Guest Column, By Dean Swanson

Running a small business is not for the faint of heart. Between filing taxes, hiring employees, managing client relations and production, it’s enough to drive the sanest person a little crazy.  A common question that I get from CEOs of small businesses has to do with how to get it all done and still have a life.

Fortunately, there are ways to make running a small business easier.  Last week, Derek Miller did a post with SCORE on this topic. Derek is a content marketing consultant for CopyPress, a leading digital content production company, specializing in articles, infographics, interactives and videos. I share with you some of his thoughts about strategies to improve efficiency and help create a more productive company.

1. Delegate the small things. There is a finite number of hours in a day. Regardless of your intellectual capacity and work ethic, you’ll always have something on which you could be working. Most small business owners struggle with delegation because they are habitual doers. Even if these business owners do delegate, they micromanage the tasks, defeating the purpose of delegating altogether.

To run your business more efficiently, you must delegate. Take the time to learn your employees’ strengths and weaknesses so that you can delegate more effectively. Put checks and balances in place so that you can monitor the processes in the beginning and relax control over time. Finally, trust your team to accomplish their roles. Delegation puts accountability on your team and can help them become more invested in the success of your business.

2. Automate processes and workflows.  Small businesses often get bogged down with repetitive tasks. You can likely automate many of your frequent tasks. Many small businesses fear automation because of the upfront expense or its effect on employee jobs.

However, automating repetitive steps in your sales, production or distribution process can increase your bottom line and free up your employees to work on other, more critical areas.

3. Consolidate tasks and remain focused. It’s scientifically proven that you are more productive when you focus, for an extended period, on completing one task instead of multiple distracting activities and tasks. An easy way for small business owners to accomplish this strategy is by consolidating, or batching, tasks that require similar processes.

For instance, consider blocking off the first part of your morning to work entirely on your email correspondence for the day. This could be sales emails, follow-ups, client relations messages, human relations  or any other departmental communication threads. Rather than doing sales emails in the morning and client services later in the day, working through all your email tasks at once will save you time.

4. Welcome change.  Complacency in the workplace is an epidemic that can spread like wildfire. This can be particularly dangerous if it’s top-down. As a small business owner, you represent the truest form of your company’s culture. If you are not willing to change your processes, ideas, products, marketing or any other aspect of your business, then you can’t expect your employees to welcome change either.

5. Use available tools.  A quick way to increase your small business’s efficiency is to take advantage of technology and tools that were built to specifically solve problems with productivity. For example, some popular tools that can help your small business include:

• Whiplash to resolve fulfillment issues:

If your small business sells products online, then you will need to make decisions about how to store and ship your goods. Using a fulfillment partner like Whiplash lets you outsource the storage, warehousing, shipping and other inventory expenses to a company that specializes in fulfillment. This flexibility allows you to focus on what you do best — making and selling great products.

• Calendly to streamline meetings:

Successfully running a small business is hard enough. Why would you want to add the difficulty of coordinating meetings to your lists? Calendly is a web-based application that easily lets you schedule meetings without any email correspondence. Just share a link to your Calendly page, which is connected to your calendar, and users can find a time that works best for you both.

• ZipRecruiter to improve the hiring process

As your business grows, you’ll inevitably have to find more employees. The hiring process isn’t easy and can take a ton of time, money and other resources. Consider using a resource like ZipRecruiter which posts and markets your positions to thousands of interested applicants. You then have access to a dashboard that shows you all viable applicants.

• QuickBooks for your financials 

Accounting software like QuickBooks can be a small business owner’s smartest investment. QuickBooks lets you easily manage your company payroll, accounts receivable, expenses and taxes in one place. Because most small business owners are not accountants or certified public accountants, finding an accounting resource can save you valuable time, while also improving your financial visibility. It also alleviates a lot of headaches when it comes time to file your taxes.   

Successfully running a small business requires a great deal of time, energy, money and other resources. If you want to increase your chances for success, focus on being as efficient as possible. You can improve productivity by delegating, remaining focused, utilizing tools, automating processes and welcoming change.

Dean Swanson is past chairman of Southeast Minnesota SCORE chapter.