Surely there must be a simpler way? No doubt, you’ve asked yourself this at some point. Another late night in the office to clean up somebody’s mistakes or to clean up your own because the process you’ve implemented is too convoluted or it’s just not viable. Simplifying your business is the key to making it a more efficient one, and a cheaper one too. Take a look at these business simplifiers, and if you put all of these in place, you'd be surprised how quick it will make your business so productive without all the complications.
Look At Your Systems
Using a system shouldn’t be difficult, and if you are finding that it’s tripling your workload, it’s time to reassess. A system like CRM (customer relationship management) software helps you to control your communications with customers in an efficient manner. It lets you know when you should contact them, and you can tailor the system to identify loyal customers and focus on selling to them, rather than wasting your time focusing on the dead weight. Likewise, you should make the most of the internal processes by moving to a cloud-based service provider. When your structure is moved to the cloud, the benefits present themselves almost immediately. Better security, faster processes, it even helps to reduce your business’ carbon footprint. Check out Stackify.com for more information on the best infrastructure automation tools. Automating basic functions means you’ve just cut out a lot of time and effort on things that don’t really benefit your business, leaving you to focus on the things that matter.
It couldn’t be a bigger waste of time to check your email inbox more than two or three times a day. Hear me out, if you mainly operate on an internal basis, and everyone is in the same building, you are going to save so much time to walk over and speak to the appropriate person rather than drag out a whole conversation via email. This is distracting, and it's losing you a bit of time here and there, reading and re-reading, and then drafting an email before sending it off. Or even better than speaking to someone, if you can get all the important points put across in a daily meeting, you’ve saved yourself even more time! Try and put a partial ban on internal emails and see if it works for your business. The same applies to clients; pick up the phone. The problem will be solved much quicker!
Cull Some Customers
It might sound extreme, but if you're constantly chasing those one or two customers for payments and never reply to your correspondence, are they really worth your time? Get rid of them! It’s hard at first, but it’s a good lesson to learn because although it might feel like cutting off your nose to spite your face at first, it’s really a sensible way to save time and effort you can concentrate into other areas. It’s like working smarter, rather than harder. The more time you spend on that one difficult customer, you could have acquired three easier customers, and in that way, it just makes a lot more sense. To begin with, just put your foot down with the few problem customers, and give them a chance to make good before you completely cull them. If you don’t feel ready to make this leap just yet, try invoice factoring. This is where an invoice factoring agency buys your invoice debt from you, meaning that you have got the money you were owed. The agency then goes and chases the problem customer for the money and takes a slice of the final money. These agencies will tend to be more aggressive, so if it ends up with the customers taking their business elsewhere, you’ve got your money, and you’ve got rid of the problem customer.
Say “No”
The hardest word to say when running a business, and for a very good reason, you don’t want to turn down any opportunities. But apply the 80/20 rule to your workload or list your priorities and look to remove a third of them before moving on with your day. If you get an assistant to do this for you (or a virtual assistant, another time-saving technique to try), you will have a reduced workload with more time to complete the tasks meaning that you can have some breathing space or you have made some sensible decisions with your time. Saying “no” is difficult to begin with, but it is essential if you want to do business.
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