7 ways to boost productivity levels in your start-up
Thursday 13th January 2022
If you have or are about to start a business you may well be aware that it is no mean feat. Setting one up and running it successfully is tricky, the majority of start-ups fail in the first 12 months.
You will be faced with many daily challenges, time management, funding, finding the right people to work with to learning new skills and are among a few of many and as a result you will need to look at ways of improving your chances of succeeding.
Improving productivity is a priority and when you are running a start-up you need to be aware of the processes that you can implement or change to maximise your chances of success, so we have put together 7 ways that will help make your start up more efficient and hopefully improve your chances of running a successful start-up business.
7 ways to boost productivity levels:
- Be efficient
- Improve your digital skills
- Ensure your business has structure
- Hire the right people
- Smart marketing
- Get good press
- Invest in the culture
1. Be efficient
Efficiency pays dividends, don’t waste time on meaningless tasks and identify tasks that can be automated. Make sure if you have employees that you are utilising the talents they have to benefit the business, don’t have them working on unskilled tasks if they have selling or marketing skills for example. Use online tools for automating tasks like data entry and arranging meetings.
Outsource time consuming and menial tasks to other companies that have been set up to provide this service, it’s a more cost effective and efficient use of everyone’s time.
Don’t micromanage and allow your staff to have autonomy, you will struggle to boost productivity if you think you have to do everything yourself, there aren’t enough hours in the day.
Make sure you review and change your operations regularly and keep up to date with your employees to see what can be altered to improve their productivity.
Go paperless, this will save time and money plus a lot of effort
2. Improve your digital skills
Being digitally savvy means having an understanding of emerging technologies that will have an impact on your start-up’s success over the next decade. In the current climate, having digital skills and awareness of how new technologies fit into your strategy will improve your ability to compete. Failing to have access to these means you run the risk of falling by the wayside as competitors take advantage and move ahead of you.
There are many free online training tools that will teach what you need to know, take advantage of them, in order to be innovative and one step ahead it helps to be aware of upcoming technologies how you can utilise them to your advantage.
3. Ensure your business has structure
Make sure everyone in your organisation knows what their roles are. This will avoid the time wasting from duplication of tasks and confusion around not knowing what each employee is responsible for. Knowing your role allows you to take ownership and responsibility for it, this is empowering and will maximise your chances of success as a business.
Having a sense of responsibility and accountability are crucial to a start-up’s success. Empower your team to work from anywhere at anytime
Visit our cash flow resource hub for more cash flow finance advice, tips and resources
4. Hire the right people
The people you hire will determine your culture; each and every employee will contribute to that. The people you work with are as important as the job itself so it is important that you are clear when recruiting that each potential employee is aware of who you are as a business and the type of person you are looking to attract.
Take your time when choosing who to employ, use a recruitment consultant if you think it would help and make sure that who you hire fits in with the team and are aligned with your business ideas and culture.
Be aware of the working environment you are creating, try to make sure that it fits with the happiness and wellbeing of your employees allowing them to balance work and home life.
5. Smart marketing
There are many ways to market your product and many ways of wasting money marketing so be smart, identify the tools that can help you market effectively and efficiently. Think for yourself and use your initiative but also ask people who have successful start-ups for advice on how they did it, gather as much information as possible on new channels that can drive your message through.
Effective marketing can be costly but you can also find ways of marketing your product for free...keep an open mind.
6. Get good press
Find ways to promote a message that will capture the attention of the public. You can look at sponsoring events, making charitable donations from sales, producing sustainable products or making contributions to sustainability from every sale.
Be aware of current trends and use these to your advantage, make sure the message you send is clear and simple.
7. Invest in culture
Be clear on what kind of culture and values your start up stands for and make sure you communicate this early on with your team and with your customers, make sure you have a strategy to communicate effectively with them.
Finally remember to also enjoy your life, make time for other activities and look after yourself. A healthy body and mind will translate to a better working environment for everyone and a greater likelihood of success.
