Whether you’re running or setting up a start-up, time is of the essence.

It is particularly true in an age where most businesses don’t make it after their initial few years.

And this is not just because of fierce competition.

Most bootstrapped organisations are intended to grow as quickly as possible despite having fewer resources. In the meantime, start-ups look for the exit stage to prove their profitability to investors as early as possible.

Nevertheless, the clock is ticking. Work productivity is one of the top priorities in a start-up world, and efficiency is usually a struggle to keep your company as lean as possible.

So, here we’re breaking down the actionable steps to make your start-up more efficient.

1) Simplified Communication and Collaboration with Your Teams

To begin with, the start-up teams need to find a balance between staying in touch and likely wasting time.

Now the question is, are there any essential meetings for a start-up? Absolutely.

In particular, for smaller organisations or firms where “departments” may not have more than two or more employees, team collaboration is important to make a decision from sales to marketing and beyond.

However, you need to know that unproductive meetings can cost billions of dollars to a company per year.

Moreover, the process of holding meetings, asking questions, and work collaboration should be as quick and effortless as possible. This is the reason many start-up businesses are moving to collaboration software to ease communication, especially in an age where most of the start-ups are connecting with clients and customers internationally.

Fortunately, technology (like RingCentral) allows teams to shift from a time-consuming, “obsolete” approach to effective collaboration. Establishing that doesn’t mean investing all your precious time in your inbox, either.

Expansion of technologies like video calls or meetings is quickly becoming popular among employees to experience face-to-face interaction without meeting your colleague in person.

Apart from video meetings, team messaging tools have also helped put an end to endless email. For instance, RingCentral eases the struggle for start-up teams to establish communication in real-time through message, video, and phone:

Image Source: RingCentral

Choosing an effective communications platform is a crucial first step toward figuring out how to boost teams’ productivity.

2) Enhance your workflow by automating as much as you can

Many average businesses waste 40% of their work time on tasks that could be automated. In particular, this sobering issue can create trouble for start-ups.

As a small company with tight schedules and few employees, you can’t afford to lose your staff’s valuable time to a tedious task. In addition, you may also don’t want to force your team to extend their role that they actually don’t excel at.

In such cases, CRM tools are vital for start-up businesses. It not only tracks their customer relationships but also helps to save time logging interactions such as emails and calls.

Automation can help to boost company efficiency beyond just administrative functions. For instance, today, start-ups are often dependent upon a marketing stack that syncs your company’s email, social media, and inbound marketing campaigns so that you come to know precisely where your new leads are coming from. This will help you better understand what is actually enticing customers and what’s not.

There’re many other sales tools out there that makes it easier for you to convert your leads. Tools like PandaDoc enable you to stimulate quick contracts and log e-signatures to close deals quickly.

The benefit of these modern business tools is that they often work in sequence and integrate with each other. RingCentral’s integration with Outlook means you can attend or conduct meetings without switching apps.

Image Source: RingCentral

3) Ensure that your employees are engaged and satisfied with their work

Team or employee’s engagement has always been a hot topic among start-ups for a reason.

Based upon Gallup research, engaged staffs are more skilled & productive and make fewer errors. As a consequence, they ultimately help to produce more profits on behalf of businesses.

There is no shortcut to acquiring engaged employees. Therefore, start-ups have to support their team with the best possible tools instead of just expect them to behave as a productivity powerhouse.

An employee engagement is beyond a good salary or years of experience. As per Gallup’s research, here are a few common aspects about engaged employees.

• They know what’s job expected from them at work.
• They receive feedback from managers on a regular basis.
• They feel that their views matter at work.
• They have the essentials tools to do their jobs.

All of the above aspects directly back to effective communication.

Moreover, frequent check-ins of managers on their employees are more likely to identify barriers or issues that might cause someone to struggle. The upside of choosing Ring central as a communication platform empowers managers and employees to talk in whichever way they feel.

4) Enable your Employees to Work from Anywhere and Everywhere

Remote working has been popular even before the COVID-19 crisis.

Remote hiring is a great way to conduct effective recruitment for your start-up. In order to get the best talent, you don’t have to worry about your workspace or in-person onboarding costs. In the present scenario, remote hiring is the need of the hour.

However, onboarding staff requires ample training, and remote employees are no exception to this. Therefore, having a process and prepared training guide will help to boost onboarding and ensures new candidates can get to work effectively.

RingCentral is a tool that helps conduct the initial hiring process and employees’ training effectively. It has features like screen sharing and video calls that help your new hire to retain information quickly.

Image Source: RingCentral

5) Eliminate “hustle” culture—and focus on workable goals instead

While sleepless nights and long working hours were once considered an honourable characteristic of companies, now more and more people are discovering that overly demanding tasks aren’t the way to boost team efficiency. There’s a growing trend of burnout and depression in businesses that push employees too hard.

In this competitive work culture, balancing work-life is crucial for your team’s health and productivity. For this, don’t push employees to be available 24 hours a day. Rather encourage them to focus on smaller things to achieve realistic goals, and they’ll become more productive in the long term.

So, to create a positive work environment, it’s important that your team members should be able to reach out quickly and shouldn’t be under pressure to stay “present” at all times. You should regularly communicate with them and often listen to their feedback; it is an easier way to avoid burning out.

Are you making an effort to keep your start-up efficient?

Any effective process that helps make your team productive than ever is an advantage.

Hope this guide has served as a source of inspiration to boost team efficiency without reinventing the wheel. Effective unified communication is the primary factor in accomplishing the start-up goals. Partner with Workanywhere today, it is a leading partner of RingCentral that can assist your team and enhance business communication.