Being a small business owner is basically a huge management position. Most of your days, regardless of industry, are going to be spent managing every aspect of your business and its operations. Having said that, even as a sole proprietorship, doing everything alone is not sustainable. You need to think about not only ways to optimize for efficiency with your management processes but also to support the fact that operating with no backup is not the best practice. Here are a few areas of your business where it is going to be critical to consider and implement management processes that are innovative, efficient, and offer a level of security in case of unplanned events.
Fleet Management
If the business that you own and/or operate has a fleet of any size, you need to be sure that you are running routes in the most efficient and environmentally friendly manner. The efficiency aspect is important in terms of your customer service needs and the structure of your drivers’ days, while the environmental aspect helps with your corporate social responsibility and in some ways, also with your budget. Even the smallest-sized fleet can reduce greenhouse gas emissions with the right process.
Implementing strategies such as using dispatching software and investing in environmentally efficient vehicles will help not only to fight climate change but also to lower operating costs. The up-front expenditure of this approach can make new small business owners nervous but allow your mind to expand to the long term. Think about ongoing factors like fuel consumption and regular maintenance, the older and less efficient your fleet is the higher these costs will be, in the long term.
Inventory Management
When selling goods, or even services, there is going to be an aspect of inventory. Too often, these inventory items get stored on shelves or tucked away in drawers, unaccounted for, and with no process in place to track these items, you are going to end up spending more money and wasting more time than you would otherwise. Keep in mind that applying e-commerce inventory management pertains not only to the tracking of physical assets but intellectual ones as well.
Implementing this type of management process will help with warehouse sorting systems, the hierarchy of employees, and task scheduling as well. Even if you have already established your business and been operating for many years without this it is never too late to start. You will be shocked to see how much smoother your days can run under this type of system.
Employee Management
It might sound crazy to think like this, but the people that you have working for and alongside you have the potential to be your business’s biggest assets or liabilities. Taking time to curate a team of employees that will operate in sync with one another and all under the umbrella of the company’s overall mission and goal is not an easy undertaking. Nor is it a one-time endeavor. Even if your business has a low turnover rate, there will inevitably always be some turnover. Finding the right employee monitoring software can help you be sure that the people that you hired are following through on what they claimed to be able to offer in their interview.
Especially with many businesses operating with remote or hybrid models, employee management systems allow everyone to maintain a balance of autonomy and accountability whether teams are in person, or not. These programs also allow managers and people in positions of leadership to obtain data-driven stats regarding productivity. Being able to set digital deadlines and benchmarks for your employees gives you the chance to determine their capability to reach them without having to speculate or micromanage.
