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5 Ways to Streamline Your Online Business

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Streamline Online Business

Bigger, faster and more seems to be the fuel behind online businesses. Chasing profits and fighting for customers drives prices to their proper point due to the “invisible hand” and productivity gets rewarded. That’s the theory at least, but theories often work better in classrooms than actually out in the field, when you’re getting down and dirty.

Time or money?

Time remains the greatest resource humans and businesses do not have enough of. Time limitations ensure that the best decisions are not merely based on how much a deal will earn a company. Rather than simply chase after dollars, online businesses need to ask the following questions when looking at clients:

  • What else could be accomplished in the time spent on a client?
  • What is the profit per unit in dealing with this client?

A huge revenue number for an overall project might not look as good when put into figures of the amount earned per hour- not to mention the endless amounts required in online business where working hours are all hours.

Say No to Time Wasters

Some clients are not worth the time and effort. This might be the most difficult and counter-intuitive lesson for some business owners. Some customers might make so many special requests or demands that severing the relationship might make more sense in the long term. All business decisions must be made while keeping in mind the economic concepts of opportunity cost and Pareto’s Law.

Opportunity cost means that every decision comes at the price of not doing something else. Pareto’s Law states that 80 percent of sales come from 20 percent of clients. Rather than focusing on expanding, concentrating on key customers might streamline the business and improve profitability in the future. Unfocused pursuits for profit might cause a business to neglect its most important customers.

Centralized Software

In the growing stages of a business even the smallest expenses might mean the difference between success and failure. Keeping some of the key functions in-house and centralized not only allows business owners to learn every aspect of their business but also keeps costs low. Aids like Netsuite software provide business management tools to centralize and strengthen business operations. They also promote transparency when you run an online business and are not neccesarily face to face with many of your employees.

When to Outsource?

There’s always the option of outsourcing for smaller or easier tasks that you don’t want to burden and employee to handle. Before considering outsourcing, ask yourself these questions:

  • What is the business doing well?
  • What areas need to improve?
  • Can multiple people coordinate outsourcing if they aren’t in the same office?
  • What do we hate doing?

The internet offers easy access to freelancers in virtually every field to offer professional help that will seem like in-house expertise to customers- noone will be able to tell the difference.

Empowering Employees

Empowering your employees could quite possibly be the most important decision you could ever make. In the online world, you’ll often have virtual employees, working in different time zones. You can’t necessarily be around all the time to help them make decisions. Empowering them will not only save you from sleepless nights, but you’ll also improve the morale of everyone working under you- even if they aren’t in the same office as you.

Employees will show their true worth without a manager breathing down their necks- given space and support, an employee can generally make good business decisions. Rather than worrying about micromanaging workers, trusting employees to make the right decisions will cut down on lag time for customer inquiries and give the business owner, or you, something better to do with your time.

Online business owners do not have to be the masters of everything- but thanks to the capabilities of the internet, there are many ways to streamline and work to your full capacity.

About

Jennifer Williams is a writer, turned traveler, turned blogger who is learning and explorer her new found love for the social media and blogging industry.

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{ 37 Responses }

  1. Amr Boghdady says:
    I was always against the idea of outsourcing, until I tried it once, and saw how it got me much better results than I could have achieved alone I mean the results were so good, my visitors nearly doubled, and I got most of my money back from the ads on my website!
  2. Latief says:
    Thanks for the tips sist, I love about the out sourcing sometimes out sourcing is more effective for our business. Thanks.
  3. Usama says:
    Say no to time wasters. Internet, as huge and beneficial it may be, tends to become your enemy as you waste hours on it. On people or on websites. Thanks.
    • Tixy says:
      Say No to Time Wasters - I have this problem :( - and have no idea how overcome this bad habbit....
  4. Tinh says:
    I need both time and money but sometimes I hate money and wish I could have 74 hours per day to complete my work LOL
  5. Isabel Rodrigues - Pro Blogger Journey says:
    I don't mind outsourcing work. Infact its a great way to increase your overall business growth and income.
  6. James says:
    Your advice on employees is something that I believe in too. Most managers think they need to be a tough boss and micro all there employees and in my experience these types of managers hire and fire employees all the time. The worst thing about this is sometimes you might let go of someone who had great potential.
  7. Alex says:
    Investing your employees with some administrative powers can sometimes work out for you and like you said, spare you from some sleepless nights but it can also make you redo something if they take the wrong decision, in my opinion this will sound much better if they would have some guidelines on what decisions should they take. Letting go to customers that are too demanding can be good for you business but also it can have some bad side effects(like not be recommended to others, or even worse, being labeled as a untrustworthy provider). Taking challenges can sometimes turn out to be a winner.
  8. Nasrul Hanis says:
    I love your idea of empowering the employees. It's not right to let the boss decides all the time. It's time to give the employees their important parts so we can make the potential stronger!
  9. Jennifer Williams says:
    Thanks!!
  10. Henway says:
    I started outsourcing to people in India and Philippines earlier this year. At first I was worried the cost would outweigh the benefits, but ever since, I've been making more and more money. Outsourcing just frees up your time - instead of doing tedious tasks, you spend more time brainstorming and coming up with new revenue streams.
  11. Mani Viswanathan says:
    Nice articles, you've mentioned some important points which need to be followed by every business owner/Entrepreneur.
    • Jennifer Williams says:
      Thanks Mani!
  12. Peter from Blogging Mechanics says:
    This article makes me thinking. Last night I was watching the video of Brian Tracy at Brendon Burchard Experts Academy (I have watched it 10 times at least, it is so good) and in that video, he said one thing that is extremely relevant to your post - "Entrepreneurs should focus on one number in their business and do everything to improve it". What is that number in your business? Is it more sales, more opt-ins or more customers? I finally realized my number, and I will do everything I can to improve it in next 90 days.
    • Jennifer Williams says:
      I think this is really important! If you focus too much on every little number, your most important one will suffer. If you focus on your one IMPORTANT one, and do everything to better it, the others will fall into place. I'm glad my article got you thinking :)
  13. Hung says:
    My first hiring people to do my task that can be done for 7 days but pending fo 3 months "Cheer!"
    • Jennifer Williams says:
      hooray!
  14. Caleb Miller says:
    We need to keep going back to the 80/20 rule. I think every businesses/entrepreneur should have a procedure for using the 80/20 rule because so much time is wasted by not paying attention to it. We've never learned enough. We never know it all.
    • Jennifer Williams says:
      True dat. There's always so much more to learn and we should never assume we're always working as efficiently as we could be.
  15. TJ McDowell says:
    I think that firing some of your customers may be a good thing for some people, but not every business owner has that luxury. If you're just starting your business and you've got the time, I'd recommend that you bend over backwards for any client that walks through your doors. You may not like a person, but the worst thing you could do for yourself as a young business is to tick off the few customers you have. You won't get referrals, and your business probably won't grow.
    • Vernon says:
      I fully agree with you. There may be some businesses where you can say 'get out' without to much effect, but certainly not all of them. Having worked in hospitality, there were a few cases where one asks a person to leave, when they start affecting your other customers, but in general, a lodge or hotel only has so many rooms, and if you just boot someone out the door because they asked for room service coffee over lunch hour... I know it is the 'lifestyle design' (aka tferriss) thing, but unless that customer was taking up great amounts of your time, to the detriment of other customers, it certainly wouldn't be first on my list of good business practices. If you're firing customers, please let me know, I'll have some!
      • Jennifer Williams says:
        I agree, what I said was more of something that can be applied to certain industries, and not to others. The types of industries where service takes MAIN focus, then of course you would never want to fire a customer. But if are (just as an example) a freelance writer, and one customer is really affected your time and energy for crazy requests, then it's best at that point in time to "fire" them if they won't work with you. Thanks for the insightful reply!
        • Vernon says:
          Sure, got you. As for my last line, I was just making a joke. On a more positive note, there's one line I really do like: "Empowering your employees could quite possibly be the most important decision you could ever make" - Yes!
  16. Murlu says:
    I can definitely attest to letting an employee have free reign over their work - you hire them for their expertise - LET THEM DO THEIR JOB! I had to go through paperwork after paperwork at my job before anything was finally approved so one day I talked with my boss and told him flat out to just back off and let me do my thing. Result? Projects are now completed in a single day! You have to trust in your employees to get the job done - if you give them the room they'll shine.
    • Jennifer Williams says:
      I agree. I'm big on empowering employees. For me, I don't like to be micromanaged. I do a good enough job of micromanaging myself so that I don't need to be really poked and prodded unless I'm completely overwhelmed with work. When employees can plan out work themselves, they learn what works best for them to make them more productive. Thanks!
  17. Pumama says:
    I like "Outsource'.I hired some people to do "low income works" for me to have free time to do "high income works"
    • Jennifer Williams says:
      yes, sometimes its necessary! Thanks!
  18. Dana says:
    Yeah agree with what you said. We should focus on the customers that give us the benefits but without forget to leverage our business for new costumers of course.
    • Jennifer Williams says:
      Of course! Never forget about potential business :) Thanks!
  19. Darren says:
    Great article. So many businesses don't take advantage of these aspects such as the outsourcing and empowering their employees. These avenues need to be explored to get the most out of your business.
    • Jennifer Williams says:
      Definitely. Businesses need to trust others to help them better themselves. Empowering employees and outsourcing to focus on higher end tasks is a must (in most cases).
  20. Rahul says:
    i agree with how we have to "not" waste time , cause gaining time is really essential ,i have reading about planning and timing and taking care of this detail is essential , taking perfect decisions is very important i agree with that :)) informative post thanK you: