How to Make Your Business More Efficient and Profitable

Unfortunately, the transition from a one-room team to a sizable office can create friction in the day-to-day grind. It's important to knock out these business inefficiencies BEFORE they become a major problem.

Otherwise, you're going to dig yourself into a more and more stressful pit of despair.

In today's post, we're going to help you avoid that reality by showing you some common small business inefficiencies. By the end of the post, you should have a secure grasp of how to build the streamlined company of your dreams.

Use Tools to Avoid Repetitive Processes

You know what they say, time is money. This is especially true of a small business where the income is directly dependent on how much work the employees are able to do. That being said, if there is a process that can be done partially or directly by a tool, utilize it. Do you write the same email to different clients or customers 20 times a day? Write a solid macro and copy and paste when necessary. Are you manually doing jobs that a computer program could do for you far quicker? Buy it and consider the cost an investment.

Tools cannot replace good employees but they can certainly save them some time and mental energy. No one likes doing long tedious tasks and by the time they’re done with them, they may have used all of their energy and be unenthused about their more important tasks, which will end up costing the business. Anything you can do to support your employees should be at the top of your list because happy employees do better work and are far more likely to be retained.

Streamline the HR Department

There are a lot of great programs that can assist with payroll, but the HR department needs to have a set of policies in place. This will set-up the office culture and efficiency while protecting the company against any possible liabilities. The HR department is one of the most integral parts of an office as it helps with a resolution as well as any concern that the employees have that might disrupt the work day and waste time and money. They also help in obtaining the best employees possible, which they cannot do if there is not a set of skills and qualities they are set to have been looking for.

Hire Based on Skill, Not Seniority

Experience can be a great indicator that a person is capable in their job. However, if someone is MORE capable, don’t turn them away because they are less experienced. It’s true that someone who doesn’t have as much experience may need to be trained and if this is their first job, they might not have any idea of even how an office operates. However, take this as an opportunity to train them in your office culture and not have to break them out of old habits. If they are good at what they do, while training them might be more expensive at the start as opposed to someone who can start immediately, if they can outperform them and make more money for your company, this is the only logical choice.

Instead of just formal interviews where you ask the candidates about experience and qualifications, try to put some more interactive elements that test their skills, as well as their ability to react to things that may go wrong in a business, as things often do. You want someone who knows how to do their job, but also one, who is able to adapt to change and react in a necessary way. When you find this person, consider this much more heavily than how long they’ve been doing their field.

Give Your Customer Team Some Backup

Your customers and clients are the most important part of a business. You can have the best operations with the most skilled people in the world, but if you don’t have anyone to buy your services, you aren’t going anywhere. Your customer care team is the backbone of your operations and they need all the support they can get.

Hold Fewer, Shorter Meetings

Meetings take everyone out of commission. You need everyone out there giving all of their best at all times. Of course, meetings are inevitable and a very big part of your business. However, make sure that your meetings are short, sweet and to the point and that you are getting everyone back to their post as soon as possible. Make out a plan for meetings with all of the topics laid out and get through as fast as you can without skimping on the information and leaving some time for comments and concerns from your team. This may take a couple meetings to come up, but once you become well aware of the rhythm and chemistry of your meetings, you’ll be able to crank them out quickly and get back to work!

Conclusion

These five tips won't heal every workplace inefficiency, but it's a place to start. If you implement these tips, you may find the team feels happier and more productive. After all, you set the tone for everyone else. By focusing on these attributes, the team will naturally start focusing on them as well.

Before you know it, you've transformed the entire business because of a few new strategies. That's the power of efficient systems.