by Jerry Mooney
Money and time are inexorably linked when it comes to business, something that makes the latter a vital resource for your company's success. Unfortunately, it's likely that you are squandering this resource in ways that you don't even realize. Read on to find out what they are, and how you can transform your business to make it more time efficient.
Communications
One significant area that so much time is being wasted on at the moment is communication. Something that is kind of ironic as the digital age was mean to make all that quicker and easier, wasn't it?
Of course, in reality, that isn't exactly what it's like, and there are all sorts of pitfalls to be navigated when it comes to communications. The first is relying on the digital when real-world communications method would be better. You find this in offices where folks that sit next to each other are emailing or messaging rather than getting up off their butts and discussing the matter in person. Something that would probably take two minutes and provide a chance to stretch their legs, as opposed to an email tennis match that can carry on indefinitely and cause greater confusion.
Now, it's also worth bearing in mind that some folks use the official channels of communication route not because they are lazy but because they are scared to death of not leaving a paper trail to show exactly what instruction they have been given, and so point to where responsibility lays.
This is something that needs to be worked on in the professional culture of your business. With people owning up to what they are responsible for, and with the people above them dealing with this reasonably and respectfully.
Manual tasks
Next, when your goal is to stop time being wasted in your business, it's important to evaluate the types and usefulness of the processes that your staff are carrying out. In particular, focus on things that haven't changed in years, or the ones that are still done by hand. This is because it is very likely that these are the tasks that are sucking up unnecessary time.
To remedy this, look at ways of updating business processes that remove unnecessary steps. Also, examine how you can automate tasks such as collating budgets and customer databases. The latter being something that a professional from an Excel VBA consultancy can set up for you to be able to do at the click of a single button. Just think how much time, and so money that you can save!
Meetings
Meeting are notorious for wasting time in the business world. The old joke being that people have meetings about having meetings. Unless you are pitching something to be sold then meetings aren't that much of a big deal though. Usually, they are just one person giving information to all the others.
That means the way you do meetings can be changed. Try the 10 minutes method, or even the standing up method to help you cut the length of these down. This will save time and increase productivity. Something that can really help your business be a success.