Lisa Robbin Young

How to improve your business efficiency

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There are many aspects to running a business. From operations to marketing (and everything in between), it’s not always easy. Business owners must be able to adapt to new challenges and ways of doing things including ways to make the company more efficient.

Most entrepreneurs know that you'll have your fair share of struggles at some point or another. The key is figuring out how to streamline your workflows, so the business runs as smoothly as possible.  This doesn’t mean your business has to struggle forever; there are plenty of ways to make your business more efficient to save time and money in the long run. Here are some tips on how you can improve efficiency in your company and thereby increase profits in the long run:

Change Your Workflows

As a business owner, you come across situations where you may have to change how you do things. For example, if you’re creating content for your website, you might have to change your strategy if you notice a drop in traffic. You might be creating content that’s not relevant to your target audience. Or, you might not be using the right keywords. At this point, you have two options: You can either keep trying to make the content work or make a change. What kind of change? You could change either the content you create or the workflow around how you create it. For example, you can try creating visual content, such as videos or images, instead of written content. Visual content tends to be more engaging to audiences, making it more likely that they share it. Or, you could look at HOW you're creating that written content and change how that's getting done. I hired a copywriter to help me outline most of the content for Season 6 of the Creative Freedom Show, and it saved me countless hours of trying to rack my brain for topic ideas. That change in the workflow helped me see how to not only create better content, but do it faster by hiring out part of the process. In season 7, I continued to outline the episodes before I scripted them. Even without hiring the copywriter, that change in the workflow still saved me a ton of time.

Automate what you can't change

Businesses can become more efficient by automating everyday tasks through software. For example, you can use a CRM or email service provider to organize leads and automate sales activities. Or you can use accounting software to create reports, create invoices, and track expenses. Automating everyday tasks can help you save time and money in the long run because it frees employees to focus on more critical tasks. It also gives your company an edge over the competition since other businesses might not be efficient.

Outsource the repeatable tasks

One way to make your business more efficient is to outsource specific tasks. For example, you can outsource your customer service to a third-party company if you have an in-house call center. This allows your employees to focus on more important activities related to your business. It also saves you time and money since outsourcing is less costly than hiring your own employees.  Similarly, you can do this for shipping.  UPS international shipping for small to mid-sized businesses is an example of a service you can use to ship your product across the globe, and you can outsource work such as the packaging and delivery of the product to other people. At the same time, you can focus on other essential elements of your business. There are many ways to outsource tasks, such as hiring virtual assistants to do administrative work, using freelance designers for your website design, or having content writers create blog posts. Investing in outsourcing can help boost your business and make it more efficient.

Efficiencies come in all shapes and sizes. One last thing you can do is just delete stuff. Stop doing things. Take them out of the company or off your plate completely. Don't let ANYONE in the organization do them. Your "Stop doing" list is just as important as you "to do" list. Once you've eliminated what you can, try one of these three approaches to streamline your business even further.

Need support? The Creative Freedom Incubator has limited openings this fall. Join us and get the help you need to make faster progress in your growing business.

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