Taking your business to the next level isn’t easy. It can be pretty tough. Especially in certain environments. Coronavirus has taken a significant toll on businesses all over the world. Especially those in the hospitality and travel industries. Of course, this has left many businesses scrabbling for ways to reduce costs and streamline. Some have had to go further and make large portions of their workforce redundant. The method in which you can make your business more efficient might completely differ from others. Even in the same industry. This is because business owners have different priorities. As well as vastly different workforces, budgets, offices, and client scope. It’s why you have to try and disseminate advice and match it up to your own business. Not always easy. These tips can help you change your perspective and start thinking about business efficiency.
By Team Savant
Image: Brandy Kennedy
Inventory Management
Look at your inventory management systems. You may use others to do this for you. Such as fulfillment by Amazon, but if you don’t you might want to properly assess your management system, from when it comes in to when it goes out. There are usually savings to be made in your storage solutions. Are there any redundant policies you adhere to which can hold up the process? You may also want to look for updated inventory management software to replace the one you use at the moment. It might offer new insights and may be able to process items a lot quicker. You may not even have to buy the software, it might be a cast of updating what you already have. There’s usually always some kind of small change you can implement. Maybe you’re simply still buying too much stuff and are paying for space you don’t need.
Flexible Working
Allowing your employees to work more flexibly can save you, the business owner, some extra cash. Imagine if you didn’t have to pay the overheads on office space. No rent, electric, gas, insurance etc. Allowing complete flexibility has huge plus points. A lot of people enjoy working from home and may even work more productively. They don’t need to commute twice a day, and save money on petrol or public transport. If you allow flexible working to take place you might push on efficiency in two areas. Primarily, cost control. While employee productivity increases too. It’s easy to work together as you can simply use applications like Microsoft Teams or Zoom to connect and work remotely. Even in certain healthcare and support businesses, you can use software that’ll keep staff with patients and administering treatments without needing to check in with you. A robust homecare management system is your hub to oversee the workflow without any interruptions to patient care. For some businesses this might not be suitable simply due to its nature, but if it is, even as a part week solution, it’s certainly worth being considered.
Industry Experience and Expertise
Industry experience counts for a lot. It might be something you have in certain areas, but you won’t cover everything. Dipping into real time expertise and experience can really help you push your business and level up its efficiency. For example, think about your tax situation. Imagine if there were deductibles you didn’t know about, or if there were particular grants you were eligible for. Same with accountants. A business analyst might be able to cut your billing to smaller amounts by lessening your software usage. It happens quite often. Business owners buy too much and get upsold stuff they don’t need. Owners also don’t like to let go. They’ll try and do everything themselves to the point where they’re spread far too thin. Instead, try to find a freelancer who knows their stuff. It can be hard to do this as you’re leaving an important part of your business in someone else’s hands. However, they’re representing their business too, so as long as you’ve done your research you should trust them.
Talk To Your Staff
There won’t be people who know more about cost cutting in your business than your staff. Talk to them. Listen to what they have to say. There may be things that can change which will make their lives a lot easier and make your business far more efficient. If things are easier for them, it means they can service the customers better and focus on other areas like sales and retention. They’re the people on the ground. They might be able to tell you of things they don’t need or can cut out. This should in turn save you a bit of money which you can reinvest. You can put this towards enhanced staff training or towards pulling in more customers via advertisement etc. If you staff don’t feel comfortable talking to you about potential changes or mistakes made, you can consider an anonymous suggestion box.