Ensuring efficiency in your small business is critical to its success and sustainability. By identifying inefficient processes and replacing them with better practices, you can make more money without sacrificing the quality of service.
Here are three ways to increase efficiency in your small business.
Automate repetitive sales tasks
Small businesses often get bogged down with repetitive sales tasks. You can start by automating these tasks so that your staff can focus on higher-value work. There are tools that you can use:
- Salesforce.com – Salesforce.com is one of the leading companies in the world that offer business automation and CRM solution. Leverage on their user-friendly marketing and sales automation tools to enhance your digital presence and marketing campaigns.
- SalesAutopilot – SalesAutopilot’s helpdesk module automates support ticket tracking and customer feedback for your business. Its marketing autopilot platform also provides a reliable automation solution for email marketing.
- PurchaseControl – PurchaseControl offers an automation platform that can streamline your purchase order processes. It lets you create automated workflows so that you can easily keep track of your business’ purchase order processes.
Outsource non-core activities
Making a profit can be tough to achieve, especially in a competitive market. According to Forbes, up to 80 percent of businesses fail to survive in their third year. One good way to save money is to outsource non-core activities. Here are four elements you can outsource:
Training – Data from the Association for Talent Development showed that, on average, businesses spend $1,200 to train each employee. When you outsource training, you’ll not only save on money but also on the time it takes to train new hires.
- Payroll – No more headaches trying to calculate wages, benefits, and taxes. When you partner with a payroll service provider, you’ll only need to inform them of how many hours each employee has worked in a particular period, and they’ll take care of the rest.
- Bookkeeping – Keeping up with financial books can be complicated and time-consuming. With a bookkeeping service, you can leave this task to professionals who are experts in credits, debits, balance sheets, and other accounting matters.
- Copywriting – If you need content for your site, let a good copywriter do the writing for you to ensure your business is portrayed in the best possible light.
Invest in a reliable communication system
According to the article “Top Ten Email Blunders that Cost Companies Money,” miscommunication cost small companies an average of $420,000 per year. Effective communication strengthens the connection between the company and its stakeholders. Without transparent communication with your stakeholders, misunderstandings and conflicts can occur.
Give your outdated traditional telecommunications system a much-deserved upgrade by switching to a PBX phone system for small businesses. With this platform, you can improve customer service and cut costs while making work practices more flexible. Only a single phone number is needed to contact all the departments in your organization. Likewise, it logs every incoming and outgoing call, letting you see what departments are getting more calls and which extensions are doing the most work.
If you want to up your chances for success, focus on being as efficient as possible. Implementing these suggestions would help improve the efficiency of your small business.
