While getting back to a calm office after a relaxing holiday may feel great, it’s not really what entrepreneurs are looking for. We want the office to be buzzing with activity, deals should be made and connections created – but, unfortunately, this isn’t always the case.
If your office has been rather slow and steady for the last couple of months or if you’d just like to see a bit more activity over the new year, you’ve come to the right place. Here is a handful of tips in terms of speeding things up and making sure that each day is as productive as possible.
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It doesn’t guarantee you that long-term business success you’ve been looking for but at least you will be able to reach your goals for this month. That way, the rest of the year may even seem a bit brighter and a lot more productive.
First: Consider your business processes
Whether or not you’re simply in a business slump or if this is something more permanent, you need to first figure out what’s holding you back. The first thing you should do is, therefore, to have a long and hard look at your business processes in order to figure out where things are going swimmingly – and where there is room for improvement.
Without doing this first, it’s going to be quite difficult to determine exactly where you need to improve, so make sure that this is taken proper care of. If you’re able to, it might even be a good idea to hire someone to come in and take a look at your business processes so that you can get started a bit sooner.
If you’re not able to afford to hire an entire team to improve your business, you could invest in a data gathering tool as well as a time tracking tool for this instead as each of them will give you a different insight to your business.
A time tracking tool is, undeniably, great for understanding which areas your business is spending a lot of time on while a data gathering tool can give you a more comprehensive overlook in terms of your entire business. Start by having a look at this article for some more tips and tricks when you’re analyzing your business before improving it once and for all.
Next: Give your employees a pep talk
One of the most important things to keep in mind when you’re struggling with a rather slow business is that your employees are your key to success. Without their support, you’re not going to get very far – but when everything has been moving so slowly, their morale may be a bit low.
Anyone will get bored with their job if they’re just hanging around the office without seeing any real action, after all, and giving them a pep talk may be what you need to ensure their continued support and hard work – or at least just to show them how much you care.
Let them know, first of all, how much you need them and acknowledge that times may have been a bit tough lately. You’re getting back up on your feet now, though, and need them more than ever; talk about the new tools you’ve implemented, for example, and let them know that you’re aiming to make the business as efficient as possible for the new year.
The more you’re able to keep your employees up to date on the changes as well as what’s going on with the business, in general, the easier it will be for them to help you out and realize how important they are for your business.
Don’t point any fingers or accuse your team of slacking off, in other words, but take the blame and thank them for being so hard working even when times are a bit slow. They will pay you back in spades by stepping up the game slightly when it’s time for it – and, of course, by keeping even better track of their own time.
It’s the kind of stuff that makes your business a great place to work and that will keep your employees around for much longer.
Remember to reward your employees
Since one of your most valuable assets is your employees, it makes sense that you should focus on boosting their wellbeing at work. This, in turn, will help to improve their productivity as well – and it will be much easier for you to turn the entire business around.
Hard work should definitely be rewarded but you don’t have to give your most productive employee a speech and a medal either. Treating an entire team at once, on the other hand, if they have met a target a bit earlier than anticipated or completed a complex project will help to boost their team feeling and reward each employee individually.
A team lunch is a great option as well as any form of gift cards or even just an email to acknowledge their hard work. People want to be recognized when they put in a bit more effort and unless you, as their employer, is able to notice this, they won’t stay around for too long.
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By making sure that you have the best possible rewards available for your team and even offer them a way to further their training on the job, you might even be able to attract some new talents in the future.
Improve the collaboration tools
Another point to considering your business before you get started is to have a chat with your employees about the situation. Ask them, first of all, about what you can do to improve their weeks of work as well as how happy they are, in general. You might want to send around a questionnaire per email, for example, where they can answer anonymously so that you ensure nothing but honest answers.
The point is that you might get a decent insight into what they need in order to perform better. One of these things might be better collaboration tools; your team and the business productivity, in general, will benefit greatly from having seamless tools where they can keep each other up to date and even work better on projects together.
Keep in mind that the newest technology tends to offer better solutions for businesses; have a look at the best features of iOS 12 and how they will benefit business users, for example, before you treat your team to a different company phone.
If you haven’t upgraded your collaboration apps in the office in a while, the chances are quite high that you’re missing out on the great features of some of the newest ones. Both project management apps such as Basecamp and communication tools such as Slack will help you out with this so remember to check them out if you haven’t done this yet.
Slack will even send messages directly to the desktop of your employees in case they don’t have it open at the time when you send the message. That way, nobody can ever tell you that they didn’t get the message. While new technology might be expensive, the benefits they offer businesses are definitely worth it.
All of this might take some time to implement but the sooner you get started, the sooner you can enjoy the changes in your business. Start with the easy stuff and work your way up to upgrading those tools, offering training on the job, and building a more productive business for the future.