Business Busts: 6 Things Your Company Can Do Without

Brooke Chaplan

August 20, 2014

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Running a company requires you to make a lot of tough decisions about where and how to dedicate your budget, change your marketing, and produce your services. It’s a full time job. But, chances are, you’re making a complex job more difficult by trying to keep these aspects of your business.

1. Daily Meetings

Team building exercises and daily agendas can be helpful, but only to a point. Evaluate your current meeting procedures.

How long do individual meetings usually take? Is that time best spent in a conference room or would it be more efficient for your employees to be at their desks? Consider cutting your meeting time down, either by decreasing their frequency or time. Look into alternative meeting strategies like webinars, video conferencing, and faculty chats as well.If everything can be said in an email, don’t waste time with a meeting.

2. Internal HR

Statistics showthatentrepreneurs can spend up to a third of their time performing basic HR functions instead of running their businesses (source: Entrepreneur). HR is important and it can be tempting to handle it yourself to ensure it’s done right, but that can actually be counterproductive.

Instead, outsourcetheseHR functionslike payroll, benefits administration and tax payments.:

payroll
benefits administration
tax payments

3. Memos

There was a time when inter-office paper memos were the most efficient means to communicate with your partners and employees, but they have long been outmoded. Luckily, you have several options for going paperless:

email
shared documents
text messaging

Going paperless can save you money on ink and paper, reduce your carbon footprint, and make your documents easier to manage, share, and organize. A local disposal company can help you empty out your filing cabinets, providing a dumpster size to fit your needs and recycling options (source: Ontario Trucking & Disposal).

4. Monthly Bills

What if you could simplify your bookkeeping without hiring a new team of accountants? One easy way to change your monthly outlook is to extend your budgeting period.

Many utility companies—gas, electric, and your property manager—offer the option of paying your bills every three, six, or twelve months. Yes, this will mean the bills are bigger, but it will save you some time and postage. You won’t have to have as many budget meetings and bookkeeping will take less time when there is a greater gap between payments.

5. Vendors

Evaluate your vendor chain. When you’re first starting out, you may partner with a lot of other companies to get your company up and running. Now that you’re making a profit, evaluate your supply chain.

Keep the partnerships that are most beneficial and open doors to you and your business. Consider eliminating those that don’t. This will make your business model simpler and enable you to meet your customers’ needs in the most efficient way possible.

6. An Open Door

It’s important to be available, but be sure you’re not taking it too far. Your time is money: set specific policies about when you are available. Here are some ideas to get started:

Assign Times: Make it clear to your business partners—like marketing representatives—that you are only available at certain times of the week, such as for an hour every Monday.
Set Boundaries: Decide just how open your door is. Should your employees have your home phone number or personal email? Do your office messages come to you even when you are on a break or out of the office?
Divide Your Time: It may seem counter-intuitive to set aside time to relax, but if you don’t, you may end up feeling burnt out. Take your lunches, give yourself time to relax, and delegate some of your tasks.

Simplifying can make your business more efficient and more profitable. Get rid of these unnecessary aspects to make your job a little easier and a little more effectual.