There are so many elements that go into running a successful business and one of the most important is efficiency. When a business runs efficiently, it can progress. Efficient companies are often the most successful.
So, if you want your business to succeed – and succeed for the long-term – this article is for you. We will be sharing how you can improve efficiencies when starting a new business.
- Automate Your Business Processes
We live in a technological era. So much of what we used to do manually can now be carried out automatically by computer software and systems that make running a business more efficient than ever before.
Automation in business is one of the best ways you can make your company more efficient. Take, for example, the process of keeping accounts. In the old days, this would be done with pencil and paper. Everything would be handwritten into a big book and that book would be balanced at the end of each month.
Today, accounting is just one of the many business processes you could automate. With an online business account, you can manage your cash flow, send professional invoices, access your accounts 24/7, and make payments with ease. A process that was once very time consuming is now far more efficient.
Automating your business processes, from banking and payroll through to customer service and Human Resources helps increase business efficiency, reduce human error, and free up time for more important tasks.
- Reduce Unnecessary Interruptions
Interruptions in the workplace are a common occurrence. What many business owners do not realise is that many of these interruptions are unnecessary and can be avoided. Reducing interruptions in the workplace is one of the most significant ways you can increase productivity and efficiency.
While you can’t avoid all interruptions or stop your employees from catching up over a coffee in the kitchen, you can reduce the amount of time teams spend away from their desks. This can be achieved by removing unnecessary meetings from the diary.
Meetings are one of the biggest time wasters in larger companies and often last far longer than they need to. Reducing the number of meetings or simply culling the time to ten minutes can help reduce interruptions and help employees focus on their work. Taking away the disruption and stress of regular meetings also has the added benefit of boosting team satisfaction, creating a happier workforce.
- Encourage In-person Communication
More often than not, communication in the office is carried out via email or chat message because it’s more convenient. However, while communicating in this way can be helpful, it’s often less efficient than an in-person conversation.
Encouraging more in-person communication will reduce the back-and-forth of email and the miscommunication that often occurs as a result. Communicating in person helps speed up the process of problem-solving, getting the answer to a question, or clarifying something you were uncertain about.
Having an in-person conversation is often more efficient than a lengthy email thread, as Indeed clarifies, “If you send a question to a colleague over email, you have to wait for them to respond, and the conversation can take longer if you have follow-up questions. However, with face-to-face communication, you can deliver your messages and receive a response almost immediately.”
- Utilise Task Management Tools
Running a business is hard work. You hold a lot of responsibility and it’s easy to make mistakes when you’re starting out. It’s not uncommon for new business owners to try and manage all the work on their own – even when it’s not their speciality. This can lead to burnout, dissatisfaction, and stalled business progress.
If you want your business to succeed and you want your processes to be efficient so you’re not working 70 hour weeks, you should utilise task management tools. There are some incredible tools out there that can help you delegate work to your team, manage and track projects with ease, and stay on task.
Tools like Trello and Basecamp help outline the work that needs to be done, delegate tasks to specific teams or individuals, and track the progress on behalf of the client. With task management tools such as these, you can increase productivity, clearly communicate what needs to be done, and create a more efficient working process.
- Review Your Existing Processes
Business efficiency isn’t something you work on once and then forget about. If you want your business to be more efficient, you need to review your existing processes on a regular basis. Regular reviews are one of the best ways to boost your company’s forward momentum.
We recommend you carry out a review of your business processes once every three months or so. You can gather feedback from your staff, review client satisfaction levels, and hold a mirror up to your existing processes so you really understand what’s working well and what isn’t.
Once you have highlighted areas for improvement, you can make a plan and get proactive. When something doesn’t work properly, you either work hard to fix it or you get rid of it completely. And it’s the same with your business processes. If something doesn’t work, you could try making some changes but you might just need to throw it out. Taking the time to review your existing processes will help drive positive change for your business.
- Encourage Single-tasking
For most of your life, you’ve probably been told how time-efficient it is to multi-task. However, when it comes to running a business, this isn’t always the case. Research shows that multitasking is something that, as humans, we aren’t really made to do.
In fact, according to Cynthia Kubu, “we’re really wired to be monotaskers, meaning that our brains can only focus on one task at a time. When we think we’re multitasking, most often we aren’t really doing two things at once, but instead, we’re doing individual actions in rapid succession, or task-switching.”
Therefore, if you want to boost productivity and efficiency within your company, it’s time to encourage the single task mindset. Single-tasking involves focusing solely on one task at a time until said task is completed, rather than trying to do everything at once. While this might sound like a slower way of doing things, it’s actually extremely effective and ensures greater accuracy, improved productivity, and increased concentration.
Final Words
If you want your business to succeed, it is important to strive for efficiency. We hope the tips in this article will help you streamline your business processes, support your staff more effectively, and boost the forward momentum of your business.
