The best businesses are efficient businesses. The more efficient you can be, the more return on investment (ROI) you will make. If you are inefficient, you could be losing as much as a third of your overall income; this is clearly something that needs to be remedied. Over time what was once a state-of-the-art process is now either redundant or slow at best. You need to adopt a change mindset that allows you to make changes to your business all the time to eliminate inefficiencies, simplify processes and streamline your business. To help you out, here are a few ways you can do that:

Identify the Processes that Work and the Ones That Don’t

If you want to simplify things, then you need to know what is going on. So that means you need to work out what is going on in the business. So, talk to your staff and create a process audit. Create a list of all the processes, how they work, why they are being undertaken etc., speak to your staff, and work out which ones are working and the ones which aren’t so much. You may be able to find a few tasks that you can eliminate off the bat and others that can be upgraded. The people that do the job will know what is going on, so it is vital you get the benefits and pitfalls of each process from them. Once you have a handle on the situation, you can begin to simplify the processes that are highlighted as needing changing.

Automation

Automating processes is one way you can simplify and speed them up. This is a great way to stop time being wasted on slow manual tasks too. There are also a lot of new programs out there to make your life in business easier. Consider things like Artificial, which can make it easier to underwrite. There is a lot of software out there for your business type. Just do some investigation and discover what is right for you. 

Create New Business Plan

A business plan at any stage of your business life is always a good idea. It can help you work out what areas of your business are profitable and scale up and others that are more trouble than they are worth. Writing a business plan allows you to look at your company and really analyze the data as it is. It is a way to help you take out the emotion. You may be quite fond of certain areas, but when you investigate, you discover that these areas are dragging your business down. One thing that may affect efficiency is trying to do too many things. If you have a small business, you need to make one area work at a time. It may be time to start scaling back and putting more resources into the areas that are profitable and start opening your business up in that arena. A business plan can help you make these changes while following a plan of action. 

Summary

Efficiency is crucial for businesses to achieve a higher ROI, and inefficient businesses may lose up to a third of their income. Thus, businesses should constantly adopt a change mindset to eliminate inefficiencies, simplify processes, and streamline operations. To achieve this, businesses can identify processes that work and the ones that don’t by conducting a process audit, automating processes, and creating a new business plan. Automating processes saves time and reduces manual tasks, while a business plan can help businesses identify profitable areas to scale up and eliminate unprofitable ones.

Originally Published on https://www.breakfastleadership.com/

Michael Levitt Chief Burnout Officer

Michael D. Levitt is the founder & Chief Burnout Officer of The Breakfast Leadership Network, a San Diego and Toronto-based burnout consulting firm. He is a Keynote speaker on The Great Resignation, Quiet Quitting and Burnout. He is the host of the Breakfast Leadership show, a Certified NLP and CBT Therapist, a Fortune 500 consultant, and author of his latest book BURNOUT PROOF.