5 Ways to Boost Your Productivity While Keeping Expenses Down

All business owners are interested in boosting productive. Being more productive means generating more output, which means more sales, and, if you’re smart about your money, more profit.

But that’s the catch. We all know that it takes money to make money, which is why it’s so important to invest in your business. But throwing cash at a problem isn’t going to fix anything, which makes knowing where to invest in your business so important

However, there are other ways to grow your business and its productivity without having to incur additional expenses, or at least without having to spend a fortune. Here are five that are going to be successful, and that you should consider implementing in your business, or your personal life, as soon as you can.

Automate

Nearly everyone, except perhaps younger Millennials who grew up with it, should have at least one moment throughout the day where technology amazes them. The pace of advancement over the past thirty years is really remarkable, and all of this means that there are now more technological solutions to our problems than ever before.

In your business, this means one thing: automation. So many parts of your business can be automated, from email and social media to payroll, accounting, inventory, and much more. You may need to invest a small bit in the beginning to get the right software, but then all that’s required from you is to sit back and enjoy your smart decision.

But perhaps the best thing that automation does for us in terms of productivity is that it provides us with lots of easy-to-read data. Whether its website analytics, customer behavior reports, revenue trends, or chatbot conversations, most automated solutions out there will compile relevant data and present it to you in a way that’s easy to understand. Doing this on your own would take ages, yet you still need it. Automation just gets it to you more quickly and cheaply.

Outsource

Next to automation, outsourcing is going to be your best friend. When most of us think of growing our business and expanding productivity, the first thing that often comes to mind is the need to expand your workforce, which we all know is expensive.

However, there are a lot of other options. The rapidly growing gig economy means there are all sorts of qualified professionals out there willing to do the work you need without you having to hire them full-time.

This can be great if you’re looking to launch a new campaign, or if you need some help collecting and analyzing data. Additionally, since freelancers compete with one another all over the world, you can usually find some great value out there that will help push your business forward without breaking the bank.

Go Remote

One option for boosting productivity that most people don’t think of is expanding your remote work options. This has two main benefits:

This might seem a bit strange, but it makes sense when you think about it. Allowing people the freedom to work from home, and possibly to set their own hours, allows them to have more balance in their lives, which makes it easier for them to take advantage of their time, increasing output and productivity. If your business is going ahead with remote working, it might be worth getting some tools set in place to make the process easier for all employees. Perhaps some telecommunication solutions would be a good idea. That would make it much easier for employees to communicate quickly with other employees to make vital business decisions or to collaborate on work projects. To learn more about that sort of business phone system, it might be worth visiting Gamma.co.uk (click here). Hopefully, that will make it easier for employees to work, increasing productivity.

Lots of workers do prefer the remote setup. For proof, just ask how many people waste time at their jobs. Many will say “a lot,” and this is because they are required to be there even when there isn’t work for them to be do, which makes them more resentful and less likely to be productive when the time does come to get things done.

Focus on Engagement

An engaged workforce is more productive because people feel more connected to the work they are doing, which encourages them to go above and beyond the bare minimum. Managers learned long ago that the way to increase productivity is not to tell people to work more hours, but rather to help them make more use out of the hours they spend at work. Monthly or quarterly work assessment meetings, followed by engaging activities such as ice breaker questions, games, and other things largely boost employee morale and tend to increase work efficiency.

Engaged employees also feel they have more balance in their lives. They see the work they do as a necessary part of their entire lives, and this encourages them to dedicate more of their productive time to it.

However, boosting employee engagement is not something that’s easily done. In fact, in most places, engagement still seems to be a major issue. But there are many ways to boost employee engagement. Check them out and think about implementing those that make the most sense for your company.

Build a Feedback Culture

Lastly, a key way of getting more productive is to find out where you’re wasting time and resources so that you can optimize and get more for less. But sometimes it’s a lot harder than we want it to be to pinpoint exactly where waste is and how it can be eliminated.

Luckily, though, you can set up your company so that it does this on its own, and this will not cost you much at all. The trick is to work to build a feedback culture into what you do. This means that everyone in the company is encouraged to speak up and offer suggestions as to how things could be improved.

You could do this in an informal way, although you’ll likely get better results if you take it more seriously. Hold monthly optimization meetings so that people can discuss where they think you could be doing better, and make it a point to ask people during your one-on-one meetings what things they would like to see changed.

This last point is especially important in the beginning because people are often timid when first asked to speak about this stuff. Having the conversation in a more intimate setting can encourage a more open dialogue.

More Productivity Doesn’t Need to Cost You More

You’ll always need to invest in your business. This will never change. However, if you focus on the things we’ve discussed today, then you will be able to boost productivity, and hopefully profits, in a way that also helps keep expenses down, positioning your company nicely for healthy, sustained growth for the foreseeable future.

Author: Oliver Curtis

Hi there. I’m Oliver. I’m just a young boy from the outskirts of… Okay, that’s a lie, I’m not a young boy anymore, although I certainly feel that way at heart.