The expression ‘time is money’ is never truer than during the working week when time is pressed and the need to make the most of it is always paramount. On the money side it’s vital to ‘keep score’ and ensure you’re on track to achieve financial objectives – improving efficiency will consume less of the former and hopefully create more of the latter.
Some ideas to consider in boosting business time and money efficiency:
Time Efficiency
To help make the most of business time:
Automate
Wherever you can automate you should consider doing so; tech advances mean you can automate many repetitive admin functions. For example, in a retail type environment – or if you transact sales in the field – consider streamlining your face to face transactions with modern POS (Point of Sale) systems.
Automation saves time, and probably money, in many cases, so see if you can take advantage.
Manage Meetings
These are necessary but can be a real time sink, meetings need careful handling so encourage staff to think before they call one.
“Got a minute?” – these type of meetings are best avoided as, being an impromptu gathering, will almost certainly take more time than they should and people aren’t prepared for them. Far better, for example, to encourage staff to plan meetings as in “can we meet at 3.00pm for 15 minutes to discuss XYZ?”.
Some businesses try to organize meetings so they’re grouped together, as opposed to being scattered throughout the week.
Verbal and Email Communication
While meetings can take up valuable time if mismanaged, a short face to face chat could be preferable to an email exchange that meanders on too long. Often a quick 10 to 15 minute focused discussion can achieve the same or more than an email thread that takes place over a day or so.
The Multi-tasking Myth
Multi-tasking has become a bit of a badge of honor and some business people measure their effectiveness in how many projects and activities they’ve got on the go at any one time.
In reality, most of us are more effective at working on one item at a time and seeing it through rather than juggling several things at once. A culture of ‘single tasking’ might be more efficient.
Interruptions
Communication technology has been a boon for business but can also be a terrible time thief if not managed carefully. Email alerts, notifications from scheduling software, mobiles ringing and chat requests can make it hard to focus and apply oneself to the task in hand.
Simple measures such as closing the email client for certain periods can help minimize interruptions as can allocating specific time periods for dealing with emails, texts and so forth.
Money Efficiency
How to make the most of business money and increase revenue:
Improve your Business Knowledge
Management and staff alike can benefit from reading up on and studying business topics both within and outside their industry.
New trends in, for example, digital tech, financial matters and marketing could be of value to the business so keep abreast of what’s new and being discussed.
Set Objectives
Knowing where you’re headed and how you’re faring in getting there helps keep everyone in the business focused. This is likely to be a financial goal but achieved by the completion of specific and measurable work tasks by way of projects completed, sales made and so on.
Keep Track Financially
With so much to do in terms of conducting business daily, it’s easy to take the eye off the financial ball but ‘keeping score’ financially is vital to monitor progress and results.
At the very least, a regular check of cashflow is important as this is a vital aspect of the financial wellbeing of a business. If cashflow is poor, then even a business seemingly succeeding in terms of sales could founder eventually.
Even small amounts of time regularly spent on the finances will literally pay off; the key is to make it little and often.
Review Marketing Activities
It’s easy to get stuck in a marketing rut and fall back on the same methods over and again, so investigate and test some other options. You may find you can either sell more or at least reduce your marketing spend by experimenting with new and lower cost techniques.
The Strive for Efficiency
The above are ways that can help to make a business more efficient, but it’s always worth striving for more efficiency in a bid to achieve objectives quicker. It’s an ongoing project.
