Downtimes are like the apocalypse for many business owners. Although this shouldn’t be the case, it has spelled doom for many. Downtime has a significant impact on business – from preventing your customers from interacting with your company to limiting employees’ ability to work at their full potential. With small companies racking up $135 billion in debt due to the pandemic, it’s essential to know how to deal with your downtimes. Here is how to smartly manage your business downtime.
Give everybody time off
While downtime is inconvenient, it may present an excellent opportunity to give everyone much-needed time off from work. Not only will this allow everyone some time to catch up on their project, but it also lets your working teams have some time for themselves. That said, encouraging your staff to take some time off helps increase their productivity, engagement, creativity, and job satisfaction. All these will go a long way to improve your business bottom-line since they will use that time to turn on their inner creativity.
Anticipate downtime impact on your business
You can minimize day-to-day business disruptions by scheduling preventive maintenances in advance. For example, if you own a fleet company, anticipating downtime will give you a fair idea of when to expect your vehicles to go out of service. This will also help you plan for any necessary temporary replacement. Another practical way is to schedule your maintenance for off business hours, which will give you enough time to service or complete any repairs to be ready for operation when needed.
Locate businesses that can get you up and running
Let’s face reality- you will need your business up and running in the shortest possible time. You don’t want to lose your customers, nor do you want to keep them waiting to respond to their inquiries. You also don’t want to delay your product or service delivery, as it could cause customer dissatisfaction. For this reason, it is essential to find a business to get your business running and prevent the issue from recurring. Several companies can help manage and limit your business downtimes, so feel free to leverage them. You can also search online for What is a managed service provider – a blog post that will help you figure out how you can use an MSP for your particular business.
Skill up
It is vital to learn something new every time. It could be a new skill like HR or conflict management to help you become a better boss or manager. You could also learn how to troubleshoot your business computers. Learning something new helps grow your confidence and become better at everything you do. If you are ready to run a more successful business, learn something new today. It can be intimidating to start a business or become a professional, but like almost every life activity, you’ll get better while at it.
Create some quality content
You can create quality content if you want to keep your business relevant. This may not necessarily be a product or service, but something to build or promote your business, let’s say, on social media. You can develop video content, blog, or podcast ideas and plan to execute them effectively. It’s 2021, and every business must create valuable content to help build brand trust with your leads and clients. A study has shown that 80% of people prefer to learn about a business using custom content. Your customers can develop a solid opinion of your business if they consider it educational, engaging, and valuable.
Disconnect from social media
Social media is essential for today’s businesses. However, it can be dangerous when you have some free time on your hands since you can easily find yourself buried in aimless scrolling for hours without noticing. Recent social media statistics suggest that while social media user numbers increased by 2.5 million, most Canadians’ average online time increased by more than 30 minutes. Fortunately, you can spend this time learning something beneficial for your business. Moreover, disconnecting from social media can give you and your working teams more time to address pressing issues. By doing this, you can develop strategies to address pending problems and push your business forward.
Indeed, downtime can affect your business when unexpected repairs, routine maintenance issues, accidents, or sudden catastrophic system failures occur. Yet knowing how to manage your downtime effectively maximizes your efficiencies and controls your operating costs. Hopefully, these tips will be instrumental in making your downtime productive.