When & When Not to Take Shortcuts in Business
Taking shortcuts is one of those things that you have to ration when you’re starting a business. If you do too much of it, you’ll probably make big mistakes that could cost you dearly going forward. At the same time, you shouldn’t write them off completely because there are many helpful ideas that can be reasonably described as shortcuts. It’s not all black and white, which is what many people want it to be.
So how can you know whether you should take shortcuts or not? We’re going to attempt to answer that question today, and we’ll do that by covering the things that are worth taking shortcuts on and the things that you should take the long way round for. If you manage to get this balance right, it will help your company avoid disasters brought about by taking too many shortcuts, while making the most of clever and strategic business shortcuts.
Read on now and learn more about when and when not to take shortcuts in business, and when you’ve done that, you can push forward without half as much worry as you’d otherwise need to deal with.
Good Times to Take Shortcuts
Streamline Communications
Communicating with people is essential, no matter what kind of business you’re currently trying to run. It’s up to you to find ways to streamline those methods of communication if you’re serious about finding success, and there are plenty of good shortcuts to help with that. You can eliminate internal calls by setting up an instant messaging system in the office. And you can communicate externally better and more cost effectively by using VoIP technology.
Business Communication Duplicate model
Mentoring Your Staff
Sometimes, you want your new staff to be as competent and as high-performing as your senior staff right now. It can certainly make your life much easier. However, it’s never as easy as that, so do you have to wait years and decades for them to mature and develop? Well, not necessarily. With the right mentor, your youthful employees can learn the ropes and understand what’s expected of them much more quickly, so put this idea to the test.
Outsourcing to Reduce Your Workload
Outsourcing is becoming more common with each passing year, and it’s your task to make the most of it if you need to reduce your workload. It’s the ultimate shortcut because you’re literally passing your work onto someone for them to complete for you. Of course, you have to pay them to do so, but if the rate is affordable and reasonable, there is no reason why this shouldn’t be something you explore going forward.
Rapidly Building Your Brand Via Social Media
When your brand is new, it can be pretty frustrating because no one knows who you are or what you stand for. You have to build your brand before you get to the stage at which that happens. However, you can get around this by using social media to build your brand and make it easily recognisable right away. You’re only a few viral tweets away from everyone knowing who you are and what you do, so get to work on this as soon as you can.
When You Shouldn’t Take Shortcuts
When Assessing Risks
Risk assessments should form a big part of how any reputable modern business is run, and you can’t underestimate just how important they are. They’re about making sure that your business doesn’t completely step out into the unknown without getting to grasps with what you’re getting into. It can also impact health and safety, which is something we’ll talk about in more depth very soon.
If the Stakes Are High
When you really need to get things right, when it’s truly make or break for your business, you need to focus on getting things done properly rather than getting things done quickly. It’s not worth the hassle of putting your entire business at risk just to make your job a little easier and a little quicker. Taking any other path in this kind of scenario would be sheer madness.
When Dealing With Health & Safety
Health and safety matters are never worth taking risks with. It’s a matter of life and death in some instances, and even in less serious scenarios, there is always a possibility of people getting hurt if you’re not careful. You should be looking to strengthen health and safety provisions with the help of companies like Occupational Safety Solutions. Never assume that you could or should get away with cutting corners when it comes to the safety of your employees and customers.
During the Hiring Process
Hiring the right people to work for your business is tricky and testing at the best of times. It only becomes more difficult for you if you allow yourself to cut corners during that whole process. You want to make sure you’re hiring people with the right skills, knowledge and background to carry your business forward into the future. If you can’t do that, it will only be a matter of time before you end up hiring someone who’s clearly unsuitable for your business.
When Carrying Out Market Research
Market research should never be cut short of stunted by your desires to get things done quickly. Sure, it can be a pretty long and painstaking process, but that’s something that you just have to be accepting of. For better or worse, in order for you to get the most clear and truthful research outcomes, you need to take it slowly. It’s easy to get your hands on data and reports fast, but what’s the use of that data is completely misleading?
Taking shortcuts is never universally good or universally bad; as the above shows, it all depends on the context and what kinds of shortcuts you’re talking about. There are certain situations when you need to be really careful and just do things by the book as much as you can, and there are others when taking the shorter route makes sense all round.
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