No business owners try to waste time deliberately, but many develop bad habits that they don’t realize are wasteful. These habits make them waste money that could’ve been invested in the company. Online businesses can suffer from the exact same issues. Here are six ways that you can save time and money.
Rent Office Space
All companies are only as good as their employees. While the age of online collaboration may make it tempting to run your business from home and have all your workers be remote, that is not always the best option. Having an actual business space can improve moral, improve health, and more for your employees. Some employees may find remote working better, or the only viable way to work. However, some employees will find it better to come into an office. If your employees are scattered and unable to all make it into the office, it may be a good idea to work out a budget for your remote employees to use a coworking space. Coworking spaces provide many of the benefits of a traditional office, while offering your employees a place closer to their home. With the rise of remote workers and entrepreneurs, coworking spaces are springing up everywhere, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find a few good ones.
Communicate Online
Communicating online is faster and more comfortable than doing so in person. Your customers and employees will prefer the online method of talking. It’s more convenient for them to email if they have questions. Also, a live chat system provides faster responses than email does, and doesn’t seem as confrontational. It also allows team members to respond as they can, without interrupting their work. However, once you’ve selected a method of communication, try not to change it. As Orbit Reporting + Analytics explains constantly changing software, programs, methods, and strategies can leave employees cynical towards future changes. It can cause them to resist and not effectively put forth all their effort towards the new program. So once you have an effective workflow and strategy, stick with it.
Prepare for Troubleshooting
Prepare for technical problems that occur unexpectedly. Hire an IT team that works on a 24/7 schedule to fix problems minutes after they happen, and make sure the team is the best tech team possible. You won’t have to wait until the next business day for a response. You can also provide training to your workers so they can manage some of their own IT.
Plan the Site
Planning before action is how you reduce errors. Plan the Web design and marketing components of your website before it’s launched. Create the page layouts for images, videos, and advertisements. When you plan, you’re more likely to follow important tax and online business laws. In the future, avoid paying any fines or penalties that affect the running of your website. Speak to the experts to design the perfect website for your business.
Collaborate Online
Collaborate with other employees and coworkers using an online task management system. An online project management tool makes it easier to divide the tasks among different people. You can also use task management software to manage the costs of your projects. Many support budget forecasts for resources, expenditures, and benefits; detailed task plans; major milestone tracking; and risks and issues capture. Many allow you to assign hundreds of tasks and attach deadlines to each one. By working online people can work at their own pace, and you can stay up to date with each project task.
Cut Down on Emails
A lot of professionals post emails on their websites, thinking nothing of it until they get swamped with messages. There’s no need to start your day sorting through hundreds of emails from either customers or clients. If people have questions, provide plenty of answers on the site. Having a comprehensive and easy to use FAQ page will take a little time to make, but can save you dozens of hours in the long run. You increase the number of your work hours by reducing the time that you spend reading emails. In the modern workforce, using email is quickly going the way of the dinosaur. More and more remote and deskless employees don’t even have a company email and instead rely on more effective communications tools.
It’s worthwhile to know how you are wasting time and save more of it. You’ll have to break some bad habits and rearrange a few schedules. In the end, have more time and money left over to manage the business.
