Five tips for increasing business efficiency

Time is money when you’re a business owner. The more efficient you are with your time, the more profitable your work and the more time you have to bring in new income.

Though when you’re a small business owner who wears all the hats in your business and a mumpreneur balancing many roles, time is also sanity. The more efficient you can be with your time, the less overwhelmed you feel and the more work/life balance you can achieve.

So here are five tips to help you boost your business efficiency and work smarter not harder:

1. Focus on what you do best and outsource the rest

As one person, you can only do so much in your business, especially when you are juggling multiple roles at home and in business. So instead of trying to do everything yourself, focus on your key strengths and outsource the rest to employees, freelancers, specialist organisations or alliances, depending on what suits your business model best.

Having a strong, trusted team of people you can delegate tasks to, and the systems and procedures to support this process, can help your business become more efficient and increase its capacity to earn.

2. Systemise your business

Automate and systemise your business to be more efficient. Develop scripts, create templates of frequently used documents, forms, quotes and emails, and write and schedule auto-responders, social media updates and blog posts. Constantly be looking for ways to make tasks easier and more streamlined.

If you are outsourcing or looking to outsource tasks it’s also a good idea to put together flow charts, checklists and step-by-step guides so you can outsource tasks easily with minimal direction.

3. Leverage technology

With laptops, smartphones, tablets and innovative programs and apps, running your business efficiently and on-the-go has never been easier.

From bookkeeping and billing to client relations and marketing campaign management, there are so many ways to use technology in your business to reduce the time you spend on tasks and make the time spent more productive.

You can uncover relevant programs and apps by doing a Google search, reading blogs and app guides or asking those you know what works for them.

4. Know your finances

Being informed financially is a key part of being efficient in business. When you know the financial position of your business you make smarter business decisions and you are more strategic about how you use your resources.

Looking at your profit and loss, assured income verses expenses, break-even point and working budget regularly, ensures you not only operate within your means, but are also more efficient in getting from where you are now to where you want to be.

5. Make sure marketing is targeted to your audience

To make your marketing more efficient and your budget go further, focus your marketing efforts towards the people who are most likely to buy from you. By identifying your most profitable target markets you can determine what message to target them with and where, when and how to reach them.

When you do a little research and take a strategic approach to your marketing, you not only save more time, money and effort, you also make more money through sales due to more relevant and targeted marketing messages.

Do you have any tips for improving business efficiency?