How To Minimize Downtime Via Business Planning
Scheduling time to sit down, reflect and plan is essential in all areas of life. Yet it’s important to recognize that productive time is also of the essence, especially in business. For this reason, balancing the two is the constant timekeeping skillf of any adept business leader.
But while finding time to reflect on and review their business decisions can help them understand missteps and the justifications that led to those mistakes more readily, if this knowledge isn’t actualized, then it could be a waste of time.
This is why minimizing business downtime, dead air, and dead space is so important. Now, that doesn’t mean our firm has to introduce draconian measures like giving our staff time limits for how long they can use the bathroom facilities while working on our shop floor - as some mega-corporations are known to do.
However, we can systemize efficiency by focusing on the planning decision that matter, and which will have the largest macro effect. In this post, then, we’ll discuss how to minimize downtime via business planning, and what such an approach could mean for your competitiveness:
Automation Is More Than Just Software
We tend to think of automation as a management means of eschewing the smaller, repetitive daily tasks. For example, we might automate certain aspects of our IT network to scan for viruses or security breaches, or we may use simply measures like ensuring all of our blank, branded template documents are accessible through the cloud for any verified staff member who wishes to generate a letter for one of your clients.
But automation is more than just software. For instance, custom automation equipment serving as an essential and necessary turnkey system for elements of your production or manufacturing process can save plenty of time, and all of the repair, maintenance and debugging can occur thanks to those services used. This saves you so much more time, especially as a smaller business who may have had to rent out larger production spaces and conform them to your needs yourself before now.
Outsourcing Marketing Measures
Unless you’re lucky enough to have an in-house marketing team, which isn’t always the case for smaller businesses, it can be tough to decide on how to brand yourself. That said, conducting the market research for your brand, keeping close watch of the competition, and developing your own messaging is much more difficult than working with outsourced professional help to both structure a cohesive message and deliver that via the medium of your choice. As you become more familiar with your industry and determine your personality as a brand, you will be able to make more authoritative choices, and fund marketing measures of your own.
Assessing Staff Performance
One of the hardest decisions business owners have to make is that of considering if dead weight, even if those people are beneficial and pleasant to have around, is something you can bring with you as a firm. If one of your employees is affable, but continually arrives late, contributes little to projects, and needs improvement for every single one of their performance reviews, this can be a difficult decision to make. Having the ability to make those tough decisions can be a lifesaver though, and ensures you always have the best people to hand. A robust hiring and talent scouting system will help you minimize the need to cut dead weight.
With this advice, you’re sure to minimize downtime via business planning in the best way.
