10 Ways to Improve Your Business Operations
Slick business operations that are perfectly aligned to deliver to your customers’ demands and expectations are one way of creating competitive advantage. So business owners should seek continual improvements in their processes and operations to not only stay one step ahead of competitors but also to improve profitability. But where do you start? Here are 10 practical ways to improve your business operations.
1. Follow Your Plan
First you need a strategic business plan. Next create a detailed operational plan that delivers key objectives in your strategic plan. Turn your plan into a series of actions and assign members of your team responsibility for completing them. Regularly review progress with your team to ensure the plan is delivered.
2. Create a Financial Budget
Use your business plan to create a financial forecast that represents your vision in sales, profits, cash and balance sheet value. Monitor actual financial performance against your budget and take corrective action to ensure targets are achieved. Use the budgeting process as an opportunity to identify ways to reduce any costs that are having a negative impact on your customers or your business.
3. Analyse Your Margins
Examine your gross profit margins and identify areas where you make your greatest profits and those where margins are weaker. Analyse margin by various criteria such as customer, product / service, market, territory, salesperson etc to identify trends. Take action to improve margin wherever possible, focusing resources towards profitable business and eliminating low margin work and loss makers.
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4. Think “Customer”
Remember everything you do is about your customers. Take a step back and ask yourself, “are we easy to do business with?” Make sure your team puts the customer first in everything they do by building a culture of customer service excellence. Ask your customers how you’re doing and use their comments to make improvements. Ensure your team knows the needs and preferences of your customers and never miss an opportunity to upsell or cross sell. Invest in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to help you monitor and follow up on new leads and customer interactions and engagements.
5. Audit Processes
Is your business operating in the most efficient way possible? Could you do things better, as well as save time and money? Get into the habit of auditing your processes frequently to scrutinise where improvements could be made. Don't forget that businesses evolve and change all the time, so even if your processes seem spot-on now, they might need adapting in the future. Document your processes so everyone’s clear on the way things are done.
6. Get Tech-Savvy
Implement the latest IT and software to improve the quality and efficiency of your business operations. Make sure you choose carefully though, otherwise you’ll waste money on solutions that don’t add value or worse still, are disruptive. Be clear on your specification before you begin talking to IT vendors and make sure you fully check and test that a new system will meet your needs before deploying it.
7. Implement KPIs
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are essential for monitoring the performance of your operations. Choose measures that are important for your business and agree targets. Set up systems to report performance against targets regularly and monitor the results. Assign responsibility to your team and hold them to account in achieving targets.
8. Invest In Your Team
Don’t do everything yourself. Develop a strong accountable management team around you and delegate responsibility and actions to them. Agree objectives and set these out formally in job descriptions, regularly monitoring individual performance. Make sure you have a development plan in place for each member of your team and provide training, coaching and mentoring to help them progress and achieve their full potential. This will build strength in your team and reduce the likelihood of them leaving.
9. Recruit Well
Your team is probably your greatest asset so make sure you recruit well. Each time you have a vacancy, be clear about the role before you start looking. Write down the requirements in a job description. Choose the most effective sources for candidates based on the type of role you are recruiting for recognising it won’t always be the same for every role. Try not to interview alone because two heads are better than one. Have a good range of interview questions so you get to know each candidate’s background, but also ask them to give you real life examples of where they have used key skills to make a difference. Use testing to put candidates through their paces and to provide objective data for comparison. Make full use of the probation period and don’t sign it off for anyone who doesn’t fit – remember you can always extend the period until you are certain.
10. Reward Staff
Your staff are essential to the success of your business so make sure you reward their effort, commitment and achievements. And don’t think it’s just about money. Recognition comes in many forms from a simple “thank you” for a job well done, to more extravagant celebrations of success. Listen to your staff to find out what motivates them and target rewards accordingly. When you have invested in training and developing good staff the last thing you need is for them to leave for a better offer. Make sure you retain talent by ensuring staff have no reason to look elsewhere because replacing a top performer costs a significant amount of time and money.
If you need assistance improving your business operations, book a call with Secantor. Our team of Operations, Finance and Non-Executive Directors have a huge depth of experience in building value in SME businesses.
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