Five Ways to Make A Business More Efficient

A great entrepreneur will always be on the lookout for ways to improve their business. Efficiency is a goal everyone wants to achieve when it comes to business because it can translate into less work and more profits. With this in mind, Lucrum has compiled the following five ways an organization’s team can become more efficient in business.

Get software-savvy.

Evaluate the software apps the business uses day in and day out. How well does the staff really know them? Do they use them to just get by or are they all whizzes at them with deep knowledge? If the software is just being used to get by, the team may need a course in that software to make better use of their time. The more someone understands something, the more proficient they can become.

One Lucrum client specializes in helping professional service firms with online marketing and they make extensive use of Web apps, third-party software and other tech-savvy solutions. Quite honestly, it was a bit daunting for Lucrum’s staff members at first, but they got on board, and this experience has Lucrum starting to think differently about how it could benefit from some of these solutions.

Reward new suggestions.

Staff members are typically the first to know where there are bottlenecks and hiccups in an organization’s processes. Encourage them to speak up when they find something that could be improved. Listen to their ideas and reward the good ones. Implementing ideas from the business’s “front line” will increase overall efficiency.  One idea Lucrum hears often and likes is splitting any savings that come from a staff member’s idea for one year.

Watch the time.

How is the bulk of an employee’s day spent? Working on new strategic projects, fighting fires or a little of both? An honest evaluation of how the team spends their time can yield many ideas about what’s going right and what needs work in the business.

Allocate at least an hour a day to work “on” multiple business instead of in it. That time is the only way to take the business to the next level. CEOs should focus on more external than internal items, be more proactive than reactive, and think more strategically rather than operationally.

Avoid “bright shiny object syndrome.”

Does the team easily become distracted by an email (that they didn’t realize waylaid them into an hour of unproductivity), a Web link or a conversation? It’s crazy-easy to get sidetracked right in the middle of a task these days. It’s also easy to purchase something that looks great without doing the homework.

One way to avoid unnecessary purchases is to get three bids from potential vendors on all major purchases for the business. This has two benefits: 1) it slows down the impulse to make a purchase that might not be essential and 2) it ensures that if the business is making an investment; it’s the best product for the best price.

Also, be sure to read the fine print on any contract, agreement or purchase document. Make it a procedure to avoid being lured into fancy marketing and items the business may not ever use once the fine print is read. Or worse, remember the old saying: “The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.”

One person’s trash is another’s treasure.

Look around the office. See things that haven’t been used in a while, such as laptops that have been replaced, office supplies that were accidentally double-ordered or extra desks and chairs that are now empty? All of these items can be recycled to not only free up space, but also to generate additional income for the business.

Which idea works best for your organization? Reach out to the Lucrum team at 704.927.0462 for assistance with implementing any of the above strategies to help improve your business’s efficiency.