Every business owner wants their business to soar. To beat the competition and excel in every endeavour. There are many ways to help this happen. Most are under your control, but some aren’t. That’s why you need to do all you can to ensure your business isn’t one of the many that fail every day. Part of this is making sure your time is best spent in the right areas of your business. If you have employees the same applies to them too. It’s so easy to lose track of what you’re doing and spend too much time on something that won’t exactly bear fruit. It can be hard to switch your mindset and think more about your time, but there are ways to help you do it. Whether you work in a restaurant or office, finding the right balance of time spent on different tasks is equally important. The points below can help you start thinking in the right way, but there’s no prescriptive way for success with time. Everyones different, and you’ll find your own way to manage time more effectively. Good luck!
Pass On The Small Stuff
There are things in your business you just don’t want to be spending your time doing. Cleaning is one. Sure, it’s nice to work in a clean place of work, but if you’re driving your business to success surely your time would be better spent elsewhere. See if you can afford cleaners. They’re cheaper than you think. You may be answering calls as part of your job, but if your interaction with customers is pretty basic then you may want to look into call answering services too. Finding the time you spend on things like this and completely cutting it can allow you to reinvest the time in other areas, like pulling in sales and growing your business. If you’re a delivery business you could consider stopping going on deliveries yourself. These are generic ideas, but if you put your business in your mind and think you may be able to zone in on something you do that can be passed on to someone else. If you can’t afford to hire someone else, then think about how you can cut back on it in the short term to prioritise putting your time into where the money is coming from.
Save Customers Time Too
It’s not just your time you need to be saving. If you can shorten a customers time and cut out frustration you can make selling your product or services all that easier. An example can be with your website. Ensuring it is clean and easy to navigate is a must. Some websites have multiple pages to click through before getting to what you want. You’ve probably had experience of it yourself. Keep it clean. You can cut down on the pages, or make it a little more clear. Drafting in a pro web developer can help here if you have the funds. Installing a search function can help too. Make sure your website is optimised for smartphones too. So many people use those and tablets over traditional computers these days you’ll be doing yourself a disservice if you don’t. Make it easy for your customers to make it easy for yourself. If they’re happy, they’re more likely to part with their cash.
Leave The Tricky Stuff To The Professionals
A lot of business owners try and take on more work to save themselves some cash. This is certainly the case in terms of accountancy. Compiling your own accounts can take an age, especially if math isn’t your strong point. This is why it can pay to hire an accountant. You may think it’s an unnecessary expense, but if you end up making a mistake you could be fined by your government. The same is of tax. PAying the right tax is important, but getting a tax professional to have a look can save you a lot of money by getting it right. Not only that, they can tell you about certain reliefs and incentives that may be available to you. In some cases, you could even end up saving money. If you don’t trust yourself but don’t have the funds to hire someone; there is lots of software out there like Quickbooks or Sage which can help you compile your financials and save you time.
Recruitment
You need to recruit people so your business can grow. Getting people on board means you can put them to certain tasks, freeing you up to address the more important aspects of your business. The more people you have on board, the more customers they can serve. The issue is getting the right people inside your business. If you don’t have the time to invest in bringing new people in, then you can leave this up to an external agency. If you have strict conditions it might be worth you doing this yourself. You can save yourself time by cutting down on the amount of applications you have to sift through. Be specific in your job advert. It needs to detail the qualifications or experience required, so that those without it know not to apply. The same is of your working patterns and salary. Make sure the job is seen by those you want to apply to it. Use something like Indeed so it gets a bigger audience.
Update Your Systems
Slow systems cost time and money. They won’t be energy efficient. Point of sale software is the key here. If you don’t have the facility for contactless payments, then it’s going to take a while for the customer to pay. Meaning a queue might form, thus sowing the seeds of discontent. Try to keep up with the latest technology. It makes it easier for you and your staff too. Less time waiting for your systems to work and more time doing things that actually have an impact. It can cost to get these installed, but there are lots of options available to you in terms of payment and what percentages of each transaction goes to the provider. Make sure you do the maths to get the best deal for you.
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To your success,
Vinh Van Lam & Stuart Horrex
Your Coaches ArtSHINE industries
