7 Helpful Tips to Get Your Business in Shape

Ever feel like you take too long to do something that should be simple? Or feel like your business’s processes just have way too many steps? Don’t worry — help is here. Here are seven ways to up your efficiency.

1. Develop a RoutineYou need organized processes for delivering your product or service. Develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to ensure quality, timeliness and achieve customer satisfaction.

• Plan: Fully outline each process, detailing out the steps, and you’ll often find places to cut out the excess.
  
• Review: Get input from both your internal team and trusted external partners to make sure you have offered different perspectives.
  
• Test: Have someone test the procedures by performing each step. Revise and clarify any steps that cause confusion until you finalize your SOP.

2. Share Your InformationYour employees need access to do their job. Secure access to information, documents and other files help employees skip the pains of paper and get more done faster.

• Data Protection: Understand that open access to files can still be secure. Enhanced data security is available to meet the requirements of even the most demanding corporate compliance policies.
  
• File-Sharing Services: Provide the connectivity and access you need to boost workflow for your team with a professional file-sharing service.

3. Make Collaboration EasyCollaboration doesn’t always come naturally in a work environment. It requires some empowering and leadership. Be creative in how you collaborate with your team.

• Expectations: Outline roles and responsibilities for each team
  member so your team knows who owns what.
• Technology: Look for apps, such as project management, chat and file-sharing tools that set you up for success.
• Meetings: Set clear goals, agendas and rules for meetings to eliminate inefficiencies.

4. Streamline Customer CommunicationsYou can never communicate enough with your customer. They want to know the status and progress of their projects, so you should designate touch points in your process that will cut down on lost time later.

• Make Clear Schedules: Make a timeline to visualize and set up appropriate expectations on deliverables for both you and your client.
  
• Get Feedback: Reach back out to your customer for feedback after every engagement. You want to know about the good and the bad in order to learn and improve.
  
• Confirm and Reconfirm: Avoid making assumptions. If you think you missed part of an order, it’s always better to call and confirm deliverables and expectations.

5. Focus On Your TeamIt took you time to assemble your all-star team. You had to search, screen and hire the best talent you could find. Look for ways to provide resources that will help your team improve, motivate them to do better, and help them meet their own growth goals.

• Support and Training: Look for areas where your team may need to improve and offer training opportunities within those areas. Also, ask what areas they are interested in growing and offer support.
  
• Mentorship: Be a positive mentor for your team and offer advice based on what you’ve learned in your experience to let them know you care.

6. Go More MobileMore and more people are working remotely as technology continues to develop. Be sure your team has the resources they need to be mobile.

• Mobile Apps: Look for ways to implement mobile viewing for the apps, tools and software you already use in the office.
  
• Conferencing: Use a web and mobile conferencing app to allow you to efficiently communicate with your team and customers remotely.
  
• File Sharing: Share documents with your team and deliver information to your customers on the go using a professional, online file-sharing app.

7. OutsourceAt some point in your business, you’ll need a dedicated team of IT experts who can help you manage the technological growth of your company. And often, outsourcing that help makes sense.

• Reduce Expenses: Stop using expensive internal resources on IT issues and hardware.
  
• Focus on Core Operations: Bring in someone to focus on managing your IT and technology so that you can get back to focusing on your business.
  
• Understand Your Needs: If you have a multitude of IT needs, it may be better to outsource for that all-in-one expert service that can handle it all.