Time Is An SME’s Most Valuable Asset. Here’s How To Stop Wasting It

It’s the oldest cliche in the business manual, but time is money. Therefore, ensuring that this valuable resource is not wasted should be a priority for all company owners and managers. It is perhaps even more pertinent when dealing with an SME that only has a small workforce. 

Thankfully, there are several ways to promote an effective use of time across the business. 

Here are five simple steps that can be introduced for almost immediate benefits.

1- Prevent Downtime

Unscheduled downtime may kill productivity, thus harming your reputation and finances in a big way. With this in mind, it’s vital to remember that prevention is the best form of protection by far. Whether it’s preventing online fraud and cyber attacks or power outages doesn’t matter. Every hour you save through preventive measures will make a significant difference. Better still, the knowledge that you are on top of the situation allows you to work confidently.

Scheduling machinery maintenance to take place out of office hours will also aid the cause. 

2- Prevent Communication Delays 

Poor communication damages productivity for many reasons. It causes delays, which can lead to duplicate work and similar issues. Likewise, the delays will often cause workers to lose motivation. Team messaging apps are essential in today’s landscape. However, you should also extend your commitment to tools like a CAFM system. It helps manage all facilities and spaces to prevent double bookings and miscommunications.

In turn, all employees can dedicate their time to active work.

3- Ensure That Employees Work Efficiently 

To borrow another cliche, you want employees to work smarter, not harder. Ultimately, a person’s work ethic will only have a minor influence if not supported by the right tools. Ensuring that the right tech features are in place to support employees is essential. In today’s world, this could mean introducing AI and automation tools. Meanwhile, fleet management systems ensure that drivers follow the best paths. The impacts are huge.

If nothing else, it removes the threat of employees blaming their tools.

4- Remove Unnecessary Tasks

Many business operations still fall victim to following processes that are no longer necessary. Ultimately, if a task does not directly or indirectly support your company’s bottom line, you should lose it. Long team meetings are a common culprit, especially when video conferencing or group emails can express the info. If you can streamline manufacturing or daily operations by removing certain steps, you should.

Overprocessing and overproduction can be included in this problem. 

5- Trust Innovations

Innovation is essential to the success of any modern business. On the one hand, you should not rush in without testing an idea. On the other hand, though, dedicating too much time to R&D can be problematic. Even if you have a winning idea, it could be outdated by the time your product reaches the market. Dedicated innovation systems allow you to develop and analyse ideas with the help of real data virtualisation. In turn, you can push ahead with ease.

In many cases, incremental updates can be made after the initial release too.