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3 Tips and Tricks to Help Turn Your Small Business into a Well-oiled Machine

November 23, 2018 By Lilach Bullock 25 Comments

Why are some businesses successful while others simply can’t cut it?

3 Tips and Tricks to Help Turn Your Small Business into a Well-oiled Machine

While there are numerous variables that affect the success of a small business, one of the most important elements of a successful business  – and one you can’t overlook, regardless of industry or business type – is its organizational structure.

If you’re not well organized, if you’re not ready for anything (including change), and if your team is constantly overwhelmed, it will be very difficult to make it in the long run.

On the other hand, if your business is running smoothly across the board, you can better spend your time looking for ways to improve your products or services, focus on marketing your business, and most of all, focus on growing your business to new heights.

In this blog post, I’m going to share 3 tips and tricks to help turn your small business into a well-oiled machine.

Build a workflow to help manage your projects more effectively

In today’s world, businesses often work with all kinds of people: from freelancers, contractors and remote workers that you might have never even met in real life to your full-time staff.

However, there is one big struggle with working like that: it can get extremely difficult to manage your employees and collaborators and it can get very confusing, very fast, if there are any major changes to your businesses’ organizational structure.

If you want to make sure that you won’t lose any of your work and that your projects and campaigns won’t be delayed unnecessarily by organizational and admin issues, then you need to build a clear workflow for your team, as well as to facilitate project and task management for the entire team.

That implies that:

  • You can see at a glance exactly where you’re standing: who is working on what, what tasks are due in the near future, how your team is progressing on all of your projects and campaigns
  • Your employees can easily reach their managers or other teammates in case they have questions or simply to collaborate
  • Collaboration is easy and swift, even between people in different parts of the world
  • Your employees can clearly see what tasks they have to complete and by when
  • You’ve set up a clear approval workflow so that the appropriate parties can check content and other projects before they make it to the public eye

Take the time to test out different services to find out what you’re most comfortable with; these types of tools should be easy and comfortable to use so as to not to complicate things even further.

Choose a project management tool

For example, if you’re looking for something to handle all of your project management needs, you can try a pro tool like Scoro where you can manage any of your projects, manage your team’s time, as well as manage your finances and clients:

Alternatively, you can also try something simpler, but still very effective, like Trello. It’s a popular project and task management app which you can use to create as many dashboards as you want (for free) for each of your projects and assign tasks to your team:

trello

Make sure to check out Trello Inspiration for examples on how you can better leverage your Trello account.

Communication: the basis of a well-running business

Businesses are a lot like relationships in this particular instance: communication is essential to success.

That being said, the analogy ends there – communication needs are quite different between personal relationships and businesses.

As a business, you need to ensure that it’s as easy as possible for your team to communicate, both amongst themselves and amongst departments, but also with outside parties, including leads and clients.

Plus, you want to make sure you’re using a scalable system, something that will keep up with your needs as your business keeps growing.

First, make it easy for your team to communicate amongst themselves, especially if you’re working with freelancers and remote employees.

Slack is a very popular option for businesses of all sizes as it’s a very intuitive platform and it’s highly scalable (plus, it has a free version, which is always a plus).

slack

Use it to create so-called channels for all of your projects (or clients, campaigns, etc. – it’s up to you!),  as well as share and store files, communicate with anyone on your team (both by text and by voice and video calls), assign tasks, and much more.

Look into VoIP phone network systems

As for how to best communicate with the outside world, it’s worth looking into VoIP phone network systems; while it’s true that it does rely on a good, dependable internet connection, you get a lot of extra benefits that you wouldn’t with regular phone systems.

For example, the costs of setting and managing your VoIP system are generally less (especially if you need to make a lot of calls in different countries), plus it’s so much more accessible, with useful features like getting voicemails directly in your email and a dashboard where you can track and manage your calls.

That said, there are a plethora of options here – you can use something like GetVoIP to help you find the right solution for your businesses’ needs, whether you need it for team collaboration or for your business as a whole:

getvoip

Automate, automate, automate!

One of the biggest issues that small businesses have to face is that there never is enough time to do everything. When you have a limited budget, you want to make sure that your (and your team’s) time is well-spent handling the important tasks and not struggling for time because of all the little things that make up the running of a business.

And that’s where automation comes in. Today, there are countless tools that can help you automate many of your small tasks, as well as recurring tasks that take up too much time.

For example, you can automate:

  • Invoicing and billing
  • Social media marketing
  • Cloud computing
  • Email marketing

And there are some great solutions out there to help you set up all kinds of useful automation.

For example, use Google Cloud to migrate your data to the cloud, as well as to leverage machine learning and artificial intelligence to quickly turn your data into actual insights you can use.

As for handling your accounting more efficiently and automating your workflow, you can use a tool like Quickbooks.

It’s also worth spending some time exploring tools like Zapier and IFTTT to discover other useful automations that can help you save more time; both tools allow you to connect your apps in ingenious ways to help you automate simple tasks.

zapier

To give you some examples of how you can use these types of tools, you can automatically:

  • Copy email attachments to your Dropbox account and get alert in Slack
  • Track your work hours in your Google Calendar to help track your productivity
  • Create Trello cards from new starred Slack messages

The possibilities seem virtually endless; however, you probably will have to spend some time initially exploring Zapier integrations and IFTTT recipes and setting them up – that said, it’s definitely worth it in the long run!

Ready to make your small business a well-oiled machine?

While marketing your business and growing your sales will always seem like the bigger priority, it’s very important to look internally as well and look for solutions that will help you run your business more effectively.

Because at the end of the day, if you have issues within your business, it will be very difficult to scale it – even the best ideas will fail if the business doesn’t have a proper infrastructure set up.

Featured image: Photo by rawpixel.com from Pexels

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Lilach Bullock

Speaker; Social Media and Online Marketing Expert at LilachBullock.com
Highly regarded on the world speaker circuit, Lilach has graced Forbes and Number 10 Downing Street. She’s a hugely connected and highly influential entrepreneur. Listed in Forbes as one of the top 20 women social media power influencers and was crowned the Social Influencer of Europe by Oracle. She is listed as the number one Influencer in the UK by Career Experts and is a recipient for a Global Women Champions Award for her outstanding contribution and leadership in business.
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Latest posts by Lilach Bullock (see all)

  • The Ultimate Checklist to Select Social Media Tools for Your Small Business - July 28, 2019
  • 3 Tips and Tricks to Help Turn Your Small Business into a Well-oiled Machine - November 23, 2018
  • The Challenges of Funding Your Business for Growth - January 24, 2018
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Filed Under: Small Business Advice Tagged With: business, business management, business tips

Comments

  1. Bill says

    October 30, 2019 at 5:28 am

    When you have the right people helping you manage a business. It can be really helpful in maintaining a good business operation and structure.
    Bill would love you to read ..What is a Project Manager and What Do They Do?My Profile

    Reply
  2. Shane Naranjo says

    June 7, 2019 at 2:01 am

    This is really helpful for a small business like mine! Thank you so much for these tips.
    Shane Naranjo would love you to read ..4 Online Summer Job IdeasMy Profile

    Reply
  3. riya says

    May 31, 2019 at 2:50 am

    These 3 tips are used to grow my business. such a useful content. thanks for sharing this tips with us. keep it up.

    Reply
  4. Nick says

    May 7, 2019 at 3:12 am

    Thanks for sharing these tips, Lilach! I really liked the automation part.
    Nick would love you to read ..5 Tips for Optimizing Your Mobile Call CampaignsMy Profile

    Reply
  5. Atul pandey says

    March 4, 2019 at 11:44 pm

    These are some great tips for small business startups. Every small business, startups should follow these steps. business workflows and communication are much important for every business and they should try to do more and more. there are also so many factors which correlate to a small business like u said email marketing and social media marketing. by using social media we can grow fast and promote our business fast.

    Reply
  6. John says

    February 28, 2019 at 4:24 am

    These are great tips! Thanks a lot! As for me, I use Slack and it’s really helpful! Are you going to post more tips about small business development?

    Reply
  7. Jacob says

    February 4, 2019 at 2:55 am

    Hi thanks for sharing useful content. But nowdays startup business is going so down without any more vision about the future. We want to select the perfect category in current situation and have well plan for our business and we can win in that field.

    Reply
  8. Alice says

    December 29, 2018 at 8:38 am

    In the beginning its always hard for a small business to grow but once you get the motivation and way ahead then no body can stop you.

    Reply
  9. Adrian Crisostomo says

    December 11, 2018 at 7:50 pm

    Our team uses Slack and I could say it is very helpful and I love that you can integrate some of your accounts like Google Drive that makes it easy to share files around the team. Automation is everything these days. Technology can be the defining factor that can make a small business more successful that huge ones.
    Adrian Crisostomo would love you to read ..Advantages of Social Media for Student BusinessesMy Profile

    Reply
  10. Globa says

    December 8, 2018 at 6:22 am

    Great tips Lilach. it,s great article you guise great it’s help me allot thank you very much .

    Reply
  11. Raj says

    December 4, 2018 at 4:43 am

    Thanks for sharing such a informative information. Also i have Digital Marketing Company is there any tips to grow More!.

    Reply
  12. Shweta says

    November 29, 2018 at 12:59 am

    Hello Lilach
    First of all I love this site because of its diversified articles at one place only. Now after reading your blog I can say that small businesses can definitely grow into Big Giants if they follow these tricks effectively. Thanks for sharing your views.
    Cheers!!!

    Reply
  13. ammu prabha says

    November 28, 2018 at 4:22 am

    HI
    Great post. The tips you mention are very good. Our company also use project management tool and brings lot of benefits. I think investing in right tool gives lot of benefits to the business. Eitherway nice post! thanks for sharing with us.

    Reply
  14. Div Jangid says

    November 27, 2018 at 2:15 am

    Great post. The tips you mention are very good. Our company also use project management tool and brings lot of benefits. I think investing in right tool gives lot of benefits to the business. Eitherway nice post! thanks for sharing with us.

    Reply
    • Lilach Bullock says

      November 27, 2018 at 5:36 am

      Hi Div, many thanks for your comment 🙂 You’re very right, investing in the right tools can make a huge difference to your productivity!

      Reply
  15. John Morris says

    November 26, 2018 at 11:22 am

    I’m currently learning the importance of communication for business. I believe it is better to be intentional and to set the atmosphere of vulnerability so employees are more willing to be open with one another. I am also currently looking into nextiva and ringcentral. The advice was definitely well needed.

    Reply
    • Lilach Bullock says

      November 27, 2018 at 5:38 am

      Hi John, thanks for the comment and pleased you found some useful advice for your own business 🙂 That’s a very interesting perspective!

      Reply
  16. Avinash says

    November 26, 2018 at 6:29 am

    Very informative tips Lilach. As you said that organizational structure is important to absorb any sudden change inside the company, I think being co-operative and flexible is also necessary. I have met with many entrepreneurs who are more focused on their profit instead of others needs. Thanks a lot for such effective commmunication throughout.

    Reply
    • Lilach Bullock says

      November 27, 2018 at 5:39 am

      Hi Avinash, many thanks for your comment 🙂 I definitely agree with you, being co-operative and flexible are very important traits to have within a company!

      Reply
  17. Ajay says

    November 26, 2018 at 3:24 am

    Hii Lilach great article thanks for sharing . Please can you tell me how can i grow my software developement company. Thanks in advance.

    Reply
    • Lilach Bullock says

      November 27, 2018 at 5:42 am

      Hi Ajay, glad you liked the post 🙂 Well, that would take one – or several, actually – full articles to get through, but in a nutshell, invest in the right people and in marketing tactics that work – content marketing, social media and so on. Definitely check out more articles on this blog as you’ll find a lot of useful advice.

      Reply
  18. DA says

    November 24, 2018 at 8:25 am

    A great post. Here you can learn a lot.
    I really like your blog. There are posts with such helpfull and usefull Informationens.

    Tanks lilach for this post.

    DA from Germany.

    Reply
    • Lilach Bullock says

      November 27, 2018 at 5:42 am

      Hi DA, thanks so much for taking the time to comments, I’m glad you got some useful information out of it 🙂

      Reply
  19. Ryan K Biddulph says

    November 23, 2018 at 4:02 pm

    Loving these tips Lilach. Communicating is huge because as you grow and scale, you need to be in touch with more and more folks. Being able to communicate with ease is paramount.

    Reply
    • Lilach Bullock says

      November 27, 2018 at 5:44 am

      Hi Ryan, first of all, thanks so much for your comment and secondly, I couldn’t agree more: facilitating communication is paramount to a business’s success! Thanks again 🙂
      Lilach Bullock would love you to read ..The Key Factors All EdTech Entrepreneurs Must UnderstandMy Profile

      Reply

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