Times are tough right now for small businesses. With the effects of the pandemic still lingering, along with the current cost of living crisis, keeping a small business afloat can be difficult. While these are not things you can control as a small business, improving productivity and organization (among other things you can control) can be beneficial in keeping your business competitive. You will find that by making adjustments and improvements to your business, you will be able to maintain your loyal customer base as well as gain more customers in the future.
So, how exactly do you make these improvements? This is something we will explore in this article, so follow along to find out more.
Steps to Improving Productivity and Organization
Prioritize Tasks
When your business is experiencing a busy period and your staff has lots of daily tasks to complete, it is easy for things to become disorganized. Additionally, the pressure of too many tasks can lead to a decrease in productivity as your staff may find it difficult to cope with the mounting workload. This is why it is so important to prioritize tasks according to importance to give everyone clear guidance. Instead of trying to do everything at once, prioritize tasks to focus on what is important. This means you can give all your effort into one task, instead of trying to stretch your abilities across multiple things. As a business leader, work with your staff and give them the tools to organize their daily responsibilities, so they can remain productive.
Set Goals and Key Objectives
Setting goals and key objectives is another way that your business can improve productivity and organization. Working without any goals or deadlines can make things harder for your staff because it means they have nothing clear to work towards. By setting key objectives, you to provide your staff with better guidance and management. You could even create an incentive system for your team and offer rewards when they reach their targets.
Some ideas for incentives are:
- Longer paid lunch break
- Paid half day on a Friday
- Vouchers for online stores
- Extra holiday days
- Promotion or pay rise
One thing to remember when you are setting this goes is making sure they are realistic and manageable. If you set a goal that is almost unachievable, it will only lead to further unproductivity. It’s best to sit down with your staff and work together in creating realistic and achievable goals. Schedule regular one-on-one meetings with your team to go over their current targets and check that no changes are needed.
Use Technology to Your Advantage
There is no shame in using technology to your advantage within a business. All big businesses use technology and you should be doing the same within your own company. After all, technology is there for us to use, so why not take full advantage of that in your small business? Using technology, such as software and apps to help manage daily tasks, can help improve productivity and organization massively. Even something as simple as using a PDF compressor tool can improve productivity because you won’t be wasting time trying to figure out how to organize your PDF files. By using a PDF compress, you are able to quickly and easier compress files without sacrificing quality, which can save a lot of valuable time within your business.
Automate Processes Where You Can
With the rise of AI and robotics, it is clear that automation is our future. You only have to go back a decade to see just how different our lives are now and how much we currently rely on automation. When running a small business, you may find it useful to start automating some processes to save time and cut costs (at least in the long run). This doesn’t mean your staff can be replaced; technology can help them perform better. Start off slow and see how automation affects your business. For example, if you already run email campaigns to market your business, then switch to an automated system for scheduling and sending emails, as well as automatically following up on email requests. Sometimes it can be tricky to stay on top of emails, so by switching to an automated system, you are ensuring that no customer queries are missed.
Streamline Communication
Miscommunication can lead to a number of different issues within a business, including problems with customers—loss of sales or simply missed opportunity—and problems with staff–disagreements between employees, decreased motivation, and lower morale. It is important that you find ways to streamline communication within your small business so that everyone can stay organized and productive. If your business doesn’t already have an internal communication system, then consider implementing one.
Using an instant messaging platform, such as Slack or Microsoft Teams, allows everyone to communicate quickly and efficiently, curtailing the chance for miscommunication. Using these systems is often a lot easier than communicating via email because instant messaging platforms allow for speedier and more efficient communication. It is also just less formal than emailing someone; you don’t need to worry about pleasantries when you are just asking a quick question to your colleague.
Offer Some Form of Remote Work
Although remote work is still a fairly new concept in throughout the business world, it has been met with extremely positive reviews. After COVID restrictions were lifted, many businesses chose to keep remote work as a permanent feature for their operations, either with full-time remote work or using the hybrid work model. Working remotely has proven to boost productivity because staff are better able to manage their own time. Cutting out commuting time is a huge advantage for many workers as it means they can save money, sleep for longer, and have more energy throughout the day (in addition to the positive impact on the environment).
Learn more about remote work options from earlier blogs here.
Conclusion
The time and perhaps some cost you put into adding business practices and procedures to improve organization and productivity will pay off in the long run.
