Strategy, Legal & Operations
Small talk with Peter Jones: How to free up time to make smarter business decisions

- How you can increase business productivity
- How to overcome business challenges
- How saving time can help your business
- How to motivate and empower your employees
- How to elevate your business performance
Three ways to make smarter business decisions
Once you’ve freed up your time, with automation being one way to do that, you’ll have more room to make smarter business decisions. Here are three ways to do that.1. Start with your KPIs
Begin by working out and being clear on your key performance indicators (KPIs). Next, you’ll need to select the analytics and data tools that will help you achieve them. And finally, stick to the KPIs across the business. By taking these steps, you can keep everybody on the same page. This will result in different teams working together rather than competing against each other. You’ll be measuring your data in the same way and using the results to keep improving.2. Customise your reports
Accounting or financial tools designed to use your company’s data to provide insights are likely to come with ready-made dashboards, reports and other analytics. But choosing to create customised versions specifically for your needs may be more beneficial. You could build a personalised dashboard with the specific metrics for your business health that you can view at any time and from anywhere – and across any device, be it mobile phone, tablet, laptop or desktop.3. Hunt out any inefficiencies
Think about the many processes that run your business. Just as a healthy mind needs a healthy body, executive decisions can only be helpful if the organisational structures that underpin them are primed for the times. Take finance, for example. Antiquated behaviours used by accountants and businesses—desktop spreadsheets and handwritten bookkeeping—might get a job done, but not in a way that can compete on the same playing field as more forward-thinking alternatives.Final thoughts on making smarter business decisions
Moving from data entry to data analysis – by automating manual tasks – is going to help your business in the long run. So work out which tasks you can automate, then you can put that freed-up time to better use. When it comes to making smarter business decisions, it can be easy to collect every data point – but this won’t be efficient. Instead, think about what you need to know to make your business a success. Consider your KPIs and what you’re measuring. Create your personalised dashboards and reports, then you can start tracking your progress and building the right insights. And with the right information in front of you, you and your team can make the best decisions for the business.Perform at your best
Discover how to improve productivity, make smarter decisions and empower your people so you can elevate the performance of your small business.
