Business spend more money than necessary to run their business. This money could be better spent on marketing, product development, business expansion or take home profits.
Usually when there is business inefficiency the first thought is to get better computers, new phones better software etc . For the best results however this should be the last step. So what do you do?
Here are six secrets for successful business improvement:
- Establish a vision for what you would like to achieve (where to get to)
- Review and document how things work now. Be clear about:
- The flow of information
- Who does what
- When do they do it
- What IT systems are used
- How long it all takes
- The results you are getting, the good and particularly the bad
- Develop an Improvement Plan. Treat change to your business as a project and think about:
- Your Objectives. Your key aims of what you want to achieve
- Your scope of what you will do and what you will not do
- Your Approach. Will you do it yourself or hire an expert
- Time lines
- A business case. What is the cost of change versus benefit
- Potential project risks
- Based on your vision and business goals start with business processes improvement first. In what order will tasks and information be processed to achieve the best result with the least amount of effort and time.
- Think about the people. What training and support do they need to be able to follow the new processes? Make sure you document roles and responsibilities!
- Once you’ve done the above now start thinking about IT systems and software.
- Process, People and then Technology