Your business is functioning well enough, but you’re aware that there’s a way to improve. Sometimes, projects get stuck for just a few days or meetings that were productive and efficient have now become a drag for long periods of time. It’s like having wheels spinning in the mud and it’s difficult to regain that grip.
What are the best ways to address these types of problems? by focusing on improving the efficiency of your company. I surveyed members of the Young Entrepreneur Council for their suggestions on how to keep their businesses running smoothly that in turn helps them to be more productive.
1. Automate any task you are able to automate.
It could be as simple as sending pay stubs to employees, or sending invoices to vendors, make it as automated as you can. “Business automation is not just a luxury; it is a necessity in today’s competitive environment,” says Sathvik Tantry, founder of FormSwift. “Automating monotonous tasks saves your employees time and allows them to do more productive tasks that require critical thinking or a human touch.”
Sathvik states that, while it may be more expensive to automatize processes at the beginning but in the end, it will save money, as well as improve business efficiency.
2. Engage your employees in chatting in person
If sending a short text message or email to a colleague may seem like an efficient method of getting an answer, in reality, it may result in the opposite and the subsequent exchange may take longer than a brief face-to-face. “Skype, Google Chat, and other online communication tools are always helpful when trying to shoot over a quick message to your colleagues,” advises Miles Jennings of Recruiter.
“However, face-to-face interaction really speeds up the process of solving a problem, answering a question, or getting something important clarified.”
What can you do to ensure your employees have the right balance to achieve maximum effectiveness? “Encouraging employees to openly talk with each other when they need to will create a steady flow of information,” says Miles.
Although email and chat are both useful in the workplace, if you ensure that your employees feel comfortable communicating in person, you’ll be able to ensure that your business is running smoothly and an issue that could have been addressed within a 5-minute chat will not end up as an email thread that’s 20 messages long.
3. Limit interruptions
The staff meeting starts at 9am. departmental meetings in the morning, lunchtime at noon. If your employees are having difficulty completing their work this could be a result of frequent interruptions. “We try to schedule multiple meetings on the same day rather than scattering them throughout the week, and we block out time on our calendars for actively working,” claims Alexander Moore of Boomerang. Blocking portions of time to work uninterrupted could aid your employees in focusing better and performing more efficiently.
But, meetings aren’t always the only culprits. Constant emails and chat message pop-ups, as well as notifications from your company’s project management software, could all be distracting and interfere with the flow of your work. “In general, it takes about a minute to resume working effectively after an interruption,” Alexander says. Alexander. “For that reason, we use tools like Inbox Pause to reduce email notifications.” There are a variety of applications and tools to make sure that you are not distracted that can aid you in working more effectively.
4. Ten minutes a day, every day. business meeting
Meetings are usually thought of as essential, they could get to the point that they take up a lot of time in the day-to-day work routine. David Ciccarelli of Voices.com suggests smaller meetings that are more efficient, and that can cover the basics in just 10 minutes.
“Each day, we gather as a company for a 10-minute meeting called the Daily Huddle,” the CEO states. “The meeting serves as a firehose of information that keeps everyone in the loop, including a roundup of our key performance indicators, the celebration of accomplishments, and the identification of opportunities to improve.”
It’s not just an effective method to keep everyone informed of any changes within the organization, but making meetings brief and concise helps to streamline the meeting schedule, which reduces time spent. “This process keeps us running efficiently, as unnecessary meetings are eliminated,” David says. David.
5. “Single-task” to get more accomplished
We all believe that we’re extremely multitaskers. At the moment, I am able to open 11 tabs on my laptop — and it’s not a lot in comparison to other times. It’s believed that although people may multitask, they’re probably not producing more work. That’s why the concept that of “single-tasking” (or focusing on one thing only until it’s completed) is in the picture.
“Our entire company is currently working on upping our ‘single-tasking’ game and not moving on to the next project until the current one is complete,” says Laura Roeder of Meet Edgar.
She continues to describe: “‘Single-tasking’ allows you to finish more tasks faster by ensuring that projects don’t rot on the vine after they’re nearly done. It’s easy to feel productive when there are 10 projects on the go however nothing is actually getting out there.”
Concentrating only on “single-tasking” until a project is finished helps you accomplish, instead of working on multiple projects so that there is never a single project that gets completed.
6. Encourage “Got a minute?” meetings
“One of the most common and inefficient uses of time and energy are frequent ‘got a minute?’ meetings,” claims Kristopher Jones of LSEO. “These meetings are the ones that are unscheduled and typically distract from productivity.”
What are the reasons these meetings are bad for efficiency in the office? “The reality is that almost nothing important can be accomplished in one minute, which means one minute turns into 15 minutes or longer and ends up being a terribly inefficient management of time,” Kristopher says. Kristopher.
Instead, you should schedule brief meetings that are scheduled with specific time duration, and stay to the subject you want to talk about. An email that asks, “Can we meet for 10 minutes at 3pm to discuss the completion of project X?” achieves the goal of keeping meetings short and scheduled. It also allows for face-to-face meetings.
7. Stay with the standard procedure
If you are working on an existing project going on and you want to speed things up could lead to cutting corners. “Stick with the process that is established,” advises Angela Harless of AcrobatAnt. “If we attempt to reduce costs to accelerate the process, something is not done, and it has to be fixed later, and will cost time as well as money. Things will go much more easily if we adhere to the method we began with.”
Does this mean that you shouldn’t change things? No, it’s not. It would make the majority of our previous ideas worthless! However, if you’re making changes to the process, do it in a deliberate manner, not just at a whim or simply because you’re running behind. “Processes can be changed, but they should be changed intentionally and with communication to the full team after the potential change has been approved,” Angela says. Angela.
8. Make use of a task-management software
“Email isn’t an ideal method of communication or collaboration on teams,” says Dave Nevogt of Hubstaff. “We use task management software like Trello so that our communication and work progress is all in one place.”
A task management application that is specifically designed for teams will assist teams to work together more effectively, track progress, and remain on track. “It saves everyone the time of having to go back and forth on emails, and it also lets us track progress more efficiently,” David adds. David. At Palo Alto Software, we are in agreement. We’re big supporters of Trello as well.
9. Encourage a culture of open communication
Similar to the second tip, you should make sure your employees communicate in a way that is open. But, it goes far beyond having a conversation in person to resolve issues Do your employees feel comfortable sharing their thoughts or offering feedback about how your business is managed?
“The main reason for our explosive growth is due to the fact that we have a culture of open communication,” says Raymond Kishk of Interstate Air Conditioning & Heating. “The best way to improve business efficiency is to encourage feedback, ideas, and communication between departments.”
You aren’t able to cover all the ground all at once, nor can you be able to observe all of the things. Your employees might recognize the areas of your business that could be improved efficiently, or an operation that could be simplified. You should ensure that they feel at ease voicing their opinions and giving feedback, particularly in the context of increasing efficiency. “By encouraging coworkers to be part of the efficiency process, it will result in a more productive and efficient team,” Raymond says. Raymond.
10. Be aware of when to stop
While it is important to remove the kinks as much as you can to make your business operate faster, it has to decide what the boundaries are. It’s not always possible to make every process automated, just as not every meeting will be completed at the agreed time.
“Efficiency is important–no question,” says Neill Feather of SiteLock, LLC. “But for startups and entrepreneurs, focusing too much on efficiency can distract from what is really important for our businesses: growth.”
Neill has had this experience with his own company: “At SiteLock, we concentrate on efficiency in the key areas such as the utilization of hardware, service-level contracts, and service-level agreements. However, we constantly remember that our main objective is to grow. This includes the number of customers served products, the services we provide, and the strength of our brand.”
It is important to aim for efficiency however, don’t let the objective of running a more efficient company overshadow other objectives. By experimenting and trial-and-error and by obtaining feedback from staff members throughout this process You’ll be able to determine what’s working and what’s not and help improve your business’s effectiveness while you continue to expand and improve your company.
