Quick Tips for Better Small Business Productivity

Small business productivity is crucial for success

Small business organization and productivity is crucial to  success. For a small business to run efficiently, the owner and employees need to have a strong understanding of operations, systems, scheduling and overall expectations. In most small businesses, there’s always some point in time where constant demands, paperwork and deadlines start to wear you down.

When working within your small business, you may begin to overlook some critical things that people from outside your business notice immediately. Here at ScheduleBase, we are reminding you of a few quick and easy tips to organize your small business today and provide for a better work experience overall for you and your employees.

1. Lose Paper for Good

One of the most obvious negative factors on small business resources are paper. Small businesses have been trying to reduce their reliance on paper for quite awhile as most owners realize it’s a significant expense. No matter how good your filing system may be, paper creates inefficiency and cost.

To get your small business more organized, consider where paper could be replaced with electronic methods. Investigate where existing systems could be extended to offer additional paper-saving costs and be surprised at how much it affects your bottom line.

2. Have a Work Process

How does your small business operate? How do tasks actually get completed each day? If you don’t know, then your business can definitely benefit from a better work process.

When implementing a strong work process, it will give an accurate understanding of your business from an organizational perspective. Every small business owner should understand the current strengths and weaknesses of how things are done throughout the business. Having a work process will also help you identify aspects of your small business where people or resources are underutilized.

3. Improve Training Methods

Occasionally businesses have problems with organization simply because employees do not fully understand what is required of them. Without a clear understanding of your company’s common goals and working methods, your staff cannot be expected to work in the way you want them to.

It is therefore essential to train employees at every stage of their employment with your small business to create a culture focused on shared outcomes. Although employees will probably be able to operate within their own space effectively, without a clear understanding of wider goals they will be unable to align their own activities to meet them and your expectations.

Small business training is also essential to ensure staff members adhere to new best practices as soon as they are identified. New equipment, methodologies or concepts will also need to be communicated clearly to staff to ensure your small business gains the best return on investment.

4. Utilize Simple Online Scheduling Software

Often managers and small business staff schedulers think of scheduling as the process of writing down the schedule for an upcoming week or month and posting it near a punch clock or employee entrance.

However, simply creating a small business employee schedule is just the first of many steps in maintaining an effective system. It’s all too common for many employees to ask for a change to accommodate last minute requests such as appointments or even for an employee to simply forget about a scheduled shift. The result is a revised schedule with pen marks, erased names and drastic changes leading to frustration for schedulers.

Utilizing online employee scheduling software can help you streamline your small business employee scheduling process. Making a change to a scheduling solution which
allows your employees to communicate availability without stopping by, calling, or leaving a note on your desk could eliminate many of the frustrating tasks you endure with your current scheduling method.

About ScheduleBase

ScheduleBase is online employee scheduling software from Atlas Business Solutions, the leader in providing employee scheduling software. In little to no time, businesses can schedule employees online and communicate work schedules by email, text message and mobile device. Put your scheduling online and save time and money while offering your employees easier access to their schedules and an effective communication tool for you.