4 Ways to Improve Small Business Efficiency

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How to Improve Small Business Efficiency

You’ve likely heard “team productivity,” “company efficiency,” and “performance” dozens of times. But after a while, they start to lose their meaning. So, let’s start with the basics. What is efficiency? 

📚 Business Efficiency Definition: Efficiency refers to how much output you receive for your input. 👐

For instance, it may take your team five hours (input) to produce one email (output). However, you may prefer a different result for the amount of time, like five hours to create two emails or three hours for one email. Ideally, you want results that exceed your effort.

🤫 Pssst… Are you tired of confusing business jargon blocking your growth in the workplace? Use our procedure definition guide to add relevant process words to your vocabulary.

Tip #1: Document Issues

Looking at your internal systems with a magnifying glass can be daunting, especially when you know that issues exist. But that’s where many small businesses find solutions to their most pressing problems. 🔍

According to our free Systemization Snapshot™ audit, 79% of teams DON’T track mistakes or errors. 😱 

We asked these participants how often a mistake or customer demand derails their team’s daily plans.

Their response? A few times per week or even daily. Let this information sink in!

This shocking data suggests that at least 80% of small businesses DON’T have a strategy to guide them through each quarter. Instead, they constantly adapt to unpredictable situations.

This approach to operating a business is not only unsustainable, but it’s a one-way ticket to burnout town. 😫

While there’s a place and time for preparing like a firefighter, you shouldn’t have to put out fires all the time. So, how can you go from one extreme to fixing your processes so your business runs like a well-oiled machine? 

📝 Document issues and identify recurring barriers in your small business. 

By understanding your weak links, you’ll be ahead of the 79% of small teams that continue to operate this way. From there, you can implement a prevention plan to reduce the likelihood of the same problems happening again. 

📢 Freebie & program shoutout: Wondering if your business is systemized? Take our free audit, Systemization Snapshot™, to discover where your team ranks in efficiency. You can also join the waitlist for our signature program, ProcessDriven Foundations™, to work with our team and start implementing processes that will empower your staff!

Tip #2: Reduce Meetings With a Shared Task List

Our survey also concluded that 39% of small teams require conversations or meetings before completing tasks. While we’re fans of clear communication (hello, CARS method 👋), having every team member check in on simple statuses with each other consumes more time than you realize. 

Rather than scheduling meetings to review everyone’s to-dos, you can cut a five-minute conversation down to a 20-second read. 

💡 Reduce meetings and multiple pings with a shared task list! 

A shared task list lets your employees find relevant information quickly via subtasks without jumping on a short call. Then, you can save your meetings for innovative conversations to help your business scale. 

Tip #3: Diminish Risks

Remember our first tip about documenting your business issues? You can use that data to create a prevention plan. As the name implies, a prevention plan is a strategy that helps your team fix issues and ensure they don’t happen again. 🙅‍♀️  

Taking preventative action may be the last thing on your mind, especially when balancing daily demands. But, it’s a forward-thinking approach that can improve small business efficiency by a long shot. 

Our survey asked what small teams do if something goes wrong. 59% replied that they either panic or fix the issue and move on. 🔧

👉 Do you fall in the panic category? If so, take this as a sign to start tracking your mistakes and establishing a game plan to ensure they don’t occur in the future!

At ProcessDriven, we choose to view every challenge as a learning opportunity. Thinking this way allows us to create prevention plans for the future and continually evolve. For example, a client informed us about a broken link on our website. So, we updated the link and created a routine task to audit parts of our website every 3-6 months. Round of applause for taking action! 👏

Your team can beat 60% of other small businesses by simply:

🧠 Learning from your mistakes.
✨ Trying something different whenever things go awry.

Tip #4: Identify Types of Business Risks 

Small businesses often encounter risks like: 

👋 Employees quitting.
👋 Staff members getting sick. 
👋 People going on vacation. 

People risk has a significant impact on small businesses. When one or more of your employees take time off, that sudden unavailability can cause a lot of strain. For instance, you may wonder:

❓ Who will take over their workload?
❓ Does the new assignee have the capacity to manage more tasks?
❓ How will we complete projects while they’re gone? 
❓ Will we have to push back deadlines?
❓ What will we say to our clients?

And the list can go on and on… 

Imagine your most irreplaceable team member leaving for four weeks. What would happen? 

When we asked this question in the survey, 88% of participants confessed they would struggle or stop operating altogether. Read that one more time! 🔎

9% acknowledged that it would be better if the four weeks were pre-planned, while 79% admitted they would still struggle or cease operations for planned departures. This statistic reveals an even bigger problem: Many small businesses are uncomfortable with the basic employee necessity of taking time off. 

So, what can you and the 79% do to avoid shutting down in this scenario? 👇

✅ Identify these risks: Consider what would happen if vital employees left for a few weeks. What would go wrong? Why would you struggle? Why would you stop operations? Would you stall any activities?
✅ Establish and implement a prevention plan: Be well-equipped if and when a staff member goes on vacation, gets sick, or quits.  
✅ Use these opportunities for company growth: If you want to expand your team, consider hiring someone to manage your weaker areas and ensure you don’t depend on a single person to carry your operations. If they leave, you can rest easy knowing your business will stay open. 

Improve Small Business Efficiency Today

Your process is foundational to building a well-oiled machine. Like a car, your organization requires check-ins and tune-ups to ensure it continues to run smoothly. That’s where a systemized and intentional approach comes into the picture! 🧰  

Without clear direction, your small business is like a survival raft floating among the waves. Every day feels like an episode of Survivor where you ask yourself if you’ll make it through the day, week, or month.  

Luckily, it doesn’t have to be this way. Consider turning a new leaf today by:

🍃 Tracking issues that occur.
🍃 Reducing unnecessary meetings. 
🍃 Implementing preventative measures when work mistakes and unpredictable things happen.
🍃 Identifying and planning for significant risks so you have a solid game plan.

Start your system-building journey by taking our free audit, Systemization Snapshot™, to discover how efficient your operations, task management, and knowledge documentation are.

Then, use the results to inspire you to turn chaos into process! 💪