Business owners focus on marketing, sales, and revenue but many never take the time to review their business process to find more earnings! Remember my favorite statement; “In business, you only have two things to invest: time and money, and you have a limited amount of both.” When you establish and or revue your business process, model, or plan; you should not only put financial resources but also time resources.
Action Items to consider:
- Are you maximizing your time and the time resources of your staff?
- How much time does it take for an average person to complete a task; not how long it takes you?
- How much do you need to pay for the time to get the task completed at an acceptable level?
- Can you save money by hiring or outsourcing tasks that you are doing? Make a list of the tasks you are doing and the amount of time each task takes. Then consider what it would cost to hire or outsource someone else to complete that task. Now consider; if you had that time free what could you do to grow your business and how much income would it produce? Then compare the numbers and make a decision. You should also do this analysis on your employees as you consider expansion.
- Do your business hours match when your customers are looking for you? If you are open when no one is coming in? Do you need to stay open later in the day? Do your employees have clear duties to perform during slower times?
- How much are losing from product returns, reworks, and wasted materials? How can you cut this amount down as there is no way to totally eliminate it.
- How much are you paying for services and what level of service are they providing. It costs you money if you or your staff have to deal with issues or working the system.
These things should be reviewed at least annually; I prefer reviewing them quarterly, especially in a seasonal business so that issues affecting the previous quarter are fresh on your mind.