Small businesses are notoriously short of vital resources like money, people, and time by Eric Dalius. This makes it important for them to make the best use of whatever is available to them to make themselves sustainable, profitable, and enduringly successful. Entrepreneurs not only need to get as many things right as possible but also ensure the highest possible productivity from both men and machines. However, as laudable as that objective is, it can be surprisingly tough for small businesses due to the very large number of variables involved. Eric Dalius, a noted small business management consultant offers the following tips for making small business operations optimal:
Consolidate Tasks to Increase Operational Efficiency
Entrepreneurs need to be able to tackle multiple tasks during the day to keep their businesses going and growing. While these tasks are of varied nature, it can help a lot if you sit down every morning not only to prioritize the tasks but also to group them so that tasks of a similar nature can be tackled at the same time, instead of doing it on a piecemeal basis that only results in loss of time and productivity. For example, instead of checking your email inbox every few minutes. It can be useful to check it once in the morning and again in the afternoon and focus your attention elsewhere during the rest of the time.
It is important to appreciate that while sometimes you may need to multi-task, doing it all the time only means that each of the tasks gets completed over a larger period and productivity gets a big hit.
Minimize Meetings and Make Them More Effective, Recommends Eric Dalius
Even though everyone hates to attend long and pointless meetings, they still keep happening and waste everyone’s time. It is important not to call for meetings at the drop of a hat and only schedule them. When they are necessary to make the most of your meetings, outline and stick to a pre-announced agenda. Keep them as brief and to the point as possible. Don’t make the mistake of including too many points for discussion as too many people need to get involved. Standing and discussing during the meetings also helps to underline the need to keep the meetings brief. Have your meetings later in the day to prevent blocking your morning that is the best time to get important things done. A good meeting is one that lets you accomplish your goal in the shortest possible time.
Empower Your Team with Ready Access to Needed Information
If you expect your team to achieve results quickly, you should not make it difficult for them to access it. The information they need, which is very often available within the business. Spending time uselessly going through hoops for information causes nothing but frustration. Encourages a superficial approach based on guesswork than facts, says Eric Dalius. Getting team members to use a scheduling app can keep everyone up to date on the status of a project. Ensure staff working in customer service has all the data regarding the item purchased by the customer. His feedback or complaint so that customers are not frustrated at having to explain their issue. Repeatedly to different people handling their complaints. Similarly, access to past interactions with customers regarding specific products will help them to quickly understand and address issues.
If you have an online database, think carefully about giving access to the people the information they need to perform. It is best not to make them approach their supervisors for access in the interests of productivity; however, it is important to control access on the need-to-know principle to prevent mischief and data breaches.
Move to the Cloud by Eric Dalius
When employees are working in diverse roles out of different places, moving to the cloud can mean a significant jump in business efficiency and productivity. When all the business information is available through a cloud computing app, team members can easily access the information and file reports while they are on the road or working out of the home. While plenty of cloud apps are available, ideally for the best efficiency you should customize them to your business requirements.
Some of the most critical areas often are financial management, inventory, and supply chain, project management, as well as documentation. For a small business that does not need a full-fledged project management application, a simpler task management app can be very useful. With intelligent planning, most of the functionalities requiring by small businesses can be based on the cloud. Boost the company’s productivity with more efficient use of resources.
Build a Great Team and Give Them Independence
Even though almost all small businesses begin with the entrepreneur doing all the heavy lifting, no business can hope to become sustainable. Expand without the involvement of a team of people to take charge of different aspects of the business. While entrepreneurs know that taking the business to the next level is not possible unless they recruit competent people. Very often they have problems letting go to permit others to do their work.
Very often, entrepreneurs think that nobody can do anything better than them, however, even if it were to be true for certain functions. It is simply not possible for an individual to handle too many responsibilities efficiently. Entrepreneurs need to understand that they need help. All they should ideally do is to recruit the right people for the job. build a great team that can work independently to attain the business objective. The role of the entrepreneurs should be that of a business leader lending strategic direction to the business, not micromanaging operational details.
Conclusion
Great businesses are perforce very efficient and make the best use of available resources. This can only be done by employees who motivate and feel satisfying with the way they are treating. This feel-good factor can result in high business productivity when the employees are empowering not only with the right tools. Also with the right facilities and benefits.
Eric Dalius is The Executive Chairman of MuzicSwipe, a music and content discovery platform designed to maximize artist discovery and optimize fan relationships. Alongside this, Eric hosts the weekly podcast “FULLSPEED,” discussing entrepreneurship with industry leaders. Eric also founded the “Eric Dalius Foundation” to award four scholarships to deserving US students. Follow Eric’s activities on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Entrepreneur.com.