Dust Off Your Business Operations
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Spring is here, bringing with it that extra bit of mental energy that comes from the return of fresh air and the end of snowy cold. The change in season also creates a chance for companies to review their processes. So what can your business streamline and de-clutter to improve operations?
Examine Automation: Take a closer look at all aspects within your company, from bookkeeping to customer support and manufacturing to marketing. Can you integrate new software and/or hardware to streamline operations, and free up time and personnel for design and business development?
Audit Your Activity: Step back and analyze your daily activities, as well as the activities of your team. Look for inefficiencies, clutter, overhead and other “junk” that’s accumulated over time. It’s remarkable how much we do out of habit, never stepping back and asking ourselves if there’s a better way.
Question Processes: Even the most mundane and tested processes can have massive room for improvement right under your nose. Encourage your whole team to question everything and ask “Is that the best way to do it?” — even if it’s a process that’s been in place for years. A “spring cleaning” is the perfect time to go through every process and look for improvements.
Freshen Up Client Documents: Are invoice templates, care instructions or other documents you've been providing to your customers starting to show their age? Go through all of those and find out if they can’t be improved.
Reorganize Systems: Did you develop systems and processes within your organization organically as needs arose? At the time, it may have allowed you to be agile. As companies grow, however, that strength may now be a weakness.Take a step back and say, “If we could do it all over again, how would set things up?”
Cut Out Unnecessary Meetings: It seems like meetings start to pile up throughout the year. Every new project somehow turns into a weekly call, meeting or update. Remove the unnecessary meetings from your calendars and reprioritize your time. You can even consolidate meetings if they can’t be removed. Whatever you do, just don’t let your calendar impact productivity.
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As you organize, check out these recommendations for what to keep and what to toss:
Keep: Info from business cards (but toss the cards)
You’ve likely collected a lot of business cards over the years but after a while, not only do they start to take up more space, but they begin to get difficult to sort through. Save yourself some time (and free up a little space) by inputting that information into a synced contact list, database or spreadsheet, then toss the cards.You worked hard for those contacts, so having them backed up on a computer is really a best practice anyways.
Toss: Untouched social media platforms
Did you create any social media accounts for your organization a while back with the best of intentions to get it up and running, but then just...never did? If so, it’s probably time to delete those accounts. This doesn’t apply to Facebook and LinkedIn; we highly encourage you to have and utilize those platforms for credibility purposes, at the very least. But this is more so in reference to those “nice to have” or "flavour of the moment" platforms. If you have accounts but nothing on them, it’s probably time to say goodbye. It’s better to have a strong presence on two or three social media sites than it is to have a weak presence on five or six.
Keep: Member or client survey data
Hopefully you survey your members or clients on a regular basis whether electronically or via standard pen and paper. These may include satisfaction surveys, post-event surveys, member exit surveys, etc. However you capture that feedback, make sure at some point it winds up on your computer, where it is easily accessible and searchable and can be backed up properly.
Toss: Old emails
Spring really is the perfect time to clean out your email inbox. Go through and delete everything that’s no longer relevant or necessary. At the same time, create a folder system that will make finding emails in the future easier. It may take a little time to set up, but you’ll thank yourself later. At the same time, clean up email lists – whether you send newsletter and emails to clients, funders, donors, volunteers, staff and/or others, there are sure to be some old, unused, incorrect or otherwise useless email address. Take the time to go through your lists and delete anything that no longer serves a purpose.
Adapted from: The MemberClicks Blog
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Ensure Proper Document Storage and Retention
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You never know when you are going to need certain financial records and other business data,” says Mitzi Weinman, of Needham MA, a time strategist and author with Time Finder. “Not having it could lead to legal repercussions.”
Establish a records management system to properly retain important documents like contracts, receipts, tax returns, etc.
It’s also important to make sure you’re storing sensitive information appropriately. The average cost to Canadian companies of a breach was $6.11 million, up 5.6 per cent from those who participated in the 2016 Ponemon Institute’s international Cost of a Data Breach study. By comparison, the global average cost of a breach was US$3.86 million. The study goes on to state that the average per capita cost of data breach over three years in Canada was US$211 million.
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