Innovative Strategies to Streamline Your Business

In times like these, business owners are constantly seeking new, innovative ways to boost the bottom line. And just when you think you’ve thought of everything, you often have a “Eureka!” moment when you discover a new cost-saving or revenue-producing idea—or one that does both.

Small business owners and experts weigh in on the most innovative, bottom-line benefiting breakthroughs they’ve discovered in the recent past. Here are six that could very well keep your business humming while others are hurting:

Get socially connected
If you’re not taking advantage of social-media networking tools, you’re missing out. Facebook, Twitter and other sites are now commonly used by businesses to promote their latest specials, company updates and industry news among customers and others.

“If a small business isn’t already using it, it should be,” says Becky Blanton, who runs Corporate Garage, a Richmond, Va.-based consultancy for construction-related businesses and others.

Collect money faster
Dragging on accounts receivables is a way to keep cash out of your hands. And many in the building industry aren’t aware that they may be able to access the Automated Clearing House system to ensure prompt payment. Overseen by the Electronic Payments Association, the system processes billions of credit/debit transactions each year.

“It automates the receivable process,” says Glenn Fromer, CPA and director of development at Richmond, Va.-based Treasury Software, which specializes in cash-management solutions for construction companies and other small to medium-sized businesses. “Rather than wait passively for checks to arrive, small business owners can withdraw funds through this. It’s used regularly by big businesses, but, unfortunately, many small businesses are unaware that’s it’s available to them too. They can increase cash flow, reduce the risk of fraud and errors and avoid costly credit-card merchant fees. It’s especially relevant for businesses with recurring billing cycles, like those in the building industry.”

Plug into the virtual assistant concept
Sites such as Elance.com connect business owners with virtual assistants who can fill in for needed ‘temp’ jobs.

“You don’t need a warm body in an office to do this,” Blanton says. “Virtual assistants are happy to work four hours or 40. This means you limit your employee costs and you don’t have to worry about water-cooler breaks.”

Use sites like netappointment.com to allow customers to schedule appointments with you via mobile devices. Given that many customers are on iPhones and Blackberries, mobile appointment booking and cancellation tools are emerging as a necessary part of business, Blanton says.

Go green and save
Increasing the ‘green’ factor in your office is a quick way to improve cash flow through savings. And there are countless ways to increase the innovation factor when it comes to improving on this front—you might even divide your company into teams and make a contest out of reducing waste. 

According to Jennifer Kaplan, author of Greening Your Small Business, small business owners can start by simply selecting two-sided printing as the default setting on all printers and copiers. When word processing, use the Arial Narrow font, which reduces printed pages by about 15 percent. Re-use boxes for shipping. Use online maps to send your crews to jobs using the most direct routes, and consider having crews ‘carpool’ to multiple sites if possible. Use PDFs to share documents instead of printing them. Transition out-of-office mailings to e-mail formats when sending materials to customers, vendors and others.

If you don’t use it, sell it
The home office isn’t the only place where costs can be saved by adopting ‘green’ practices. Ralph Rhodes, president of Hilliard, Ohio-based Ralph Rhodes Custom Homes Inc., sells all salvageable, removed materials on Craigslist.com. If some siding is being replaced, the discarded stuff doesn’t end up in a landfill, and Rhodes reaps cash benefits.

“I don’t have to pay for the listing to get rid of it,” he says. “I don’t have to pay for dumpsters to haul all the materials. And it all gets recycled.” Similarly, he offers incentives like free pizza to crews if they reduce waste on a site, saving on additional trash-hauling costs.

Start a party
Start an alliance with an outside party that shares your interests. Licensed general contractor Dawn Steimer Robison did just this by forming an alliance with a local kitchen cabinet showroom store.

“We developed a program called Kitchen and Bath University,” says Steimer Robison, who is managing partner for Master Custom Home Remodeling in Knoxville, Tenn. “We’ve conducted informational seminars, such as How to Hire a Contractor, What to Expect and Kitchen Cabinets 101.” It’s a way to inform an audience with a clear interest in what you sell, and gain customer leads as well. As a result, her business is having one of its best years since it started ten years ago.