Business owners know the importance of staying productive. The challenge is keeping the level of productivity high and making your business more efficient. This results in a higher level of results and a higher return on your investment (ROI).
You would think that, with all of the technology at our disposal today, all businesses would be efficient. But technology is not as important as the human factor. People still have to make decisions that determine how productive a company will be. There are hiring decisions, inventory purchases, and those unexpected things that happen to cause you to have to change your plans.
But how do you figure out the magic formula as to how to improve your level of efficiency and maintain a consistent degree of productivity over the long term? With so many things to do and remember each day, how can you keep up the pace?
It really comes down to a few key principles that have always worked for business owners no matter how technologically-savvy the world gets.
Tip #1: Improve Communications Skills
No matter how much technology you use, you still need to improve your communications skills if you are going to increase your efficiency. Make a habit of talking to your sales staff, B2B partners, and collaborators regularly. If you keep in touch and keep your staff engaged in your business goals.
Tip #2: Delegate and Outsource
One of the most common mistakes business owners make is trying to do it all. As good as you are, there’s only one of you. Delegate smaller jobs to independent contractors or in-house staff to save the time and effort you are using for something more important. You don’t need to try to do it all yourself. As long as your contractors and employees understand what you want and you train them well, you can delegate.
Tip #3: Focus on training
Many of the problems that businesses experience could be minimized by better training. There are a host of different ways to train employees, from job shadowing, coaching, and mentoring, to role-play or online learning, and more. Cloud Assess has a useful blog that goes into more detail about this. If you train your workers well and put some time and investment into recruiting the best at the front end, you’ll have less turnaround and keep your business more efficient year-round. Identifying any Knowledge Gaps and paying extra attention to training revolving around this will be incredibly beneficial to your business and your team.
Tip #4: Keep Clearly-Defined Goals
Have regular staff meetings to discuss your company goals as you see them. Some of the greatest CEOs had a great sense of leadership. Think of someone like Steve Jobs who stood on the stage many times at the Apple company’s convention center and made everything the company was about to do sound like a complete revolution. Creating excitement for your brand and keeping your goals on the radar of all employees is important if you want to reach your objectives. Base staff evaluations on how well they do their part to contribute to the company goals.
Tip #5: Offer incentives for superior work
Great companies are run with the philosophy of “performance-based pay.” They pay their workers more when they excel and less when they do not. If you don’t use this policy, then use bonus incentives instead or an occasional surprise reward for the best players. The best companies such as Google, immerse working staff in a culture of positivity. They give them free snacks, time to nap, and even childcare so that they will continue wanting to work and produce for the company. Google was one rated the #1 place to work because of the way they adopted the idea of “work hard; play hard.” They even have soccer games and sports contests on the campus. When you create an environment that is fun for workers, your efficiency will naturally increase, and you will attract the best people.
Tip #6: Communicate Caring to Employees
Zappo is a company that communicates caring to their employees, and it seems to work. They also provide a list of the company’s core values for everyone to see so that everyone understands what is important, beyond the more obvious shoe sales. Going beyond the core product to embrace the core values is a great goal that will help push your company forward into a higher goal of becoming great and more efficient.
Tip #7: On Time and Under Budget
Donald Trump, the current President of the United States and former business owner, achieved notable success in the business world. His companies thrived under his ambitious drive to excel. A phrase he frequently employs is ‘On Time and Under Budget.’ By consistently aiming to accomplish tasks within the allocated budget, you ensure the availability of reserve funds for growth opportunities. A crucial complement to this approach is familiarity with accounting terminology and principles pertinent to your business operations. Concepts like cash flow management, profit margins, and cost allocation offer valuable insights into maintaining financial discipline and achieving objectives of timely and cost-effective task completion. Furthermore, adhering to schedules and completing tasks promptly prevents falling behind on timelines, ensuring smooth business operations.
Tip #8: Match Tasks to Skills
Assign the jobs to employees and contract workers according to where they shine. Find out what the talents are with your employees and let them do what they do best. If someone is great with people, put them with customer service. If they are great persuaders, they belong in sales. Creative people should be the ones leading your ad campaigns. Well, you get the idea.
Tip #9: Hire a great accountant
Keeping your books in order, making sure you’re following tax laws, and paying bills on time is critical to keeping your business solvent and in the “black.” Some people choose to keep their books themselves, but this can be difficult with so many other things to remember every day. To keep your business moving forward, you need to hire a full-time accountant to handle your finances.
If you are looking for an accountant you can trust in Australia, visit with us at Accounting Firm TW Gold Coast. We understand how much you have to remember and we’ll make sure your accounting is done on time and under schedule!
