The business world is incredibly competitive now, and budgets are tight. That means you’ve probably got an even bigger need for one thing if you’re going to stay in business: increased productivity.
Here’s how we see it happening today, in ways you can implement into your own business. In fact, here’s five ways to gain more productivity in business.
1. Eliminate meetings
Meetings are incredibly wasteful in a lot of ways. Some people prefer them over actually doing the work that needs to get done, and that was a luxury we once could have. But those days are gone, and most of our meetings should be history too.
2. Be nice
This world is becoming increasingly dismal in workplaces around the planet, and if you’re simply nice to yourself and your co-workers and employees, you’ll see a notable gain in productivity.
People work harder (and stick around longer) when they’re on teams of people they enjoy working with, and when they’re doing work under managers they respect and like. So be nice, and it’ll pay off!
3. Stay in tune with innovation
Innovation is hard to keep up with these days, and there’s three components to staying on top of it: learning what the new innovation is, sourcing it or purchasing it, and implementing it.
Software is a great example. If you were taking a look at payroll software, you’d need to think about how it would affect your operations. That’s why it’d be helpful to be thinking about it and learning about it right now.
The longer you’ve got to think critically about how innovations might help your business, the more quickly you’ll know when the time is right, and be able to implement the technologies smoothly into your business. So keep in touch with future trends and technology!
4. Send less email, or limit how much you check it
Email is the new factory item it seems, and if we look at business as a factory, then reducing the amount of email we send and check is a great way to get everything moving along more quickly (and more efficiently, with less need for more employees).
Communication eats a staggering amount of time in big organizations, so recommending a check of email only 3-4 times a day may save your workforce all kinds of time and energy.
5. Outsource cost-based activiities
When we say cost-based activities, we mean you should take a look at all the activities your company undertakes, and classify them as either expenses, income-generators, or both. There are some functions in your organization (and some items you might be doing yourself) that are entirely cost-driven, expense-related tasks.
There’s a massive opportunity cost when it comes to spending too much time and energy on expense-related tasks. Can you guess what it is? Income, of course. When you’re spending time on mundane activities that don’t generate revenue, you could be spending your time and resources on things that bring in the money instead!
Take the previous example of payroll software. Processing payroll is the type of activity that would definitely require an entire person’s time in most companies. But what if that time could cut in half by effective software and external human support?
How else could your in-house staffer spend his or her time … or would you even need that employee anymore? Once you understand how payroll software works, and how software and innovative outsourcing work in general, it’ll open your eyes to the possibilities of reducing cost-driven activities and focusing on revenue-generating ones!
