Efficiency is one of the best ways to save money for your small business. Every effort to organize, whether large or small, will save your team time. That frees you up to focus on activities with the highest return on investment. If you or your team are too busy or your processes are confused, you won’t be able to perform at your best or meet your growth goals as a business. Follow these tips to streamline your business and save money.
1. Upgrade Your Time Management
Your time is money, and it’s best spent on the activities that actually generate cash flow. Whether that’s holding consultations with prospective clients or working on your product mix, as a business owner, you should be spending your limited hours each week working to increase profits and grow your business. That means you need to build a schedule that works for you.
Implement a time management strategy to organize your busy workday. It might take some time to adjust, but try out different approaches—like daily schedules or time blocking—until you find one that works for your personality, your team, and your priorities. The main goal is to find a way to maximize not just the amount of work you can get done in a day, but the amount of purposeful, generative work. That often comes down to preventing yourself from aimlessly jumping from activity to activity. Have a plan and stick to it.
One small method that helps many entrepreneurs is to limit your email management to twice daily. Only check your inbox in the morning and evening. Constantly jumping in and out of your inbox all day can really slow down your progress when you’re trying to focus on more important work. Try to stay on task and eliminate, or at least minimize, the tasks that are time wasters when it comes to ROI.
2. Check-In With Your Team
Keeping your team on the same page will make your work more efficient. Sometimes, individual team members can get so focused on their own to-do list that they might not realize what they’re doing is making someone else’s work more difficult or missing vital tasks that need to be done. By keeping your team in sync, you will avoid duplicating work that has already been done and ensure that your team is following your processes appropriately.
Schedule regular check-ins with your team to ensure everyone is working together well and is happy with how things are going. This will also give you a chance to encourage and develop your team. Ask them to share their ideas about how you can make your business better. You just find your next big growth opportunity. Allow them to take on more responsibilities and larger roles in your company. A truly efficient team will have one of the biggest impacts on your bottom line.
3. Take Advantage of Project Management Tools
When your workflow is not organized, you waste valuable time. Especially when you and your team have a lot going on, keeping track of the status of projects can be a nightmare. With documents saved in different places and endless email threads, it can be difficult to pick up where you left off. Implementing a project management tool can solve that mess for you.
Any of the many wonderful project management tools on the market can keep your team meeting milestones and focused on your goals. These platforms allow you to assign projects or tasks to team members and add due dates. You can keep your communication, files, and important links relating to a specific project in the same space. One major plus of using project management tools is that they are generally easy to use and can be set up and implemented quickly.
The process of switching to a project management tool will require buy-in from your team, but once you get going, the organizational benefits will be obvious. You’ll be working together better, meeting deadlines, and watching your accomplishments stack up.
4. Find Free Ways to Market and Advertise
Your marketing and advertising budget does not need to be huge to be effective. In fact, many small businesses find success relying solely on free marketing opportunities. Some grow their businesses on social media alone. Others stick to grassroots and word-of-mouth marketing. Cultivating a loyal customer base will help you bring in new business through referrals. If your customer base is local, you can use flyers and bulletin boards to spread the word.
Depending on your industry and market, focusing on social media might be the best strategy for you. Make sure to choose your platforms wisely. Research your target market and find out where they hang out online. If you’re just starting to grow your social media presence, keeping to one or two social media channels will allow you to master one area before moving on to others. Design content that will engage your audience and keep them coming back for more.
Drumming up free press is another avenue. Use your expertise in your field to write articles and pitch them to publications online and in print. You can also write press releases about newsworthy events or changes in your business and send those out to publications. Press about your business will help push traffic to your website and make your target audience aware of your brand.
5. Hire a Virtual Assistant
Delegating is an effective strategy for streamlining your workflow. Earlier, we mentioned eliminating tasks that are wasting your time. Delegation is the way to do that. However, bogging down your existing team with busy work, may not be the best strategy either. That’s where a Virtual Assistant comes in.
While the name might sound like you’re working with a computer, Virtual Assistants are talented professionals who are experienced in assisting entrepreneurs like yourself. While they work with you remotely, they can handle a variety of tasks from email and schedule management to bookkeeping and creative projects like creating content and managing social media. Hiring a Virtual Assistant is a more cost-effective method than hiring a full-time executive assistant, and they can often get going faster.
Delegating to a Virtual Assistant is a good move to make if you’re feeling overwhelmed as an entrepreneur. If you’re missing out on opportunities or turning down work because your schedule is too full, a Virtual Assistant can take tasks off your plate so you can take advantage of opportunities and grow your business. You don’t even have to know what work can be offloaded. Your Virtual Assistant can help you decide. They will work with you to find solutions that will make your life easier.
Bonus Tip
Give your business the best opportunity to succeed through organization and streamlining. It will help you increase your productivity and stay creative with how you operate your business. By freeing up your schedule, you’ll be able to focus on the things that matter most like finding new ways to grow your business and increasing your profits.
Try out these tips to make your business more efficient, and you’ll feel the benefits in your bank account.
VaVa Virtual Assistants is a boutique Virtual Assistant agency with one simple goal: connecting growth-oriented business owners with high-performing Virtual Assistants (VAs).
VaVa is a team of network builders, overhead eliminators, and freedom creators for those who believe business success and quality of life are not mutually exclusive goals. Lauren Gall and Melanie Ammerman launched VaVa Virtual Assistants in 2011 helping clients achieve their personal version of work/life balance.
Their future-focused, VA hiring model prioritizes sustainability while empowering business owners to source proven remote talent, break the vicious cycle of hustle culture, and reclaim what brings joy, personally and professionally.
They have been featured in Home Business Magazine, Small Business Currents, Voyage ATL, The Conversation, One Big Tip Podcast, Simon Says, Let’s Talk Business Podcast, and many more reputable media outlets.
Learn more at www.vavavirtual.com or schedule a free consultation here.