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Every entrepreneur wants to create a profitable business. It doesn’t matter if the business is a micro, small, or medium size business. Unfortunately, a lot of business owners spend most of their time working in their business instead of on their business. Nowadays businesses battle with strong competition, which requires a smart and streamlined operational process to eliminate errors and delays in servicing the needs of the customer. This is where the automation will help you to remain competitive in the market.

Here are some tips to help you streamline your operation:

Technology

I still come across entrepreneurs who are afraid of technology. However, we need to educate ourselves and implement technology into our business to be able to grow. I am by no means not what you would call a tech-savvy person. Due to that, I am constantly learning about the benefits of software programs or tools which will enable me to operate my business more efficiently. In this Fourth Industrial Revolution, technology is developing faster than we can adapt to it. Ongoing education is required to keep on top of things.

Let’s talk server: A server can act as a digital filing cabinet for your documentation. Servers give you a lot more reliability and security.

VoIP: Ever experienced the stress created by running between voice mail on your mobile phone and your office phones? Get yourself a VoIP system which can be personalised and available for all budget levels.

Automated invoicing: Ensure that your accounting package is able to generate invoices as well as e-mail reminders for late payments.

Your website: Is the main gateway to your business. It is a virtual shop or office outlining your services or products as well as the platform for your first contact with consumers. There is no need for fancy graphics, but instead, focus on creating a user-friendly website. An online FAQ list can cut down on the time you need to respond to customer/client calls.

General Tips:

As an entrepreneur, you are a wearer of many hats, however, that also means that you are spending massive hours doing the job. Instead, you could outsource some work or implement more streamlined procedures to be able to spend more time on your business, which in return will enable you to achieve the desired business growth. Let’s start with:

Outsource:

It’s all about your precious time. How long does it take you to do your books, read through 100s of resumés, try to solve IT problems, spend time on basic customer communication or do simple administration work? Why not outsource certain work to a Bookkeeper, IT specialist, HR company, Virtual Customer Service or Administration Service? Just imagine all that free time you could use to grow your business.

Staff meetings: Do we really need that many staff meetings? General information can be emailed and acknowledged by opening the email. Instead of organising weekly staff meetings to go through a long agenda, it is much more productive to create work groups who present their outcomes once a month. Let’s value each other’s time so we can achieve our work goal on time and without stress.

The To-Do-List: Is our daily taskmaster. In general, business operators are hard-working people who sacrifice a lot of their private time to build a successful business. A To-Do-List keeps them focused on what needs to be done. However, the only problem is, that such a list can turn also against them and instead of organising their time, they can become taskmasters pushing us to work long hours. The solution is to have 2 lists. One which is for ‘URGENT’ actions and a second for ‘General things to do’. That way the daily focus is on the ‘URGENT’ list first. This leads us to…

Time Management: It is a skill which needs to be learned. Time management is all about ‘Time.’ How long do you need to research for a Blog, how long will it take you to write that Blog, how long will it take you to post that Blog on all your social media platforms and your website? It will take you many hours if not over half a day. Your time out over lunch is also ‘Time’ where you should spend relaxing and re-charging your batteries. Time Management requires discipline and realistic judgment of the time required to do a task. Here are some tips to make time management work for you:

• Use a watch to time your work. This will allow you to create a more timely, realistic time management plan.
• Set aside uninterrupted time for writing Blogs or creating Vblogs.
• Schedule time for lunch and off-screen time.
• Block out 10 minutes per day for personal phone calls.
• Ensure you are not getting interrupted when working on reports or work which requires a couple of hours of your full concentration.

For example, I start communicating with people from 10 AM onwards as well as have regular time out to give my brain a rest. In reality, I am starting work between 8-9 AM. This time is used for all the little work I can get done without the daily pressure. I also block as required, an entire half day out for a meeting, as I am calculating my travel time to the client, the time required to park my car and walk to the meeting point. A one-hour meeting can easily take you 3 or more hours out of the office. This is very valuable time, and due to that, you will not see me having a lot of face-to-face meetings. Utilising modern technology permits me to communicate with people without wasting each-others time.

Time Management is also very important to create free time for your private life. My diary is my loyal companion. I write everything that I am doing into my diary, this includes my urgent list as well as tasked I have done from my general list plus all my private activities. I also schedule ‘Out’ time in my diary. This is the time which is not allocated for anything, and I can do what I want.

I hope this article will give you some general business growth inspiration but if you need assistance, just give us a call. We are very happy to give you sound advice.

Synergy Consulting Australia provides a large range of business consulting services which includes 4IR, Legal, Accounting, Marketing, Project Management, Migration services and many more tailored business solutions. This also includes full market research and feasibility report before investing. www.synergyaustralia.com.au

Synergy Consulting Australia is led by Ilona Solinska. Ilona has over 19 years of international business consulting experience.  She is a successful Business Growth Strategist, Educator, Keynote speaker, and Writer. Ilona has coached hundreds of businesses in the area of Marketing, Finance, Legal, Compliance, Operation, Change & Project Management and is a highly sought-after presenter on a wide variety of business topics.