It’s no secret that our economic downturn is hurting businesses and creating hard times for many people. But in every adversity, there is opportunity, and this crisis is no exception.
Survival of the Fittest
The best-run organizations, those with a strong vision and commitment to success, will win as their weaker, poorly run competitors close their doors. For smart businesses, an economy in flux can present a rare opportunity to grow, maybe by developing new services or product lines and certainly by improving existing practices. Focus your energies on being more productive, identifying your priorities and increasing your revenue by growing your market share.
Focus on Process Improvement and Operating Efficiencies
Start by reviewing all your internal processes concentrating on streamlining and eliminating any duplication of jobs. Involve your employees and challenge them to think of ways to cut costs and improve efficiencies. Create standard operating procedures (SOP) and enforce them. This course of action will help ensure that everyone does the job consistently and efficiently with increased quality and fewer mistakes. SOP will also make training new employees much easier. To develop your SOP start by reviewing and documenting your procedures. Sometimes it’s easier to evaluate your operation when you have a visual reference. When you can see all the steps involved in the job it's easier to identify problems and remove unnecessary steps or change them to become more efficient.
After determining the best procedure for doing the job, make a flowchart (as simple as a bullet-point list) and explain the guideline to everyone so that they can easily follow it every time. Once you execute your plan and monitor that the procedures are followed, you should see the optimization of workflow - increased productivity, improved quality and consistent results.
Focus on Prioritizing
As we concentrate on doing more with less, we have a tendency to put ourselves in the middle of too many projects. Now more than ever, it is important to prioritize and concentrate our energy and resources on the most important projects. Work with your team to help make the best decisions regarding which projects to invest your time in and which ones to put on hold. After evaluating how much time and resources are required to complete a project, it's much easier to weigh its benefits versus its costs. Once you decide, approach each project systematically. Break the job down into manageable tasks that can be accomplished in a shorter timeframe. That way, there is a sense of accomplishment along the way and you avoid the enthusiasm-killer of feeling overwhelmed with the job.
Focus on Market Share
Now is the time to work harder on finding new business leads. Although money is tight, now is not the time to hold back. Work aggressively on increasing your exposure and networking. Optimize your time. Make sure the person you’re working with is in a decision-making position or quickly move on, seeking out the right person to contact. Take the initiative and follow up on all never depending on them to call you back. But remember this—all your diligent efforts will be for nothing if you don’t convert your hard-earned leads into sales. When the economy eventually bounces back, and it will, you want your company positioned as the market leader.
By taking a fresh look at your organization, you can identify inefficiencies and cost-saving measures and turn things around, making your company the leanest, most efficient business in the marketplace. Set goals and prioritize. Although the economy is in a sad state for the time being, keep your sights focused and efforts concentrated on your long-term goals, not just the short-term problems. Even if business is down, there is still some for the taking. Pursue it relentlessly and turn your leads into sales. Now is the time to strengthen your team and start working smarter, not just to survive the downturn, but to actually thrive and position yourself to excel when the economy rebounds. If you do, you will win in a losing environment.–
Cindy Ciardo, BOC Orthotist and CEO of Knueppel HealthCare Services, Inc. is also the education chair of WAMES, the VP of the Continuing Care Coordinators of SE Wisconsin and is on the editorial advisory panel for HomeCare Magazine.