Are you looking to improve efficiency in your business?
Time is money, so if your business is using inefficient processes it could be costing you. But it can be hard to know where to start making changes
Don’t worry, we’re here to help. Read of for these 7 phenomenal strategies to improve your business efficiency today.
1. Start with What’s Not Working
Before you go making any changes, you need to work out which areas are suffering inefficiency. It can pop up in many areas. It could be important info that’s hard to find or procedures that are out of date.
A lot of companies also end up with processes that are over-complicated. Others, in trying to keep up with trends or their competition, will add to many systems at once. This leaves them overwhelmed, unable to do it all at once.
To avoid this, you need to develop a keen awareness of the capabilities of your business. Future efficiency will depend on how well you can spot what’s slowing you down and how fast you react. You should try to get into the mindset of “there must be a better way”.
2. Form in The Right State
When it comes to corporate law, not every state is equal. Forming your company in a business positive state can make running your business, and turning a profit, easier.
For example, an LLC formed in Wyoming can avoid business license officer registration fees, and will not have to pay any state taxes. In fact, thanks to LLC management, you can hire a registered agent in-State to ensure that all the relevant documentation and notices are forwarded to you.
3. Automate, Automate, Automate
For some businesses, automation is a dirty word. But these are the businesses that could most benefit from integrated systems. Inefficiency in digital integration causes a quarter of businesses to lose competitive ranking.
Removing the need for data to be manually taken from one system to another saves time, money and reduces the chance or errors. It also opens up the ability for your reports to take a holistic view of your entire business, giving greater insight than ever before.
Another example is using technology to host business meetings. Think about how much money your business spends on travel each year. It only takes a few meetings being changed to videoconferencing for your investment to pay for itself. And time not spent in the car is time you can more effectively use.
4. Build a Community
Getting a real insight into what your customers are thinking is a great way to inform business process changes. They can tell you what issues are of greatest importance to them, allowing you to plan any changes for maximum customer benefit.
Fostering a community is the hard part. But thanks to social media, it is easier than ever. Create pages for your products and brand, engage with your customers and watch your following grow.
Be aware the communities are not simple things to manage. Dealing with customers and external stakeholders can be an unpredictable task, but if you put the work in, the benefits are worth it.
Consumer feedback provides invaluable information to help you improve your business model, with better results and less cost than using focus groups.
5. Encourage Feedback
No matter how hard you try, you will never understand the flaws in your processes as much as the people that deal with them day in and day out. If you want to find and fix the pain points in your processes, you need to be open to feedback. Or more importantly, your employees need to feel you are open to feedback.
Many employees worry that feedback will not be well received, so it is important that you created processes to encourage it.
Create end to end process for feedback, such as anonymized feedback forms inside your HR portal, or meetings for department heads to collect feedback. Make sure you reward employees to any feedback, even if you don’t agree, to reinforce the behavior among your employees.
6. Defined Roles
For your business to run efficiently, every employee needs to know what their roles and responsibilities are, and what everyone else does.
Broadly defined roles are likely to lead to tasks slipping through the cracks, or employees worrying about stepping on each other’s toes. By giving each employee clear direction about their responsibilities, they are more comfortable with taking full ownership of a task, and getting it done to the best of their ability.
Although they need to be well defined, they don’t need to be set in stone. You should be regularly checking to make sure that all your employees are best placed for their roles. If someone else has a greater aptitude for a task, don’t shy away from reassigning that task. Just make sure everyone knows about the change.
7. One Task at a Time
On the face of it, multitasking sounds like it will save a lot of time. Keeping your employees fresh by letting them switch between tasks as priority and their focus dictates. But, there is no evidence that it is actually more productive. In fact, it is the opposite.
98% of the population are bad at multitasking. Some people find that multitasking is too overwhelming, and actively reduces their ability to work effectively. Even those that are happy with multiple workloads waste time whenever they switch task. The brain takes time to refocus when they return to a different task.
Ending multitasking and adopting a ‘one task at a time’ mentality will allow your employees to get each task done faster by removing distractions. This will lead to faster, better work, and greater employee satisfaction, as no-one will ever feel they are crushed under their workload.
Save Money with Business Efficiency
As you can see, there are plenty of ways to improve your business efficiency.
No matter how effective you feel your processes are, every business can benefit from taking a step back and looking at their processes. Make sure you listen to your employees and customers, cut out as much duplicate work as possible, and most importantly, define everything.
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