5 Essential Tips to Make Your Small Business More Efficient

There’s no doubt that in such a competitive world, where everybody is fighting for their position on the market, businesses can’t risk being inefficient.

Even if everything seems to be running smoothly – a couple of unproductive meetings or extending a project deadline for a couple of more days might be a warning sign that your business is not that well-tuned.

To avoid inefficiency losses, which are estimated at around 20-30% of annual revenue, here are five essential tips on streamlining your business processes and keeping your wheels from being stuck in the mud.

1.Identify the Problem

It’s not rare that day-to-day activities and high workload can drain you and leave you feeling uninspired. You might feel stuck and think that your business is not delivering the results you desire despite your efforts.

In times like these, it’s essential to try to get to the bottom of things and determine the underlying problem that prevents your business from functioning at its fullest capacity.

Sometimes the cause of the problem is not that easy to spot – there may be some limiting beliefs or hidden barriers that are sabotaging your success and need a fresh, objective approach. Performance coaching can offer a new perspective on things and help you identify what’s holding you, your team, and your business back so that you can improve your efficiency and take your business up a notch.

2. Automate Everything You Can

Even though it may seem pricier to automate your processes initially, it will pay off soon enough, both in terms of money and your employees’ time, leaving them more time to deal with more complex and valuable tasks.

Consider all the menial processes in your company, and look for the best ways to automate them by implementing digital solutions.

From automating file transfers, report generation and distribution, order entry, claims processing, all the way to email marketing automation, there are numerous ways to streamline time-consuming tasks. At the same time, you can be sure everything will be managed adequately, thus increasing your business productivity.

So, put digital integration high on your priority list – you can count that the reports will be generated quickly, problems spotted earlier, and that the collaboration between your employees and your customers will improve.

3. Outsource Tasks You’re Not Skilled At

When they start their business, most small entrepreneurs decide to be self-sufficient and handle all they can themselves. While trying to save their funds for what they consider the most necessary, more often than not, small business owners try to manage highly specialized tasks themselves, even when their skills are insufficient.

Business owners spend up to 40% of their working hours dealing with tasks outside their area of expertise. Not only do these tasks not generate any profit, but they also leave them with significantly less energy and time for the activities that are stimulating the growth of their business.

Consider all the tasks you can outsource, such as IT services, marketing, customer service, and sales, and ensure that they will be managed timely and adequately.

Unless you’re a financial expert yourself or have one on your team, outsource finance and accounting to professionals. Budgeting, forecasting cash flow, tax compliance, preparing financial statements, and filing for a tax return can be quite burdensome. Mishandling any of these tasks can also have severe consequences for the future of your business.

4. Keep Your Employees Informed

If you want your business to run smoothly, every employee needs to play their role and contribute. When your employees are not engaged at work, their productivity decreases, and so does your bottom line.

Try to always keep the communication channels with your employees open. They need to be able to talk freely about the challenges they’re facing and discuss their ideas so that they are motivated to achieve predefined business goals.

You also need to continually provide them with all relevant information as that is of critical importance when it comes to making well-informed business decisions.

One of the main benefits of recent technology advancement is the potential to successfully facilitate communication between many people. All-important messages and information can be passed around and accessed, allowing your employees to work as a team, no matter where they are situated, thus making them more efficient and effective.

5. Minimize Unproductive Time Loss

When it comes to some of your employees, the time they spend commuting to and from the workplace is entirely wasted.

If anything, the Covid-19 crisis taught us that, with the right tools, business operations could continue as usual, even when employees are not working from the office.

Some roles can be performed effectively from the comfort of one’s home or any other place your employee finds appropriate.

To boost your employee engagement and efficiency, while also lowering your costs, you can consider offering a more flexible working arrangement. This way you’ll reduce their unproductive time and allow them to use their prime time.

By using the tips above, you’ll be able to modernize and streamline your business processes and boost your business efficiency.

Michael has been working in marketing for almost a decade and has worked with a huge range of clients, which has made him knowledgeable on many different subjects. He has recently rediscovered a passion for writing and hopes to make it a daily habit. You can read more of Michael’s work at Qeedle.