Successful businesses are built on strong leadership, smart decision-making and planning, but even the best business owners can find themselves with some bad habits. Your bad habits may be outdated strategies that don’t work anymore or unconscious tendencies you’ve failed to recognize. Questioning your reasoning and motives is often the first step in identifying potentially negative tendencies or habits. Click To Tweet
Habits That Hurt Your Business
Habits form over time from repetition and frequency. Because some behaviors or shortcuts don’t seem negative, they become ingrained habits before their impact is fully realized. Here are some habits that could hurt your business:
1) Acting Reactively, Instead of Proactively
Do you act when there’s a problem or to avoid a problem? The difference between the 2 can make or break your business. Operating proactively means anticipating weaknesses and addressing them before they cause issues. The alternative is to wait for a problem and hope that it’s fixable, which is never a good tactic for business.
2) Wasting Time
Are your procedures efficient and streamlined? If not, chances are you’re spending time needlessly. For example, if your management requires approval for even the most trivial of tasks, employees are likely wasting precious time simply waiting around.
3) Not Outsourcing
Your business simply isn’t capable of doing everything, and it should be expected to! Focusing on your areas of expertise allows for innovation and creativity. If you bog down employees with tasks that would be better outsourced, you’re wasting their time and talent. Aspects of your business such as textile leasing and laundry, IT Service and office cleaning should all be outsourced.
4) Micromanaging
While you might have the best of intentions, micromanaging is shown to be ineffective and a source of irritation for employees. Have an initial training period, but once that’s over employees should be able to carry on without you there. They may not do things exactly as you would, but that doesn’t mean their way is any less effective.
5) Failing to Delegate
You can’t do it all by yourself. Invest in the best team you can get and then delegate tasks that match each person’s expertise. Delegation is as much for you as it is for your employees. Without it you’ll become overworked and your team will not feel trusted or respected.
Make A Change
Wilkins Linen understands the many demands put on small business owners. If you recognize any of the above habits in your business, it’s probably time to take action. Replacing negative habits with positive ones begins with assessing your current situation and taking steps to improve. This reflection is necessary for improvement and increased efficiency.
Contact Us for more information about outsourcing your industrial laundry service.
