Running your own business can be an incredibly rewarding career path. Not only are you able to bring your creative vision to life, but you can also conduct business according to your preferences, manage your own schedule, and more. On the flip side, the many tasks that make up your daily agenda tend to add up pretty quickly, leaving little time in the day to get to other important aspects of your life and your business.
Lucky for you, we’ve identified four ways to run a more efficient business. From delegating tasks to automating processes and honing organization, there are plenty of ways you can save time and start focusing on your most critical tasks once again.
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1. Learn how to hire the best
Business owners have a tendency to want control over every part of their business, not to micromanage, but to ensure that everything their company touches reveals them in the most positive light. Although you may want to supervise all aspects of your small business, it’s really not possible to do so in a way that’s effective. That’s where the importance of hiring comes in — of course, you can’t just hire anyone and call it good.
In order to hire high-quality employees, you’ll need to follow some hiring best practices:
- Write accurate job descriptions: One of the most important steps to take when you post a job listing is to craft an accurate and enticing job description. By outlining the respective responsibilities of a role, job applicants know exactly what to expect, the experience and education necessary, and more.
Displaying this information from the start gives you the chance to attract qualified job seekers that are looking for the type of role that you’re offering. In addition to listing job duties, you should also include any perks offered like 401k plans, commissions programs, etc. that might sweeten the deal.
- Evaluate beyond resumes: Once you have a solid repository of resumes, you’ll probably want to start phone screening or interviewing candidates. While it may be tempting to only look at hard skills like data analysis, game development, marketing, and project management, you should also look for soft skills such as communication skills, teamwork, leadership, and flexibility. Hiring an employee that has a good balance of hard and soft skills will be more meaningful when it comes to delegating tasks and improving retention.
After you’ve built a strong team, make sure that you instill the confidence in them to get the job done on their own — employees often don’t like hand-holding, so make sure you’ve hired a team you can trust.
2. Identify your strengths and weaknesses
As we mentioned, it can be a big challenge for small business owners to surrender control over things on their to-do list. However, learning how to delegate effectively is crucial to your stability as an individual and as a business. If you’re unsure which tasks you want to delegate, start by identifying your strengths and weaknesses.
For example, if you’re not great at storefront skills like keeping inventory organized and clean, you might have another employee take the lead on this while you take on accounting practice management to make sure your finances are in order. Knowing where your skills shine is important in any career, but especially so when you’re running your own business.
3. Automate as needed
Thanks to modern technology, there’s plenty of opportunity to automate your business. From sales and marketing workflows to HR processes, you can save tons of time by taking advantage of these technologies. Because most small businesses don’t have big profit margins to work with, you’ll need to choose the technologies you invest in carefully.
Here are some tips to help you do so:
- Always try out free demos before committing
- Ask to talk with a salesperson to learn all of the capabilities of a product
- Inquire about small business rates
- Consider the problems that the product could fix, and ask yourself if there are alternatives
4. Review and reevaluate
Life as a small business owner is all about learning. As you tailor efficiency within your organization, always take time to review and reevaluate your progress with your team. Identifying issues in an early stage will prevent you from having to clean up a big mess later on.
Which of these tips are you most excited to try? Drop us a comment below!
