Over recent years the many advances in technology have ensured that almost every aspect of running a business is now supported by an online system. Many of these online systems offer different versions that can be selected according to business needs and budget. These systems combine to create an online office and offer a powerful transformative effect for efficiently running business operations.
It’s likely that when you started your business you imagined yourself as the cool, calm, wonderful business owner, with everything organised and very little stress affecting you. You didn’t imagine that you’d be rushing around, stressed out and frustrated that you’re wasting time on seemingly unnecessary tasks. You have probably never considered your business being forced to shut down due to the situation like we all facing now.
When we are staying at home, have to work from home an Online systems, as well as hiring a brilliant VA could very much help you run a better business and restore your work / life balance, not to mention your original business vision and here’s 6 reasons why…
1 Increase Efficiency
If your systems aren’t working for you, it can feel like you’re working harder but not moving forward any faster. You end up with less earning time and less time to yourself to wind-down.
Streamlining your business to reduce inefficiencies and wasted time with readily available online systems means there’s no need to ‘reinvent the wheel’. A suitable process and system almost invariably already exists and can be integrated with your procedures to support your business, reduce your to-do list, increase efficiency and free up your time.
2 Free up Your Time
You want to be focussed on the income generating tasks and business strategy, not bogged down by the day-to-day management of your business tasks. You want to run your business, not have it run you!
With increased efficiency, your workload is reduced and a large amount of your time freed up. This allows you to better manage your time and focus on more important things, such as your clients and the wider business strategy, either that or some much needed time to switch off and de-stress.
When you add home-schooling that will be back after the mid-term your time will out of the sudden be even more precious.
3 Improve Client Experience
Using online systems will help improve consistency in your business processes and allow you to focus on meeting your clients’ needs and expectations – so you can deliver a better experience overall, for instance through a service like Asana, which has been specifically designed to assist you with actively managing client experience via ticketed support.
4 Increase Your Profit
With a more efficient business, and the wasted time now freed up, you’re able to turn your attention to income generating tasks, your customers and business strategy and steadily increase your profits.
Always remember, an improved client experience also leads to more recommendations, increased sales and repeat business.
5 Build a Better Team
Using online systems you can outsource tasks to VAs more readily and are no longer limited geographically when it comes to finding the best resource for your business. You can take advantage of a global talent pool and collaborate online using communication and project management systems such as Skype, Asana and Active Collab.
6 Be Competitive
If your competitors are more efficient than you, there’s potential that you could lose business, for example they may be able to respond quicker to enquiries, or offer a better service to their clients. It’s important to continuously refine your systems in order to stay competitive.
So, now more than ever it is the right time to start to improve your business systems, engage the services of one or more VAs and get your office online today!