Positive cash flow is crucial to success in business. Simply put, you need to have more money coming in than going out. Whether you’re flying solo or operating with a full staff, the more productive you can be, the better. But what happens if you’re getting all the work you can out of your current team, but you don’t want to make the financial commitment necessary to add salaried employees? Here are a few productivity hacks that can help you without blowing your budget.
Automate Your Business
In recent years, the most popular way to boost productivity has become robotic process automation (RPA). A small up-front investment provides years of cost savings. Take a look at the most tedious, repetitive processes your team does on a daily basis and research ways to automate those tasks. Duties like accounts payable, bookkeeping, payroll, and marketing can be replaced by today’s software solutions, not only making you more productive but allowing your employees to focus on higher-level tasks. You’ll save money and boost morale, bringing better results all around. Similarly, your sales and marketing teams can also automate mundane processes like RFP responses and marketing drip campaigns with RFP software and marketing automation tools.
Allow Flexibility
At one time, “work” often meant reporting to an office, where you occupied a desk for at least 40 hours each week. But the most productive employers have done away with those traditional expectations, allowing employees to do their work wherever they are, combining working from home with coming into the office and even completing their duties while on the road. RPA helps with that, giving you a central portal everyone can access no matter where they are. It also makes things more convenient, eliminating the time-consuming manual processes of the past. If you have a central accounting system, for instance, your employees can submit their expenses while on the go using an app on their smartphones.
Incentivize Your Team
Yes, you’re paying your employees to do a great job, but a little extra motivation can’t hurt. There are many things you can do to ignite the competitive spirit of your team, including using gamification tools that make it easier to visualize results. If you’re working on reaching a specific financial goal, an app that provides a leaderboard can make a big difference. At the end of a project, make sure you recognize top performers, potentially even issuing rewards or bonuses. Employees who know managers are paying attention to their productivity and acknowledging it will have an extra incentive to work hard.
With so many tools now available, businesses can boost productivity at minimal expense. Once you put new processes in place, monitor results and tweak your efforts accordingly. Over time, you’ll find you’re bringing in more money and spending less, while also having a happier team.
