminate the need for communicative emails. Websites like Trello can put communication and work progress all in one place, so that everyone involved can see work and updates straight away. This means a ten-minute conversation can be changed into a ten-second check for updates on the website. You’re not only saving time trying to keep up with an email thread, you can track changes to see how everyone is getting along. This makes your work far more efficient and cuts down wasted time in the office.
Each of these business solutions is only a solution because of automation and technology, however, you should know where to stop. You need to smooth out as many issues as possible within your company and automation can happen with all of that, but it can go too far. Not every single process within your company should be automated, even if it can be. Growth is the most important thing for your business and automation can take away from that. Strive for ultimate efficiency in your office, but don’t allow your goals to be compromised in order for you to get there. Monitor what is working for your company and what isn’t, and work on strengthening your business where you can.
