Increasing Small Business Productivity by Nicholas Brown

An obstacle many small businesses face is losing money and productivity because of poor organization. Business disorganization comes in many different forms, but each has the same result, lost time and money. One major problem with organization in small businesses comes from project delivery and filing. This is especially true of service-based businesses. Most businesses specialize in one or two services with little differences between projects. However, even though many of the procedures for completing a project are the same regardless of the project, businesses fail to find a way of streamlining those procedures.

Examples are usually the easiest way of learning a new concept. Let us consider a small business that sells lamps. This particular business receives orders from all over the country. Each time this business receives an order, they must create an invoice and file an order sheet for their records. These records require that the name, address, and other information be entered. What this business fails to realize is that this process can be greatly simplified with a little database know-how and some basic programming.

There are a few things to consider before getting started on this process. First, are there repeat customers or are most purchases from new customers? Let us assume for a moment that most purchases are from repeat customers. In this case, a form could be set up in the database to automatically fill out all the billing and shipping information when the buyer’s name is entered. Suppose, however, that most of the customers are new. In this case it would be impractical to have the database try to fill in the information based on the person’s name. In this case, have the state and zip code information automatically filled in upon entering the city would be of great use.

Since more than one form must be filled out in either customer’s case, it would be of great help for the database to automatically fill in the information from one form into all necessary, subsequent forms. This would require the employee to fill out only one form instead of multiple forms with the same information, allowing the employee to get back to other important duties.

These simple tricks can help a business to save valuable time and money. When running a small business, every hour and every dollar matters, so it pays to make your business more efficient.