Business efficiency shows how effectively a company creates products and provides services relative to the amount of money and time required to make this happen. Simply put, it illustrates the relationship between output and input.

The goal, of course, is to maximize your outputs while minimizing your inputs. To be successful in this formula and in business, you must make the most of your existing resources – be that technology, tools or talent.

Does making an effort to evaluate where you are today and make a plan to improve efficiency seem like a waste of time ... or just more busy work that sucks from your time each day? A business that improves its efficiency reduces waste, creates higher profits, builds a more productive – and satisfied – team members and even more satisfied customers. See your key goals on this list? Then read on for where to start evaluating your current efforts and making positive changes.

Here are some ways a business can improve efficiency:

• Provide the right tools: This could be new software or a training program for employees. These may pay for themselves as a result of improved sales or productivity. At Foster, we highly encourage testing out new tools to allow team members to better collaborate, brainstorm across multiple offices and track and share wins. Within the past year, we’ve implemented at least three platforms that are hitting all of these marks.
• Know what to cut: Analyze your processes and operations and look for ways to reduce complicated or redundant processes or procedures. In an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered world, automation is a powerful tool to leverage. AI can streamline everything from typing your voicemail and meeting notes to sending out weekly and monthly reports.
• Delegate: Don’t put too much work on too few people; spread the work around. Again, tools that help teams collaborate may be the answer here. Also, training is key so your backups have backups. At Foster, we hold Brown Bag sessions where staff can request training on a topic and all are invited to attend. Through this effort, we’ve quickly increased our depth of knowledge by four (4) times.
• Shorten your meetings each week: Make them focused and to the point. Overly long meetings cut into productive time. Sometimes, a quick 10-minute touch base can be just the thing to keep a project moving. Or, maybe a 30-minute download on all team efforts is a better fit. Perhaps an online real-time project management solution is better to eliminate a few meetings each week. In general, keep your team’s needs in mind, and if meetings are causing stress because you do not have time to actually work, try a new approach.
• Reduce multitasking: Give employees uninterrupted time to focus on one task at a time. At Foster, admittedly, we do a lot of multitasking because that is how we are wired. However, for detailed project work, our team has the freedom to safeguard time slots in Outlook to focus completely on projects. This not only allows our team to do their best work, but also, they are more productive because they have some control of how they will hit deadlines. Also, we highly value think time, allowing our team to ponder new solutions for us and our clients.
• Keep morale high: Make your employees feel that they are valued by the company. Provide constructive feedback and reward employees for a job well done. Foster has always put an emphasis on this, whether it is through growth opportunities, profit sharing or perks ... like hosting our corporate meetings on a Thursday and Friday in sunny Mexico so our team gets a fun-filled tropical weekend.

Want to jump start a team or personal training effort this week? Growing certain business skills is an important part of a company’s overall efficiency. Here are some key growth areas for developing your business skills that may be worth spending time on in the near future.

Visit LinkedIn Learning and do a search for more of the following – or just do a Google search – and jump in.

1. Time management
2. Team-building
3. Analysis
4. Negotiation
5. Problem solving
6. Sales and marketing
7. Financial management

These skills are a fundamental component of operating and managing a successful business. Cultivating these skills personally and within your team will help increase productivity and profits, maintain a positive company culture and build and maintain a strong customer base.

Want a quick way to make your marketing efforts more efficient? Call Foster Marketing today to get us onboard to create an integrated marketing communications plan and watch the action items being checked off your list. Call us at 281-448-3435 or email us today.