Let’s face it.
In today’s ever-changing environment and ever-growing consumer demands, expectations, and technological advances, competition in business is fierce.
Difficult as it is, however, the intelligent entrepreneur knows that increasing business productivity spells a great difference for any business.
What does business productivity mean?
Being productive does not mean your employees have to break their backs creating the products or services you offer. Just because they are busy doesn’t mean they are productive.
Nowadays, productivity means increasing efficiency in all areas of work. Productivity means continuous involvement and engagement.
For the businessman, this means finding the right tools to make work more efficient. Thus, a huge part of that productivity involves work management.
Five steps to increase business productivity
Analyze the situation
The first step to productivity is finding what your business needs are–including what your people need. Are you using the right tools?
Work can only be more efficient given the right environment and tools. Working with old, antiquated tools not only slows work down but also adds to the cost and waste your time.
For example, paperwork, balancing accounts, purchases, inventory, sales, and filling up forms are some of the biggest hassles in business but are the most important ones that need to be done. If your employees are using the manual method, these tasks will surely take most, if not all, of their time.
Organize
Once you know your business needs, it’s time for you to organize and categorize. Which issues are related to employees? Which problems are related to finances? How and how much are these obstacles affecting your overall business health? By categorizing your business needs, you will be able to find which elements of the business you need to prioritize.
Perhaps, at the top of your list is managing your finances. We all know how mismanaged finances can severely affect a business. Next could be ensuring the company morale is high and everyone is working towards a common goal–profitability.
Get the right tools
Now that you know what hinders your company from being productive and which of these hindrances you should deal with first, it’s time to look for the right tools.
Needless to say, using the wrong equipment can do more harm than good to your business. Imagine using the stairs going to your office, which is on the 14th floor! This is where you need to use the elevator.
But tools don’t always mean technology. It can be seminars or training that will enhance your employees’ skills. Nevertheless, ensuring your entire team is provided with the right instruments to accomplish their tasks.
Implement
Once you’re decided which tools to get, implement it. But note that this is not an easy part. It’s common for people to resist change, so expect complaints and passive-aggressive rejection of the new equipment and/or policies.
So as you implement, keep in mind that it may take some time before people completely accept it. It can also take time for people to get used to it. Provide some margin for the adjustment period. Also, it will help to let your employees understand the need for these tools.
Review and assess
Aiming for increased productivity does not end at implementing the new rules. You have to review and assess whether the changes are indeed working for the betterment of the company.
It’s fairly common to have this perfect scenario as we plan but does not work as expected (Read expectation vs. reality).
Reviewing these changes will help you see which aspects align with your objectives, meet goals, and which elements add value to your products or services.
Oojeema and business productivity
Oojeema online accounting system is a practical accounting solution that would suit your need to increase business productivity.
Because it has built-in BIR forms that are updated as you enter transactions, it means you only need to spend a few minutes generating BIR reports. What used to take hours can now be done in minutes, which translates to more time focusing on other aspects that matter in your business.
See this video of how it’s done:
With its cloud-based data retrieval capability, you can keep track of your business while you are on-the-go. Get reports and invoices when you need them. You can even reconcile balances by uploading your bank statements to the system. Imagine all the time and effort you could save!
The best part? Oojeema plans start at PhP800/month.