How to Become More Efficient in Business

Efficiency is key if you want to become more successful in your life. You don’t want to keep things for the last moment and you want to be on top of things on an everyday basis. One of the biggest factors when it comes to becoming more successful is how efficient you are with your time. Do you waste a lot of time on needless things? Or do you face challenges head on and ensure that everything is given under a timeline.

Some of the greatest entrepreneurs like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, are extremely efficient with their time. They are worth billions of dollars but still work 80-100-hour weeks, just so that they are completely efficient with their time. They don’t want to miss out on a new opportunity or face the consequences of missing a key outlook.

The real answer here is that it's all about getting more done in less time. If you’re a competitive person, by nature, then it's all about doing more than the other person. If you can outwork your competitors, then you can have a better shot at being successful. The only way to do that is to become more efficient with your time. Through key processes like outsourcing, mentorship and value-added resources, you can become increasingly efficient with your time.

Here are the four key principles when it comes to being more efficient –

#1 Understanding Human Limits

You might be tempted to think that you can do everything in the limited time that you are given. This is a fallacy, and you’ll quickly get burned out trying to do many things at one time. While it’s important to achieve productivity in every action, its not possible to become efficient this way. You’ll be juggling hundreds of tasks at the same time and patching holes and putting out fires all over.

You can’t’ reach all your goals if you’re not in touch with your limitations, and you will realize sooner or later than you need to understand where you’re lacking. When you are realistic about what you can accomplish, you start to seek outside help. In this fashion you can stop trying to be “good at everything” and focus on the one skill that you are excellent at.

There is a never-ending stream of work that will be constantly at your footsteps, but you need to understand where to draw the line and where to seek outside help. When Jeff Bezos was growing his company, he hired some of the best minds to help him refine the core product offering. This helped immensely as the company went from 0 to a million-dollar valuation during the mid-90s. Now he’s worth Billions and entering new areas of exploration.

#2 Partnerships and Networking

One of the most important factors when it comes to becoming more efficient is the analysis of your network group. If you can network with the right type of people, in the right environment, you can become increasingly efficient with your time in a short burst. Rather than meeting people individually and scoping out work, you can enter seminars and events to meet with interesting people.

You need to be open to new opportunities here, as the more partnerships you build, the faster your business will grow over time. You can even create new scope of work outlines for people that you meet in these meetings, so that you can skip ahead and go into stage 2 of pitching rather than start fresh with each person.

#3 Virtual Assistant

There are times when you can’t do everything on your own and technology can only go so far. This is where it's important to hire a good quality virtual assistant. VAs are extremely helpful, in that they acquire all the knowledge needed to run the customer service or meeting-setup side of things, and they run errands or do the things that stop you from going to the next level. Being a manager and an entrepreneur requires outside help, which is made possible through a good Virtual Assistant.

The VA should be made aware of what your specific requirements are and then execute as per requirements. The VA should be based locally, or internationally if you’re a traveller yourself. When it comes to quality and functioning, you should lay out all the ground rules and modes of interaction before starting out. You can plan the whole thing out with their support and guidance and create boundaries for reporting and analysis. Hire more than 1 or 2, so that you can get a better sense of what’s happening for your everyday tasks.

#4 Time Management

Probably the most important skill to have is time management. This is when you can map out exactly what you’re going to do in a short period of time, usually within a few hours, and can assign certain tasks and goals to them. E.g. it could be making 100 cold calls by Tuesday 11 am. When you put a measurable device to your time management strategy, you can truly be efficient.

Many apps are available on the app store, that allow you to manage your time effectively. These apps may be a waste of time, as the best judge for how your time is spent, is you. You may start to use the app as a crutch, or worse – start procrastinating by looking at the app itself. When you are aware of how much time you’re spending on a day to day basis, you can get a better idea where you can optimize further and where you can draw hard stops. Meetings, events, work schedule and projects become that much more optimized when you know that your time is precious.

Conclusion

You can decide what you want to do with your efficiency levels and making yourself more efficient is extremely important when it comes to becoming a better version of yourself. When you can manage time, delegate tasks and create value for your customers in the best way possible, you can become more efficient in your life.