In terms of managing our businesses, we’re all looking for ways to make them a bit more efficient and easier to handle. There are all of those daily processes, of course, regular dips and rises in demand as well as a small team of professionals to oversee on a daily basis.
It can be a bit tough to make everything go around while still managing to spot the areas where there’s room for improvement, in other words, and we all need a bit of help along the way. Otherwise, you run the risk of not making the most out of your business and even leaving it in the hands of coincidences and pure luck.
While we all need a bit of this in order to succeed, you certainly need a healthy dose of insight and understanding as well.
If you’re a business owner looking for ways to improve your company and find ways to make it even more efficient, you’ve definitely come to the right place. Here is a handful of ways to make it happen so that you can lean back for a moment and just watch it prosper.
First: Make your business more consistent
A streamlined business if an efficient business. This is so much easier to achieve this when you’re all working towards a common vision – yet, you can make sure that everyone is working on the same software as well, making use of the same templates, and integrate every fragment of it onto the same system.
This will not only boost productivity and save you time, but it builds credibility for your business as well since no document or communication can happen without the system tracking it. Have a look around the web for some great ideas in terms of the latest software for businesses before you make up your mind.
Another point to this is, of course, the software that goes with your warehousing needs. Inefficient warehousing processes can seriously slow your business down and even cause a few frustrations among your customers.
Take care of this once and for all and you won’t have to deal with the headaches of warehousing chaos.
Consistency includes the way your business communicates, by the way, and how effective it’s able to deal with minor and major hiccups along the way. Make sure that you have a solid tone-of-voice installed so that it’s easily recognizable – and so that your customers get an impression of interacting with a business that is both consistent and trustworthy as well.
Focus on your common business vision
Another point to making your business as consistent as possible in order to boost its productivity is to create and communicate a common vision. This is what drives your business forward and unites your team as you’re busy with your work in the office. If you don’t make it strong enough or communicate it efficiently, however, you’re missing out on some vital bonds within your company.
A good relationship with your employees and trust, in general, needs to be in place before a vision like this will have any effect. You’re all working together in order to make the business better; if they don’t know exactly how much you count on them and how important they are, they won’t really bother listening to any talk about company goals or visions.
Start this work by, first of all, improving your company culture. You’d want to build the kind of place that fosters a great work morale, a drive to become better, and friendships between the employees. Your company culture will determine whether or not you’re in charge of an office that features a perfect mix of being relaxed enough to stay playful and creative while still being focused enough to achieve productivity.
It’s a fine balancing act, of course, but it’s one that you need to master if you want to build the kind of business you’ve been working towards. Plus, it’s going to make your office an even better place to work for your employees which again, of course, makes it more likely that they’ll stay with your company instead of jumping ships and joining one of your competitors.
After this, you need to make sure that the team is included in everything that happens with the business, that they are up to date on how well you’re doing, and that they have a decent understanding of what it takes to become even better. Transparency and honesty are the keywords here and you’d want your team to feel like they’re a part of a family rather than just working for some illusive boss.
Now you can communicate this vision about being the first with the latest products and services within your field, being the best at customer service, and fostering excellent relationships with the customers. Make it strong, snappy, and easy to understand – that way, it will always be in the back of your team’s mind.
You can have a look at this article if you need some more tips in terms of creating a vision that unities your employees, by the way, and ensure that they get to work with even more gusto.
Next: Make use of productivity apps
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last couple of years, you know how useful some apps are for small businesses. It’s a jungle out there, though, and it’s easy to get lost by spending too much time and money on finding one that’s perfect for your needs.
A few of them are more popular, and probably also better, than others and therefore deserve mention. Basecamp is an excellent project management tool, amongst others, that can streamline most of your tasks and offer a variety of customer service options.
If you want to use technology to make your business the very best it can be, it’s vital that you spend time on finding the best one – for you. Remember that what works well for some, might not work as well for you, and the time you spend on understanding the new system determines how well you’ll be able to use it.
Read through this article too, by the way, for even more excellent apps that can help your office to collaborate even better, keep track of its projects, and stay on top of all the great technological advances, in general. That way, you’ll know for sure that your business isn’t missing out on a single thing in terms of both productivity and technology.
Track your own time as well
Another point to this is, of course, to make use of productivity apps to ensure that your employees are able to keep track of their own work as well. You can easily let a tech tool do the talking, and implement it to accurately track the amount of time your office spend on each task.
Obviously, it’s not to slam the report at their desk but rather to understand where you will be able to save time – and in which areas you’re already quite effective. It might give you a bit more insight into your business as well, by the way, as you’ll be able to pinpoint where you’re doing well which again gives you a better chance of understanding its processes.
If you’re thinking that you already know your business well enough, you might want to think again, however; while a lot of people feel quite confident in telling how much time they spend on each task, research has shown that only about 17% are able to estimate the amount of time they spend accurately.
Maybe you fall into this percentage – but the figures show that, most likely, you’re one of us and could use a bit of help to understand yourself and your business.
When you know exactly where your office is doing great and where it’s kind of lacking, it’s going to be a lot easier for you to make those important improvements. It’s the kind of stuff that can speed up your business processes slightly and make everything a lot easier to keep track of and manage, in general.
Finally: Clean up your office space
It may seem trivial compared to making sure that your warehousing processes are in order, but the state of your office can also determine how productive your employees are. A clean and tidy space will, after all, make their minds a bit tidier as well – which, again, makes less room for distractions.
Get rid of old electronics, for example, make an honest attempt at sorting out all those wires, and toss out everything you’re not actually using. By the end of it, you should be left with nothing more than the bare necessities and life will feel so much tidier again.
It’s the kind of stuff that makes it a bit nicer to come into the office in the morning, and it will be a lot easier to make your business’ processes as efficient as possible too.