Most of the time, attempting to grow your business by cutting costs is backwards thinking. Few of us dominate our market well enough to risk reducing quality and service.

Improving your processes to reduce costs, on the other hand, is easy money AND a competitive advantage.

A business is a set of processes to increase the value of raw materials or products so that your sales team can convert them into money. Those processes offer a wealth of opportunities to improve your product, increase your profits, and reduce your stress.

There is an easy way and a hard way. I prefer the easy way.

• Match the process to your people and the job you need done.
• Measure performance in transparent and careful ways.
• Training resources invested in existing employees has a much higher ROI than training new hires.
• Expect (hope) your employees will continue to find better ways to get your jobs done.
• Use the energy you don't have to spend on monitoring employees to increase sales.

I am an information systems specialist with decades of experience in the blue collar workplace and running my own businesses and over 20 years writing software to achieve business goals. I see information patterns and processes in ways that aren't intuitive to someone without expertise in all three areas. If the solution does not work for your employees or it doesn't give you the confidence and information you need to run your business, then it won't work.

My solution might be as simple as modifying a form to more accurately reflect the task and your business objectives. More likely it involves getting rid of the form altogether. The most powerful solutions use a computer interface built around each job. This ensures accurate, reliable information is quickly and accountably provided at each step. If it makes a job more tedious or difficult, it is the wrong solution. The better and more timely information can increase turn rates, improve sales information, allocate costs, and put you back in control.