Enhance Your Efficiency to Better Your Business

Efficiency can increase productivity and profitability while lowering costs; other benefits include more satisfied customers, happier employees and better growth. Clearly, improving efficiency is a worthwhile goal. No matter how well-run your business is, there is likely some room for improvement.

Get Rid of Deadweight

Find the aspects of your business that aren’t working and jettison them. You may have product lines that don’t sell or have a significantly lower profit margin than others. Perhaps certain services are outdated or expensive to offer. Such products and services are a drain on company resources; you are better off without them. Likewise, employees who underperform: you pay them to perform badly; you pay their colleagues to correct mistakes; and you pay managers to train, coach and monitor them. You may never realize what they have cost you in reduced productivity and lower morale.

Streamline Processes

Put systems and procedures in place so employees aren’t constantly trying to reinvent the wheel. Then listen to staff and implement changes as needed. Monitor trends in your industry and see what you might borrow from other fields. For example, brick-and-mortar stores can adopt a technique used by online retailers and serve customers faster by using a dropshipping supplier who will dropship items directly to customers. Use technology to simplify or speed up processes. Software and applications are constantly undergoing improvements that can save customers and employees several minutes per transaction; over weeks and months and even small incremental changes add up to significant savings. Automate tasks such as acknowledging and nurturing sales leads; once the automated processes are put into place the tasks can be done faster and more thoroughly.

Outsource Tasks

Sole proprietors and small business owners sometimes stall their own growth by trying to do it all; when you reach the point where there just aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish all the necessary work, it may be time to look for help. While large corporations can create their own inhouse payroll, information technology and legal departments, many firms find it best to outsource those functions. Other jobs that are often successfully outsourced include graphic design, general bookkeeping, website creation and marketing. Be sure you are not asking someone else to provide talent or services that are core to your business model, or the aspects that make your firm unique. Nor should you compromise proprietary information. For example, if you built your diner’s reputation on delicious homemade soups, don’t start buying canned soups or trust an outside vendor with your special minestrone recipe.

Limit Meetings

Meetings are notorious for sucking time and productivity out of your day; don’t fall into that trap. Schedule only one or two per day if possible. Make sure they only take the time actually needed to accomplish the goal: 10 to 15 minutes may be plenty of time to disperse information from one person to several others; working through a problem or building consensus will likely take an hour or longer. Some basic guidelines for successful meetings include setting an agenda, starting and ending on time and listening to feedback before making decisions. For maximum productivity, ensure that everyone leaves the meeting with new information, a task to complete and a deadline. If your company has multiple recurring meetings each week, chances are some of them can be shortened or eliminated. After each one, ask yourself what the meeting achieved and whether that objective could have been met in half the time—then adjust the schedule accordingly.

Improve Your Own Efficiency

Leading a department or company requires you to increase your own efficiency. Have a morning routine that includes waking up at the same time each workday, not hitting the snooze button and setting your intentions for what you’d like to accomplish that day. Follow an exercise routine to boost your brain function and reduce stress. Listen to your body and mind when it comes to quitting time too; tapping into energy reserves and creative bursts occasionally makes sense but constantly pushing your limits may end in burnout.