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With so many experts, gurus and phony entrepreneurs on the internet, you would think that someone would have picked up on perhaps the biggest waste of money within any company…INEFFICIENCIES. But they haven’t so I will. The cost of have sloppy and poorly executive processes is staggering. I’m sure it is costing your company thousands and thousands of dollars per year (or maybe millions) just like it is costing mine.
Here are 7 tips that will help you start to tackle the inefficiencies in your business NOW:
- GET THE HELL OUT OF YOUR OFFICE: As Harvey Mackay, author of the classic business book, How to Swim with the Sharks without Getting Eaten Alive, says, “You have to walk the shop floor daily”. Today, right now, get out of your office and start talking to your employee’s again. Time to get your hands dirty again folks.
- ASK THIS QUESTION: “WHAT WOULD MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER?” Many bosses get this wrong. They ask questions like, “What would you like to see changed?” or “How can our company help you more?” Those questions prolong the pain of inefficiencies. Everyone knows how their life could be easier, so start asking it.
- NO SUPERMAN or SUPERWOMAN COMPLEX ALLOWED: You can’t have one person who controls all aspects of a department or process. That is called the superman complex. They hold the keys to the “secret sauce” and they don’t want to let someone else in. Additionally and perhaps an even bigger issue is that they will usually just keep stacking responsibility on their shoulders and eventually burn out and quit.
- FOCUS ON LARGE EXPENSES & WORK BACKWARDS: Find your largest expenses inside your income statement and start to reengineer the process of how these expenses are created. In my office we spend $250,000 per year with Fed Ex on just regular letter sized packages with documents for signature in them. When we really dug into the expense, we realized that we rarely get a completed package back. Why? Because we don’t make the signature sections BIG, BOLD, HIGHLIGHTED & CLEAR ENOUGH FOR THE SIGNOR TO SEE! Therefore, each set of documents can often have 3 or 4 Fed Ex packages sent and received. At $40 each, that can be a 300% increase in the expense because our process is inefficient for us and for our clients. This process is being changed and we are working to lower our Fed Ex bill to $10,000 per year. That is a savings of almost a quarter of a million dollars!
- THINK – “HOW CAN TECHNOLOGY SOLVE THIS PROBLEM?” – There is no emotion in technology and there is a ton of emotion in people. If you can find and use technology to help create additional efficiency inside your company, you may save yourself a ton of cash and headaches.
- You Might Have to Take a Step Back to Step Forward – removing the inefficiencies in your business and create new, much more efficient systems, might actually (like in my company) slow down growth and cost you money. But if you can step back today, to make two giant leaps forward tomorrow…that is money well spent in my book.
- BE BOLD: Lastly…YOU MUST BE BOLD. It is so easy for us to just leave it the way it is. Change is hard, disruptive and it can be expense. So you must be BOLD and have the guts to peel back the layers until you hit the root of the inefficiency. You must also once again be BOLD to rebuild it the right way.
Trust me…the inefficiencies in your business are costing you far more than you think. In many cases, 10%, 20%, 30% of revenue and profit is simply wasted. Therefore, regardless of the revenue of your company, the project of removing the inefficiencies and getting more efficient is a VERY HIGH VALUE PROJECT.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Matt Manero is the Founder and President of Commercial Fleet Financing, Inc. (CFF) located in Dallas, TX. CFF is celebrating its 21st year in business and provides financing for commercial fleet vehicles such as box trucks, cargo vans, big rigs, tow trucks, dump trucks and construction equipment. CFF is a 3-time winner of the 2014, 2015 and 2016 Inc. Magazine Top 500/5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America. Matt has helped dozens of employees and thousands of small business owners move closer to the money they deserve. He is the author of, “The Grit”, and his forthcoming book, “I NEED MORE MONEY” will be out in 2017. Learn more at www.cffnationwide.com or call 972.247.8447 phone or on all social media platforms via @Matt Manero. www.mattmanero.com
