Companies and entrepreneurs are increasingly finding that managing time well is a better investment than the latest software program to automate certain processes. While automation certainly helps in saving time, there needs to be a planned strategy in place to allocate your time to the right things, so that you can conduct your business effectively.
Here are some of the best ways to allocate your time to focus on your core business functions:
Spend Time Modernizing
Invest your time in modernizing your legacy systems and going digital. A number of companies still use outdated software and hardware. If you spent a sometime to understand the various cloud delivery models available today such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platforms as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS), you will probably start saving a lot of time. Use available time to choose the best cloud vendors and arrive at decisions with other executives in your company, so that you can move toward modernization of your IT architecture.
Invest Time In Customer Care
Hiring live receptionists has its benefits, but what is still better is a virtual reception. A live answering service can help you automate answering your phone, responding to emails, taking calls and even making calls. All this will help you to save time and money so that you can focus on core business activities. Of course, you will have to allocate your time in setting up your virtual reception but that is time that is well invested. Allocate the new-found time to offering the best customer service possible with the help of a modern CRM.
Train Your Employees
Training employees in various domains requires a lot of time and effort. However, we must remember that our employees are our asset and to nurture and train them is to invest in our own business. However, it takes valuable time to train your employees. Investing in an HRMS that comes with training module can help in automating training to an extent. Alternatively, a live answering service may be a good fit to get highly trained professionals for a low cost. You can allocate the saved time to train your employees with skills that require human interaction. Finally, when your employees are trained, all the time that is saved can be allocated to research and development, something that most businesses take for granted.
Choose The Right Productivity Tools
Most businesses often overlook the importance of productivity tools. There are a number of enterprise-grade productivity tools that can quicken things up. There are productivity tools for managers, for administration, for marketers and for every department possible in a business. These tools not only help in enhancing your productivity, but they also help in saving valuable time. This saved time can be allocated to higher-level processes, such as innovation. Investing time in innovating products and services is one of the surest ways to achieving business success.
Consider Outsourcing
While outsourcing saves both time and money, it requires a lot of ground work. You will need to come up with an outsourcing strategy, find the right vendors, vet them in order to ensure they are reliable, and finally, assign projects to them. A virtual receptionist is a great bang for your buck, in this regard. Once you begin outsourcing your work, you will have to allocate time to manage your vendors. This is another way of allocating time to a useful activity, instead of assuming unnecessary burden.
As you can see, allocating time to the right things does not involve having a strict schedule in a diary or a calendar. Instead, time allocation needs to be done on activities and processes which will likely free up more time and reduce expenditure. This abstract time-allocation framework will help you to conduct your business more effectively.
