Working Harder Vs Working Smarter
If you ask any successful entrepreneur, they're bound to tell you that working hard was a major contributing factor in getting their business off the ground and their on-going success. But it's not just about working hard; it's about working efficiently. At one point or another, you're resources are going to be stretched - whether that you your time or your money - so in order to get the most out of yourself (and your business), you need to work smarter.
Most of the time, we focus on outcomes in our business - ie sales for the month; new customers for the quarter; pitches made to potential customers; etc - but we often overlook the processes of how things get done.
Quite often, people believe that to increase your output, (performance, revenue or profits), you need to do more. But often simply working longer hours, answering more emails, making more phone calls and attending more meetings won't get you the results you are looking for. In fact, if you're working inefficiently already, working harder may create even more problems!
So before looking to increase your effort; take a moment to work out how your efforts can be better structured to achieve better outcomes - in order words; work smarter.
One way to improve your performance and work smarter is to harness the power of technology. In your own business, you should be using technology to manage the business; to manage your customers; to monitor systems & processes; and to deliver timely feedback on how the business is progressing. Used in this way, you can let technology take care of the repetitive tasks and focus on what you do best - driving the business.
A key way to working smarter is to analyse the processes in your business. You can identify processes that produce strong results and look to replicate them. You can also identify processes that require improvement and look to improve these to seek better business outcomes - this is known as Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR). Then, once you determine best practice, put systems into place to ensure that these are repeated across the business. A key benefit of using technology is that it provides structure to processes. In this way, you can look to replicate "best-practice" by using technology to ensure that these procedures are replicated throughout the business - thus ensuring that practical and efficient processes are followed by everyone!
The strength of implementing systems in your business lies in the data/information they provide. Using this, you can then evaluate performance of the business (and specific processes within the business) on a timely and regular basis to ensure that you are constantly improving your efficiency and the resulting business performance. In this way, you can truly know when you are working smarter!
DCODE GROUP can provide consultancy to assist in designing business processes and then develop custom systems to help ensure that they are implemented across the business. If you're business is currently working with Excel Spreadsheets or Access Databases to manage business processes, then DCODE can assist you in developing a more structured and manageable solution.
To find out more about building structured systems and process in your business; or to discuss developing custom management software in your business, Contact DCODE GROUP today for a confidential and obligation free discussion. We look forward to hearing from you.
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