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4 steps to make more time for your small business

By Francesca Firth on Wed 09 April 2014 in CRM

Small businesses are great! Our years of experience working with SMEs in a wide variety of industries has taught us that the biggest problem SMEs face is, there just aren’t enough hours in the day. 

Those working within small businesses often find themselves wearing many different hats which can definitely take its toll. With economic growth on the increase the pressure on SMEs is only going to increase, so what can SMEs being pushed to the limits do cope?

  1. Hire more staff
    This is of course expensive, and the training required for new team members can put even more strain on staff, time and resources. Additionally, if your processes are only just managing to handle your current volume of sales then adding more inexperienced staff may lead to chaos.
  2. Outsourcing
    Outsourcing can be a great way to lighten the load of your staff and even get some specialist knowledge into your business. There are of course costs attached to this and you would need to manage the control of brand carefully. Don’t forget they will have less in-depth knowledge of your organisation. It is not impossible to control, but ensure you plan carefully describes the messages that should be conveyed by the third party.
  3. Refine your business processes
    Take some time to sit with your staff and watch how they carry out everyday tasks. You may find that there are ways you can refine their processes making them less time consuming.
  4. Invest in the right technology
    Technology is at the core of every business. It can help save time and money by increasing efficiency and reducing human error. However, some companies still don’t understand just how big an impact technology can have. For example a basic CRM system could increase efficiency by 30%. Integrate it to your accounts package and you could even reduce the amount of time staff spend on manual tasks (currently 12.5%), which costs businesses an average of £2.6 billion per week.

We learn from every business that we work with. If you want advice on how you can save yourself time and money by making your business processes more efficient call us on 01494 486 301 to book a free consultation.