SYLVIANE NUCCIO

One of the biggest and most important things you should be focusing on within your business is saving time. Saving time in all of the areas that you can allow you to spend more time on the things that are most important, get more done, and make more money. Time is money in business, and wasting it can be one of the most expensive mistakes that you make.

Below, we’re going to discuss 11 tips to help you save time in your business. Take a look, and if you’re not currently using these methods, implement them now!

1. Reduce Downtime

Business downtime can cost even the smallest of businesses thousands. The cost of a security breach can be huge in terms of time, money, and not to mention your reputation. It’s much better to spend money now on securing data so that you don’t have to worry about rectifying a problem later on. Especially in the early stages of business, you really can’t afford to compromise your security.

You wouldn’t believe the number of businesses that just assume it’ll never happen to them and continue doing what they are doing with no real safety measures in place. Not only will this cost you money in the lost business right off the bat, but it’ll also cost you money to rectify, and could cost you in terms of lost clients. You can reduce your downtime by putting proper security measures in place now.

2. Go Paperless

Going paperless and keeping important information and documents on the cloud can help you to save a lot of time when it comes to hunting for a document that you need, for whatever reason. You’ll find it in a matter of moments, as opposed to spending half the day looking for a file that got lost down the back of a cabinet. You can go paperless with client invoices, expense receipts, and all kinds of other things. Not only will this make your life easier and save you time, but it will also prevent anything from happening to important documents in the event of a break in or natural disaster. However, you will have to implement security measures, such as security software, and best practices to prevent data theft.

3. Keep Employees Motivated

Your employees are the most important people to your business, so why do most businesses not treat them as such? Keeping your employees happy and motivated is the key to making sure they are working hard for you and putting out as much quality work as they possibly can. You can keep your employees motivated by asking how you can make their lives easier, listening to them, having an open door policy, providing incentives, and doing other things to ensure they know that they matter to you.

4. Use the Right Software and Technology

If you’re not currently using software and technology to save time in your business and make things easier, you’re missing out! You could be saving a ton of time by using the right technology for your business, and you could even make more money because of it. Chances are, if you’re spending time on a process that you do a lot, there’s technology that can help you to speed things up. Even things like mobile device management for organizations can help you to become more productive and hurry things along.

5. Automate

Some software and technology can also help you to automate certain processes. Chances are, if you do something often enough, it can be automated. Automating basic processes can be a wonderful way to free up more time and even eliminate human error.

6. Outsource

Outsourcing is a great way to free up time, providing you choose to outsource to the right company or freelancer. It isn’t usually a good idea to outsource something that will have direct contact with the consumer, but there may be exceptions. When looking to outsource, you should ask yourself some questions so you can figure out whether it’s a good idea:

• Could we do this better ourselves if we had more time?
• Does this have direct contact with consumers and could it affect our reputation if it’s no good?
• Could this service affect our brand image in some way?

There are many more questions you can ask, too. Outsourcing is a great idea for the most part, but it shouldn’t be taken lightly.

7. Hire the Right People

If you need to hire people, taking the time to ensure these people are the best hires for your company will save you time in the long run. Remember, the person with the most experience isn’t always the best hire, as they can be stuck in their ways and unwilling to change! Don’t just look at experience, look at other qualifications, personality, and even life experiences. Make sure they are the type of employee you want and fit in with your company culture and the rest of the team.

8. Get Rid of the Dead Weight

Do you have employees that just aren’t pulling their weight? It could be time to get rid of them. It can be tough to let people go, but this is a business, and if they aren’t doing it for you anymore, it’s time to do something about it. Of course, it’s unlikely legal to just get rid of them right off the bat. You’ll need to give them a warning and provide them with ways they can improve. If this is not acted upon, then you can get rid of them knowing you tried everything possible.

9. Sign the Right Clients

Taking the wrong kinds of customers should be avoided. You don’t have to work with every single client, just because you can. Make sure you know that a client is a right fit for you. Some can be more hassle than they are worth.

10. Stop Multitasking

Multitasking is a killer. The belief that we can multitask is really an illusion. You can usually get something done faster and to a higher quality when you focus on that thing at the time

11. Get Rid of Pointless Meetings

Meetings can be replaced with group emails, Skype, and even collaboration software. They aren’t needed as often as you might think. Be sure that your meeting is absolutely necessary before you schedule it for you and your employees that could be doing something more useful.