However large or small your business is, you always need to look for ways to increase productivity. This means that you should be able to get more from your employees, your equipment, and even your suppliers.
Motivate Your Employees
When it comes to the people who work for you, alert, motivated, and happy employees will work harder; and an efficient team will help increase sales and cut down unwanted costs. Encourage your staff by rewarding them for their successes and tactfully encouraging them when they slip up.
This will help you understand their strengths and weaknesses – and help you make strategic use of each and every one of them.
Manage Your Time Efficiently
Use good time-management techniques yourself, and you will set a good example for your staff and even your suppliers. By doing this, time-saving will become a way of life in your company. Your employees should be taught the value of your time, as well as their own and your customers’.
Your employees need to be as efficient as possible when answering customers’ questions or taking care of orders. If you lead by example, this approach will filter down to the lower levels of your company.
Streamline Your Small Business
Take advantage of good accounting and inventory software to keep track of your finances, sales and purchases. Take regular inventory of your products and sell off slow-moving items so they can be replaced by faster-moving ones.
Keep an eye on your credit customers so that you can collect your accounts receivable efficiently. Invest in faster computers or other energy and time-saving equipment. Look into multifunction equipment. Nowadays, you can get fax, copy, scanning and printing devices all bundled into a single machine.
This will save time, space, and energy – and speed up your response time to customer inquiries.
Try to reduce the paperwork in your office by communicating through electronic media such as e-mail, chat and IM (instant messenger). This will save a lot of time and effort normally used to pass messages from one department to another.
Every Small Effort Counts
Even small gestures such as installing a coffee machine or an air-conditioning unit can help boost productivity in your business.
Any improvement, small or big, should be explored in order to increase productivity levels in your small business – and the above methods can help you do that.
