3 Energy Efficiency Tips For Socially-Responsible Small Businesses

Every enterprise seeks to get ahead of the pack in its sector. Unfortunately, many of the decisions that you may make could hurt the environment. More companies need to find ways to be energy efficient.  At the same time, they need to make sure that they maintain a competitive edge.

As a small business owner with similar intent, you can’t compromise on maximizing energy efficiency. If you do not improve energy efficiency as much as you can and improve the level and quality of output, your firm delivers, you will inevitably find yourself at a disadvantage. Here are some tools to help you get your small business in better operational shape.

1. Automation

As a small business, you can be prone to cost overruns with a lesser wiggle room than more prominent competitors. Automation is one way to get a handle on both costs and level of operational efficiency. It also reduces wasted energy due to human error and waste.

If you are one of the firms competing to satisfy the needs of the 1.66 billion online shoppers in the world, for example, you need to embrace automation in your customer acquisition process. Your sales funnel needs to deploy a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software solution that helps you grow that all-important customer satisfaction score.

When you automate your customer relationship practices, you deliver a customer experience with the least friction. As a result, shoppers will return to your site and you will not only get to increase your revenue but also scale customer relations sustainably.

Internal processes such as payroll and inventory management are also crucial areas a small business needs to optimize while keeping costs at an optimal level. Automating these processes using technology that enables you to perform tasks that would traditionally require more employees will reduce both human resources costs and human error. As a result, your process efficacy solidifies and ultimately so does your revenue.

2. Lean Six Sigma

Lean Six Sigma is a continuous improvement process that is an amalgamation of two principles, i.e., Lean and Six Sigma.

• Lean

Lean is a process improvement technique that emphasizes how a firm can reduce waste to increase efficiency. It is not focused so much on how to adopt new processes that can add to operations but rather how to reduce inefficiency in pre-existing processes.

• Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a collection of methods that a business can use to increase operational efficiency. Originating at Motorola in the 1980s, this method focuses on reducing or eliminating variation in a firm’s output. If an organization can manage to streamline its production, it can increase the quality and ultimately its profitability.

As a business owner, it is critical to consider enrolling for Lean Six Sigma courses to learn how to optimize your processes by combining waste reduction and harmonization of your quality of output.

Once your sector of focus achieves peak profit margins, it will inevitably attract competing firms both big and small. If you are to survive as a small business, you have to move away from relying solely on profit margins as a competitive edge. Adopting continual cost optimization through Lean Six Sigma will help you remain competitive in the long run even after new players bring down the margins.

What does this have to do with energy efficiency? Quite a lot. The IEEE shows that Six sigma practices are shown to be more environmentally friendly.

3. Employee Happiness

Did you know that happier employees are more morally active? They will invest more in helping the environment.

The level of output among staff members has a significant impact on how efficient business can become. Research by the University of Warwick shows that when employees are satisfied with their workplace, their output increases by 12%.

When your people are satisfied, they tend not to quit as frequently. As a result, your attrition costs reduce leading to cost savings in less hiring and training expenditure. These savings represent a top line increase in operational efficiency of your small business that will have a material impact on earnings.

How well a business operates is an essential factor in its success. Focus on adding value to both the technological, procedural, and people components of your small business to thrive.

Take Steps to Improve the Environment

Improving the environment is one of the priorities of all socially conscious business owners. The good news is that there are a number of things that you can do to improve energy efficiency.