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:
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.
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