Streamlined business operations = higher sales
Not the most common strategy, but it works!
One of the best ways to lower your expenses is to make your business more productive and streamline areas that are wasting time and money.
Can your business afford software that can automate processes? If yes, consider automation of tasks like data entry, staff scheduling, inventory management system, etc.
Start by looking for solutions that can replace manual work.
For example: if you are spending a lot of time managing staff schedules, look for affordable scheduling apps. Are you spending too much time writing product orders? Look for a POS or inventory system that will automatically generate stock orders when inventory reaches a certain level.
Time is money.
The more time you spend on manual tasks, the less time available to do things that bring in money. Like selling more products or getting new customers.
If your business cannot afford software solutions, you can still streamline your business processes.
The key is to analyse the various processes in your business and then determine where things are being repeated unnecessarily (this is called redundancy) and where mistakes are being made. You are looking for areas where time is being wasted.
Once you have determined these areas, your next step is to eliminate the problem.
One way to do so is to create standardized business processes for things that keep repeating.
For example: if you notice that customers keep asking you the same questions over and over, why not create a list of frequently asked questions (FAQ), print it on a poster, and hang it in a highly visible location in your business? You will still have customers coming to ask you questions, but the number will reduce and free up your time.
Another example: if you notice your employees keep making the same mistakes or keep asking you to explain the same things over and over, document the process that they have to follow.
This is easy to do.
Just write down each of the steps that they have to follow. You can summarise each step and just provide the information that they need to know to complete each step. When you finish, you will have created a standardised business process that can now be used by your employees to carry out their work with less distractions. It can also be used to train new employees.
Having standardised processes increases the level of professionalism in your business. And higher levels of professionalism lead to higher quality. Higher quality is a great way to improve the value that you can offer customers. AKA, it is a good way to be able to charge higher prices and increase your profits!
Got a taste for more? Check out these other ways for small businesses to increase sales without reducing prices.
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Hi, I’m Tonia Dabwe, founder & director of GuideMyGrowth.com. At Guide My Growth, I help small and medium businesses generate higher profits so that they can grow faster without having to depend on outside funding.
