Saving money and Improving Office efficiencies

 

Efficiencies can be gained in a variety of places throughout your business. Given the complexities of running a business you may not know where to start. Here are five areas that you can assess to decide if these can be streamlined in your business.

Reduce Paper
One of the quickest ways to streamline your business is to look at the paper usage in your business. Paperwork can quickly pile up Just take a tour around your office and see the stacks of paper on everyone’s desk and the 'full-to-the-brim' filing cabinets. Maybe a good start is to ask everyone the following questions:

What information do you add or take from this paper and is this paper essential?

Is the majority of this paperwork important for you to perform your job?

The most popular answer is usually "because it's always been done that way." Also, if each piece of information cannot be justified, it should be eliminated from the form to reduce the amount of work necessary to process the paperwork.


Filing and storage is another area to evaluate as a process and cost center. File cabinets and storage boxes take up VERY valuable office space ('TYPE A' office towers are often over $100/Sq.ft.!). Use an electronic document management system (Like www.scan123.com) to archive paperwork for long term storage and retrieval. Free-up the office space that is being occupied by paper storage. (If you really want to see how much all this can cost use this Cost Calculator.)

Save money on cell phone charges
Saving money on business cell phone can be done quite easily. Competition in the general cell phone market is great and even more so for business cell phone customers. You can request bids from multiple providers, aggregate plans and commit to monthly minutes via a specific carrier to lower your bill.

Give your Employees autonomy
Employees on the frontline by and large know their jobs better than their supervisors. Most companies have long term employees and they know the corporate systems and processes inside out. Each time you can take a decision/interaction from your supervisors and hand that to your rank and file employee, you improve the process efficiency and save time and money.

Consolidate Software
Do you have one piece of software for accounting and inventory control and another for order entry and/or invoicing? You probably employ several people to key into your system and another to transfer it to other employee user interfaces. You like many other corporate managers could use an integrated software platform. There are a variety of packages available today that can meet your needs and save money.

Outsourcing
Most companies pay for outside janitorial support, phone and data transmission, maybe even IT or computer software programs. All of these constitute outsourcing of your services and probably save your hard-working employees time giving them the ability to do what they need to do. This story can be told over and over again through various other outsourcing options like: 24/7 IT options, CRM systems like automated phone and messaging programs, accounting and legal services and many other corporate functions that are NOT core to your main business. Take a good hard look at what you should and should not outsource.

 

Office efficiency- 5 steps to improving your office

 

Many of us have worked in or run an office as our primary job. There can be a lot going on day to day and we often have tasks, goals and the ever pressing monthly financials to balance. What often gets lost in the shuffle is the need to take a step back and evaluate the day to day processes that our staff conducts. The tyranny of the urgent has us chasing our tails and we never get a chance to look at what and how we do our "work."

All of us work at differing levels of efficiency in a day. I am a multi-tasking fool and am not productive unless I have 6 things on my plate. Many others in our office need total peace and quiet and no interruptions or else they cannot finish the simplest of tasks. So let’s look at those critical areas of work that can transform any office into a fine tuned machine or a wheel spinning out of control;

Technology - Is your office stuck in the dark ages and working on computer systems and programs that were created 10 years ago? The technology world is very dynamic, constantly changing and creating newer and more exciting office tools and processes. If you are not networking your computers, installing off-site viewing software, utilizing CRM software like salespro.com or housing your files on the “cloud”, you are behind the technology curve!

Organization - This word can mean a lot of different things to many of us. Is the office layout smooth and conducive for working? Are your filing systems and operating systems in line with how your staff interacts with your customers? Does your staff understand the corporate hierarchy and who they report to?

Corporate Strategy - One of our key employees asked me the other day why she was doing a certain task that I had asked her to get done. I was shocked, as we were putting together sales brochures and books for our clients following our sales meeting. This seemed to be quite obvious, at least to me and yet here a key employee did not understand the importance nor understood why it helped facilitate the orders from our best customers. Share the what, where and why of your work sometime and see the enthusiasm of your team grow exponentially!

Simplify - It goes without saying that in these economic times we are all striving to increase revenues and lower our costs. That means we are exploring new channels of sales, working harder, implementing new programs, lowering overhead and in general adding A LOT to our plates everyday. I would suggest you evaluate doing just the OPPOSITE! Do what you do well, increase revenue with existing customers, tighten your fiscal belt BUT do not let your need for increased profits out weigh your need to run a happy, productive work environment!

Paper Reduction - In the technological world we live in now, it amazes me everyday to hear from office executives that they are drowning in paper. Copies, filing cabinets, manila folders and storage units of file folders that must be maintained for years given IRS and government compliance. The (nearly) paperless office is a reality, storing encrypted sensitive documents on virtual servers, accessible 24/7 and eliminating the most unproductive job any staffer could ever have; filing! Scan123 has been providing paperless solutions to 1000’s of customers every year.