Often times, small businesses don’t make any special efforts to improve efficiency as a way of adding strength to their business and increasing their revenue and profitability. Most owners focus too much on working in their business rather than on their business. However some business owners do make a conscious effort to improve efficiency to increase overall performance and expand their reach. Here are 5 tips to run your small business optimally:
#1 Provide Consistent and Secure Information Access
Small businesses have a distinct advantage over their more muscled competitors. The former are more flexible and nimble than larger corporations. However, as a small business owner you need to ensure that your employees are provided the right tools to quickly respond to customer requests and enquiries, troubleshoot operational glitches and make changes to any supplier-scheduled deliveries as required. If your employees don’t have information at their fingertips that can easily take away the advantage of being a smaller set up.
It’s important to have a secure on-site shared file system/intranet system. Alternatively, you can store information on Cloud or off-site as well. This will ensure consistent access to information, to employees across your organisation, which improves efficiency.
#2 Improve Your Hiring Process
When you are searching, recruiting & hiring people you need to have a more streamlined process for all these things. It’s important to determine which positions you have to fill in and when; this planning should ideally take place at least a few weeks/months in advance. This task should be planned well as that helps you schedule all related activities when there is some time available. The job posting should include information such as:
- Necessary qualification and experience etc.
- What the profile entails
- Information about your company culture
- Other action items apart from sending resumes
This will help attract candidates that are a better. You should also have clear steps that outline the hiring process, who will conduct interviews and more. This will improve the efficiency of the hiring process.
#3 Better Communication with Prospects and Existing Customers
Use a good sales management & CRM (customer relationship management) software; this will help you in tracking the complete sales funnel. When you are able to keep track of all the interactions, it helps you save a significant amount of time because you are able to clearly see where the customers are within the sales process and the steps that you & your team have to take. Not only do these tools improve efficiency, they significantly add to customer satisfaction as well.
#4 Incorporate Training Sessions For Employees
As your business expands and staff members get promoted and move into new roles and handle new responsibilities, your employees will need some upgrade training. This could be product or regulatory related training that will also help your employees learn new skills, perform their jobs better and improve business efficiency.
#5 Automate Systems Where Possible
In every business, there are certain functions that are manual and repetitive. It’s always a good idea to see where you can embrace automation as this will free up time for your employees. They would be able to engage in more business-supporting, productive activities.
These pointers will help you increase your company’s operational efficiency. For specialised services, training and resources for SME’s please visit the Max My Profit website. The education and guidance we provide help business owners understand the major hurdles they can face, and how to overcome them. For more information about our services, feel free to call us at this number – 02 88085500, or connect with us via this online form.
About the Author
Ben Fewtrell is a sought-after Business Coach, Keynote Speaker and trainer who has featured in Virgin’s Inflight Magazine and Entertainment Portal, SKY Business and “Secrets of Top Business Builders Exposed”. He is also the host of the popular Business Brain Food Podcast where he interviews leading experts on anything and everything business.
