7 Ways to Improve Your Business Operations Process

by blackwoodimpact

When your company is ready to strategize around generating more revenue, the three major areas that leaders make changes in your marketing, sales, and operations. Operations encompass every person, product, and process that is involved in delivering your products or services to your customers.

Focusing on operational efficiency can do one of two things for your organization. First, it can help maintain more of the cash you already have, thereby increasing your revenue without spending any additional effort or money on new tools, supplies, or new client acquisition. Secondly, focusing on operational efficiency can help you “find” more cash in your business by lowering the overall cost of serving your clients.

Introducing The Operational Efficiency Workbook and Matrix

Because Operations is so vast, it can be challenging to know where to begin or what to pinpoint for maximum revenue effectiveness. So Blackwood Impact Group created The Operational Efficiency Workbook and Matrix just for you. This companion questionnaire document and Excel matrix are designed to help you and your team brainstorm areas you can potentially improve. It will also help you to prioritize projects and identify how the changes will impact your revenue.

To help kickstart a flow of ideas, here are some operational areas you can consider making improvements on that could have a positive impact on your revenue. Depending on the nature of your business, every idea may not fit you, but it might spark a few thoughts around what is relevant for you.

Consider Reducing Your Spending

Review every area of your business where you are spending, from supplies for staff to raw materials for production. What resources can you consolidate? What expenses can you eliminate? How can you deliver your products and services to your clients for less? You’ll increase your revenue by merely keeping more of the money you are already making.

Consider Renegotiating Pricing With Your Partners

Vendor relationships are a popular area to seek cost savings. Take a look at all of the partners in your ecosystem: your vendors, suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors. Where can value be increased? Where can costs be decreased?

Consider Negotiating Speedier Delivery Times

Time, as they say, is money. Would speedier deliveries of your supplies and raw materials help move inventory faster or help you provide your services to your clients quicker? What impact might that have on your revenue?

Identify and Improve Service Bottlenecks

Do some of your internal processes have slow turnaround times because only one person in is the authorized approver? Does production get backed up because one particular machine runs slower than the others? Where is your business slowing down or grinding to a halt? Can you add automation to ensure quality and scale production? Identify potential bottlenecks, implement and measure your changes, then watch your revenue flow in faster.

Consider Improving Production Time

Identify every step of your manufacturing or service process. How long does each step take? Is it possible to shorten the time at any point in the process? Would delivering your products and services faster help you serve more clients in the same amount of time? That strategy might be worth pursuing.

Consider Improving QA and Customer Service

Do customers return products often? Are clients asking for refunds on services? Is there a high rate of complaints about defective items? Where can you tighten up your Quality Assurance (QA) before products leave your factory? What can you change in the way you deliver your services that will reduce complaints and increase the likelihood of clients referring you?

Consider Implementing Rewards and Referral Programs

Everybody knows that it is cheaper to get existing clients to buy from you again than to acquire a brand new customer. How can you incentivize your clients to buy from you again? How can you incentivize customers for referring their friends? Can the referral and reward process be easy for them and not labor-intensive for your team? If yes, then it may be a worthwhile improvement to implement.

Hopefully, these prompts have sparked more than a few ideas of where you can start making improvements to see more revenue. If you are ready to take the deep-dive with your team, download your free copy of The Operational Efficiency Workbook and Matrix to capture your thoughts and begin planning your organizational optimization strategies.