Small businesses are known to be scrappy, and often, run on tight margins. Such is the life of a smaller enterprise, but leaders can gain advantages by incorporating efficient, best practices and tools.
1. Integrate Automation
The cost of adding technology has decreased significantly in recent years, especially with the advent of cloud-based software. Utilize native automation within essential systems like invoicing software to support account management and improve on-time payments.
Automation can be used to initiate repetitive tasks, send campaigns, and begin the sales funnel. Embed automation in the customer acquisition process, using scheduling and making sales associate assignments based on online inquiries.
2. Prioritize Project Management
Project management tools help your team stay on task and add visibility for leaders and teams. Use software that allows you to prioritize tasks over others and elevate looming or overdue deadlines. This way, you can quickly identify potential issues and resolve them, before they turn red.
Project management best practices also create repeatable steps and timelines for similar activities. Analyze typical timelines to improve your projections for future work and staffing needs. This data can inform your company budget, improve customer quotes, and help deliver projects on time.
3. Establish Processes and Procedures
As mentioned, your prior project management data can be repurposed, and it should. While there may be many ways of getting a task done, you gain efficiency when you establish a process. Retain processes and procedures in a centralized location, and track their establishment and review schedule as part of your operations.
For example, a data extract can be completed many ways, but without a repeatable process, you add risk. If one team member is responsible, you risk losing institutional knowledge if they quit. Additionally, key steps and checks and balances can be skipped if someone doesn’t know to do so. Establish processes and procedures for key tasks and require regular reviews and training.
4. Inspire Innovation
The key to success is innovation and sparking confidence in your team to share their ideas. Go beyond the basic suggestion box and encourage your team to be creative. Shake up the status quo and mingle project teams with one another on new tasks. Focus on high-impact opportunities and test new ideas with an open mind.
Host a hackathon-like event to strategize ways to improve your business. Set a focus on the event like digital user experience, but don’t put too many boundaries on ideation. This type of event should be lively yet have some structure to collect ideas and facilitate discussions. Take the ideas your team comes up with and prioritize them among smaller innovation teams. Invite everyone to take part which can further fuel creativity and produce better results.
5. Invest in Employee Experience
Happy team members produce better results, stay on board longer, and pursue improvements for your company. Assess your current employee experience and identify ways you can make it better. Think beyond baseline compensation and benefits and consider the unique needs of your team. Many employees appreciate flexible work arrangements, but your business may not accommodate that. If not, determine what you can do to make your teams’ time outside of work better.
Express gratitude for their contributions and efforts, acknowledging performance and providing guidance and support. Develop career progression plans for every employee and get their take on where they see their future. Whether they aspire for the C-suite or are happy where they are, knowing they’re supported matters.
6. Leverage Data and Insights
Without data, you can’t make sound decisions. Use business intelligence platforms to analyze trends inside your organization. Job completion, timelines, customer issue resolution, and new project implementation can be analyzed to optimize future efforts. Keep an eye on industry data, too, including regulatory changes, consumer behavior, and industry sentiment. This information may not directly influence or correlate immediately, but the body of knowledge benefits from global data.
Monitor key performance indicators, like customer acquisition costs, employee, productivity, and retention rates. This can help you understand where to invest in technology, training, and even staffing. If you identify that your customer acquisition cost is eating into profit margins, you may revise tactics. There may be opportunities to improve acquisitions, or you may focus on upselling existing clients. Use data to forecast opportunities and make informed decisions, which saves time and money.
Facilitate Change Management Tactics to Ensure Your Company Successfully Adopts Changes
Change of any type, even if it’s for the right reasons and with the right solution, is tough. Establish a change management plan for any efficiency improvements you make for your team. Highlight the reasons for these changes and the benefits for your employees. While they will care about the customers’ benefits, they need to know how it helps them first.
Allow ample work time for change management activities, such as training, town hall meetings, and feedback. Collect feedback anonymously to encourage candid discussions and take it seriously. Dedicate time to your management team to discuss feedback and change efforts, revising the plan as you go. With a plan for efficiency changes, your team can quickly integrate improvements and sustain them, bringing benefits in 2025.
