3 Savvy Business Practices for Optimal Business Growth

There are ways to keep your business working for you and the cogs turning, even when you’re at offsite meetings, busy in seminars or catching up on some well-earned rest!

It means being smarter about your business practices, embracing change and leveraging modern operational philosophies.

Here are 3 ways you can work smarter, not harder, and boost the productivity of your business:

Automation

Automation is not just a pipedream. It can be achieved across many aspects of your business and these days its relatively easy for SME’s to access the technology needed to systemise functional aspects of your day to day operations.

With cloud based services like Mailchimp, Active Campaign or the more advanced Infusionsoft you can effectively automate your email communications spanning across any aspect of your business, be it sales, client management or online marketing tasks like blogging.

How I Use Automation to work Smarter, not harder: Currently we have an automated Client Touchpoint process set up that helps us manage our client and virtual assistant relationships. We have a 7 Step Educational series on Outsourcing, as well as weekly and fortnightly industry updates.

Business Systemisation

The value of your business lies in the systems that support it. Break down each essential task that is involved in the operation of your business by asking yourself these questions:

  1. What is the process and why do we do it?
  2. Who is responsible for this process?
  3. When do we do it?
  4. How do we do it?

How I Use Business Systemisation to work Smarter, not harder: Each business process that exists is detailed in a series of videos and documents that carefully outline the steps involved as well as other important information such as its frequency, who is accountable and any extra information such as passwords and login information. These are all stored in a secure cloud “intranet” called Google Sites and we can allow access to staff, clients and contractors alike.

Hire a Virtual Assistant

A Virtual Assistant is a cost effective, scalable solution to your small business staffing needs. Because let’s face it, you may think you can do everything, but in reality you can’t do it all! The growth and expansion of your business relies heavily on the support network you surround yourself with. The benefits of hiring a Virtual Assistant rather than an employee are:

  1. You can pay a virtual assistant on a contractual basis, which means no on-going employee costs such as super, paid leave and employee benefits. And with the global comparable living costs being as they are, you will find that hourly rates for a qualified and trained virtual assistant are much less than their onshore contemporaries
  2. You do not need to worry about providing the infrastructure to enable your VA to work. All Virtual Assistants are professionals in their own right, so will come equipped with the tools, the technology and the know how to aid you in your business. That means no need to invest in office space, computers, data connections and the ancillary costs of hiring an employee.
  3. Virtual Assistants are perfect for start-ups or expanding businesses who need a flexible and scalable solution to their staffing needs. With the right processes in place it is easy to grow or reduce your support team to suit the needs of your business and its budget.

How I Use Virtual Assistants to work Smarter, not harder: Being an outsourcing company – I practice what I preach, and have an extensive team of VA’s supporting my business on a daily basis. Many of the offshore Virtual Assistant I employ are full time, and some work part time or on a project basis, assisting me in many key aspects of my business such as: Human Resources & Staffing, Marketing & Social Media, Account Keeping, Content Generation, SEO, Graphic Design and Research – just to name a few. This allows me to focus on the core areas of my business, such as growth strategy, workshops and sales.

These flexible and savvy business practices make up the back bone of many profitable modern business models. With start-up, entrepreneur and small business owners alike getting their business to work for them, rather than being stuck in the mire of day-to-day operations. So if you’re business is growing rapidly (or you’d like it to) getting key aspects such as automation, systemisation and staffing under control will give you the freedom to focus on the development and expansion of your business.

Want to know more about growing your business, going virtual and outsourcing in general? We are running a workshop in North Sydney on Wednesday 13 May 2015. Click the image to find out more.

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