4 Tips to Improve the Performance of Your Startup

Whether you’ve just gotten your new company up and running or you’ve been in business for a while, there’s always room for performance improvement. However, if you’re putting out fires on a day-to-day basis, it can be hard to take a step back and see what needs to be done. The tips below can help you identify some of the best performance hacks.

Ask Your Employees

Many startups are one-person affairs, at least at first, but if you do have people who work for you, start by going to them. They may have insights about certain procedures and how they could be improved that you aren’t aware of since you’re not doing them day to day. This can also help you learn how to deal with criticism and negative comments. Even if your employees are positive in their content and delivery the practice of asking for, and navigating feedback is helpful for the times it’s not. Of course, you may have reasons for requiring them to be done in a certain way that have to do with the overview you have of the company. But any efforts to improve performance should start with talking to people who are on the ground and considering their perspective, needs and suggestions.

Look for Tech Solutions

Tech solutions can be a great way to improve your company’s performance. For example, there may be many tasks that you can automate. Many accounting tasks in particular may fall under this category. You can also look into ways to improve efficiency and other elements of your business. If your business includes a fleet, you can use a vehicle tracking system with GPS.

This can help you figure out better routes for your drivers and ensure that they are working efficiently as well as help improve your safety practices. Another example of how tech can provide a solution is in customer service. You may be able to improve your performance here with chatbots that help with simple customer questions. There are a host of other tech solutions that may work for your startup. Do some research to see what others in the industry are using and consider whether they will work for you.

Review Your Goals

How long has it been since you took a look at your goals? Are they still valid? Are you still working toward them? Have you gotten off course, or do you need new ones? Recalibrating the direction, you want to go in can revitalize your business. This can be especially true if these are goals you set before you got your company up and running. If you’re setting new goals or refining old ones, make sure that there is a measurable way to track your progress.

Work on Your Marketing

This is another place where there can be a big gap between how you might have originally conceived of your startup and the reality. Do you have the customer base that you originally anticipated, or has it changed over time? Do you know who your customers are and what they want? Are there ways that you could do a better job of retaining the existing ones and attracting new ones? You might want to consider working with a data specialist to better track information about customer preferences and behavior. Two low-cost ways to boost your marketing are creating a newsletter and improving your social media presence.