Improve Efficiency and Save Your Business Money

Regardless of which sector your company operates in, it is quite likely that some of your highest priorities are saving money and increasing operating efficiency. While these may seem like separate enhancements, the two go hand-in-hand because increased efficiency almost always equates to money saved.
While there are tons of ways to save money as a business, there are essentially three main ways to raise efficiency: through your human resources (employees), through the kind of equipment/inventory used, and by changing business practices. In the following paragraphs, we’ll discuss four ways your company can improve efficiency and save money:

1. Go from Paper to Digital

Paper documents not only hurt the environment and place more of a burden on your printers, they also decrease operating efficiency by forcing employees to sift through bulky filing cabinets. If this sounds like the predicament your office is having, try using a scanner to convert all of your paper documents into a digital format like PDF. Once you’ve converted the documents into digital format you can store the paper versions offsite as a non-digital backup, or you can do away with them via a shredder. This one move tops the list because it saves countless hours and dollars on printer ink cartridges and time spent sifting through paper rather than digitally searching.

2. Lease Your Equipment

You’d be surprised how many small businesses make the overzealous commitment to purchase expensive equipment upfront rather than simply leasing it for a relatively low monthly cost. While leasing equipment may make the overall cost per unit slightly higher, you get to access the tools your company needs to operate at a tiny fraction of the cost it would take to buy the equipment in full. If you’ve already purchased your equipment, you still have the option of checking the return policy, and if not you always have the option to switch to leasing when your company makes its next equipment investment.

3. Use Electronic Invoicing

Electronic invoicing is faster, cheaper, and ten times more efficient than paper invoicing. This not only decreases your company’s printing and postage expenses, it also streamlines the payment process, thereby resulting in a faster collection of funds. Electronic invoices are sent directly to the client’s email, and depending on the payment processing service your company chooses, links to payment pages can be inserted into the e-invoice. Although this tip could fall under the umbrella of going paperless, invoicing is such a crucial facet of business that e-invoicing deserves a recommendation in its own right.

4. Use Human Resource Management Software

Managing employees and keeping tracking of productivity are two things every efficient business should be doing. Since your company’s human resources (employees) are essential to elements of efficiency, finding a way to automate and simplify tasks related to human resource management (HRM) should be paramount in the journey to heightened efficiency. HRM software like the one at XCDHR.comcan streamline every stage of the employee management process, from hiring and training to setting goals and tracking performance.
With the internet overflowing with money-saving tips, it’s hard to find some advice that doesn’t fall under the category of “heard it all before.” Hopefully the tips above have shed some unexpected insight on saving money through more efficient business practices.