Running Your Business More Efficiently

Five Things You Can Do Today to Run Your Business More Efficiently

By Jacob Jones, CTO, Dappr

Running a business can be daunting. Whether you’re a seasoned business owner or a startup, there are many practices that can help you save time and money and run more efficiently. Here are five things you can do today:

Automate Tasks

As any business owner can tell you, it’s easy to get bogged down in the day-to-day operations of running a business. However, in today’s technology-rich environment, there is no excuse worth putting off the automation of your business. Companies like Zapier offer the perfect opportunity to make time-intensive tasks simple, like sending birthday messages to clients, notifying your team members when a customer makes a purchase, or uploading e-sign documents to your Google Drive automatically. If you add up the time saved on these easy tasks, don’t be surprised by how many hours (or days) you get back.

Time management is one of the most difficult tasks to accomplish, no matter how long you have been in business. Keeping track of appointments, tasks, due dates, and more can easily be completed using calendars like Google Calendars, and it’s free! Practice putting all of this information in a single calendar and use systems like Google as your team grows so that you can easily track each other’s availability.

Use Social Media

Social media has incredible power. You can increase sales, drive traffic to websites, build a following, create brand awareness, and more. How do you get started? Simple. Create free social media accounts. Then what? Simple again. You can join groups, create posts, comment on posts, offer your expertise, give reviews, or create content. For most, putting yourself and your brand out there can be difficult. Fortunately, there are people and businesses willing to do it for you.

Centralize Communication

This is often the single most overlooked strategy a business owner can take: one location for all client communication. There are many platforms on which to do business: emails, texts, phone calls, Facebook Messenger, Instagram DMs, Google My Business, and others. Add to these the employees’ efforts, and it all becomes a logistical nightmare. There are many tools available to streamline your customer communication so that a lead never slips through the cracks.

Prioritize Tech

This is a best-for-last situation. In order to effectively accomplish the above items, you will need to adapt and use technology. Automations, calendars, social media management, and centralized communication can all be solved using technology. There are many varieties of software, made available by both local and national companies, that solve it all in one platform. Find ways to simplify your work week and reclaim your time by using technology.

Each one of these suggestions can help you and your business. Challenge yourself to try something new. Don’t worry; you don’t have to do it all at once. Pick one. Implement it. Repeat.

Jacob Jones is the Chief Technology Officer at Dappr, a business consulting company dedicated to helping businesses automate, scale, and improve. His love of digital and analog content led him to major in English and Digital Forensics at Dixie State University. Jacob is inspired daily by his wife Jessica and their son Finn.