Monitoring your business is a great way to ensure maximum productivity and profit. It doesn't matter whether you are a sole trader or have a team of employees, everyone needs to use their time and skills efficiently to maximise impact. Productivity is determined by many different factors which can include having the right procedures in place, prioritising workload and keeping yourself and any employees motivated.
A strategy is essential for any business. However, before you strategise, spend time analysing all your processes, what activities you carry out, why you carry them out, what the outcomes are and how you manage them. You can't map out your strategy until this exercise has been done. By having clear goals in place you can see what you are working towards. But remember: don't make the mistake of only planning for the here and now – if you are going to streamline your processes, you need to understand your long term objectives to make your business last.
Having a defined strategy is like setting yourself targets. These targets should be measurable by both personal and business growth. It could be something as simple as sales targets or making new business contacts. Achieving these targets can also really help motivate you and any team members.
Spend time looking at your daily activities: what are your time drains? If you take a step back and analyse how you use your time, I guarantee you will be amazed at how much time you waste. The key to good time management is discipline. An inventory of the working day should look at how much time is spent on meetings and tasks that don’t actually benefit the business. Be honest with yourself about the value of any meetings and what you aim to achieve from them. Meetings can easily become habit and end up being discussions with no discernible aim.Staff costs are always the biggest outgoing for small businesses, so it is vital you get the best out of your employees. There are many ways to keep your team motivated and productive. Many managers forget to simply say thank you and well done to their team. Feeling valued is essential for an employee’s motivation. Make sure your staff understand their roles and how they fit into the organisation, ensure they are being given the right guidance and training when it comes to doing their job. You cannot expect people to excel at their jobs if you don’t give them the right tools in the first place. Make sure you keep track of the work they are doing. It always strikes me as odd when companies fail to monitor their staff’s performance properly; you wouldn't run a car without checking its brakes and oil at regular intervals and a business should be no different.
It’s not only your team’s performance you need monitor but your own; after all no-one else is going to do it for you. I regularly take time out to look at my personal performance and question whether there are things to improve on or do differently. It can also be useful to get an outside perspective; when you are so involved in your business it can sometimes cloud your judgement, a fresh set of eyes can really help you see where improvements can be made. If you are too close to a situation it can become easy to miss the obvious.
No matter the size of the organisation, it is vital to continually look at performance and productivity. It’s simple. If you're not being as productive as you could be, you're losing money. By setting targets and goals and regularly reviewing performance you will help keep things fresh, maintain motivation and push your business forward.
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