10 top tips for boosting your business' productivity

Do you feel that the cogs in your business could be spinning faster? As well as ensuring strong growth and sustainability, another factor to consider is productivity. Possessing a high productivity rate means that your operations are both efficient and cost-effective, allowing you to produce and provide more and more goods and services each day. This, in turn, generates larger profits and gives you room to reward your employees. However, maximising productivity isn’t easy, especially among the SME community. But with sufficient levels of funding and a clear strategy in place, increased productivity can be achieved. So if you feel that you’re not getting the most from your business’ operations and that there’s room for improvement, here are our 10 top tips for boosting productivity.

1. Invest in your business

At the heart of the success of any business lies the need for investment. Having access to external funding opportunities is vital if you’re to scale up and enhance your business’ operations. If you’re looking to introduce new equipment, install higher quality IT systems, acquire fresh talent, train existing staff or extend your current facilities, making sure that you’re fully aware of what funding opportunities are available will prove invaluable in allowing you to achieve your short and long-term goals. But with so many different products and lenders to choose from, speaking to a qualified business finance professional needs to be a priority.

Looking for more ways to boost your business’ productivity? Need help gain access to the necessary funds? Apply for Business Finance to day or learn more about how your business could benefit.

2. Expand into more markets

Although you may have already gained a tangible presence in your local area, you must also seek to expand your horizons as well. By pushing your goods and services into other national or international markets you could expand the presence of your business and grow your customer base, earning you even more monthly revenue. Plus, it’s also worth noting that as a result of the decreased value of the pound sterling, your business’ exports may have gained additional appeal in foreign markets. So if your goods and services are proving popular in your local area, you may wish to consider what benefits expanding into new markets has to offer.

3. Become more innovative

Another way of increasing productivity is through innovation. Innovation allows you to find new ways to refine the goods and services that you offer, as well as how they’re produced and distributed. As such, increasing innovation may help enhance the quality of what you’ve got to offer, reinforcing your business’ reputation and appeal, and earning you more money in the long run. Although stimulating innovation can be difficult for SMEs who aren’t cash-rich, a lack of it may lead to unnecessary strain upon your working capital, slower operation times and could make you less competitive. So if innovation is an area in which your business could improve, know that there are plenty of business finance solutions available that could help.

4. Introduce technology

Technology is now playing a larger role in the global business community. As well as automating vital everyday processes to save you and your staff time, Cloud technology is also enhancing our ability to communicate and collaborate over large distances. You and your staff can now instantly access vital information or collaborate on the same document in real time from anywhere in the world. What this means for your business is faster, smarter and more concise operations, presenting you with yet another way to boost productivity.

5. Bring on board fresh talent or provide training opportunities

As your business develops you should also look into hiring fresh talent and enhancing the skills of your existing team. With all the necessary skills to enrich your business, you can look into discovering new ways to further refine your goods, services and operations. This is vital in retaining the attention of your customers and keeping them satisfied. As such, if you’re able to attract new employees and present clear career development opportunities, your business will continue to grow and achieve a greater rate of productivity.

6. Leadership

As well as introducing new skills to your business in order to progress, you also need to consider how your team is managed. Although some SME owners may be wary of spreading management responsibilities to other staff members, failing to do so can be damaging to your business. With a large team at your disposal, monitoring each of their individual tasks can prove problematic and lead to reduced productivity. But by offering career-advancing opportunities, you can still retain control over your business by elevating experienced staff members into senior management positions, meaning your management team can monitor day-to-day operations and create detailed reports on your behalf.

7. Increase customer awareness through marketing

Marketing is yet another crucial aspect of running a business that you can’t afford to neglect. If you’re not advertising your goods and services to your target audience, how will they know to approach your business? By developing your own website you can inform potential customers of your goods and services. A reliable blog can also present you with a cost-effective means of sharing information and attracting the attention of your market. This can be a great way of converting enquiries into sales and starting conversations online. Plus, linking your website with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software means you’ll be in a stronger position to deal with enquiries and interact with your customers. Therefore, marketing your business by using all the tools at your disposal means you can spread your message more fluently, improve customer relations, drive sales and further enhance productivity.

8. Workplace environment

Keeping your staff happy and contented is vital for making them more productive. If there are any changes being proposed to how your business operates, engaging their thoughts on the matter before going ahead can make them feel more involved and valued, and raise any potential issues beforehand. Plus, as well as creating neat and tidy staff areas, you may also want to consider introducing flexible working hours. This will help your staff manage their work-life balance, making them feel more comfortable with their position and less likely to move on.

9. Time management

Becoming your own boss is quite the responsibility. As well as having to monitor your business’ operations, finances, human resources, tending to customer enquiries and so on, you also have to make sure that you’re managing your time effectively. Every day you need to check what tasks need to be dealt with as a priority, how much time you intend to spend on each and establish a ‘Will do’ list rather than a ‘To do list’. This will help ensure that you’re not bogged down by any trivial matters that can be resolved later and maximise productivity.

10. Partnerships and supply chains

Finally, another way of enhancing your business’ productivity is by partnering with or passing some responsibilities over to other companies relevant to your sector. Doing so you could save your business time, allowing you to focus your resources on other areas and seize vital opportunities. By outsourcing some your day-to-day tasks you may be able to find even more ways further stimulate productivity.

Need help increasing your business’ productivity?

In order to produce quality goods and services, whilst retaining a high profit margin, productivity needs to be at the top of your agenda. However, keeping your business’ cogs turning isn’t easy, especially if you lack the necessary funds to do so. But thanks to the Alternative Finance Industry you could gain access to a wide range of business finance solutions that be used to optimise and refine your day-to-day operations. All you need to do is source an appropriate finance solution that takes into account your goals and financial situation. Fortunately for you, we’ve already done the hard work.

Rangewell is an Access to Finance specialist, working with over 300 lenders, to offer you an overview of more than 23,000 business finance products. Our services are free to use and we’ll also guide through the application process. We’re with you every step of the way. So if you’re looking to gain access to external funding opportunities in order to raise productivity, apply for a Business Finance solution today or find out more with Rangewell.