As a business owner, you know that every minute of everyday matters. Running a business can become difficult; you may be feeling overwhelmed and overworked, reducing your level of efficiency. Fortunately, efficiency can be increased in a number of ways, such as the following:
Reduce Paper Usage
Reducing the amount of paper you use is one of the fastest ways to streamline your business. Paperwork can pile up quickly and increase waiting times in a variety of areas. What you should do is trace the paper trail and ask key employees questions such as “Why is this paperwork important to performing your job?” and “What information did you add to or take away from the paperwork and why do you need it?”
After asking those questions, you may find that the information in the paperwork was vital, but making paper copies was not necessary. One way to address this is to digitize your information. This is an easy way to store, categorize, and organize your documents.
Additionally, paperwork affects filing and storage, which all take up valuable office space. File cabinets and storage boxes can even be an additional expense if it will require you to get offsite storage. Digitizing your information would help free up office space that’s being occupied by paper storage.
Outsource
Businesses, both big and small, can greatly benefit from outsourcing some processes, whether it’s their IT support or their marketing. When done right, outsourcing can help your business be more efficient and even reduce some costs. In fact, according to Deloitte’s 2016 Global Outsourcing Survey, 59% of those surveyed outsource some processes as a cost-cutting tool, while 57% say that it enables them to focus on their core business. Outsourcing improves business performance. When you outsource some tasks, you can focus more on the growth of your business without sacrificing quality.
Consolidate Software
If you have one piece of software for many different processes, then that is hardly efficient. You will greatly benefit from an integrated software platform. Some software such as ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) integrates various functions into one complete system that can help you manage your business and automate some back-office functions, effectively streamlining processes and information across your entire organization.
Reduce Unnecessary Travel Time
Face to face meetings are an important part of a business, but they are not always necessary, especially if you have customers spread across the country or even around the world. These days, it is enough to just talk face to face virtually, with video conferencing. You can just as easily collaborate via applications such as Skype for Business.
These four areas are just a starting point. There are other areas that you can consider for streamlining your business, such as remote working, recruitment, communications, and mobile access. You just have to evaluate the impact that streamlining your business will have on your bottom line, as well as your employees, business partners, suppliers, and customers. If you commit to it, you’ll be able to see results soon.
