Productivity Planner

Organising yourself at work is easy. It’s a great feeling to be organised don’t you think? My suspicion is if you have found this article you are on the up and up. Why because the first sign of people moving forward is they have a keen desire to get organised. So well done you.

I remember all too well as a sales manager how difficult it was to actually get everything done. Not only your own job, but what also feels like all the team as well. Or is that just some days.

After many years of trial and error I thought I would share my top tips. I have honed these over the last few years with a little help from my friends. It’s not about lots of lists either though that is something I would advise.

So if you are really serious and want to see and experience a difference read on and give it a go

Let’s start at the very beginning.

1. Know your goals and your companies

One of the number one reason people are disorganised is because they don’t know what their priorities are. Usually because they don’t know what they are heading towards. As an experiment. Get a piece of paper and pen (or better still put it in your note book) Write down your top 5 outcomes that you want to achieve this year.

This could be:

Raise the team product knowledge

Improve my management knowledge

Increase the number of contacts made with customers.

Have at least one of my team promoted

Increase the market share by 5%

Get myself on the next IT project team etc

Then commit to do one thing a day that takes you closer to this. It does not have to be huge either e.g. It could be reading for 20 minutes to improve your management skills. Like reading this article for instance.

2. Spend the minimum amount of time on email a day possible

This might be a challenge at first! I know. We complai [Read more →]

Tags: , , Leadership, Inspiration, Management, Organizational Culture by Chris Russell
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What is a bottleneck? A bottleneck is an aspect of your business that restricts or constricts productivity. Bottlenecks hold up precious revenue producing resources. They restrict progress, effect efficiency and cost you money. For many retailers bottlenecks can be anywhere. Can you think of an area in your store where productivity is at a stand still? Do you have any?

In order to improve efficiency you will have to identify your bottlenecks. Possible bottlenecks for a retail home center might result from a backlog of deliveries or merchandise returns. Stacked up or over scheduled deliveries can lead to cancelled orders and the loss of a positive shopping experience. Long lines of customers waiting to return products can be equally damaging. Good customers wishing to exchange products that are incorrect or defective don’t appreciate long wait times. They may leave vowing never to return. Bottlenecks can be found in other types of retail as well. Customers who are also on their lunch hour can easily overwhelm a drug store operating on a lean staff over the noon hour. A lumberyard or plumbing supply business may do a significant percentage of their business in charge accounts. If at the end of the month the charge statements are not sent out on time, it will greatly affect the income steam of that business. Any one of these scenarios can result in lost revenue, and not for just one instance, but possibly forever. What is the cost of a good customer over multiple years?

Once found, take action. Whether it is merchandise returns, monthly statements, or daily deliveries, ask yourself is it a staffing issue. If it is, correct it. You may only need to increase your staff levels at peak times. If it is a procedural issue find out where the breakdown in policy occurred. If it is a personnel issue, make a change. As an owner or manager of any r [Read more →]

Tags: , , Leadership, Inspiration, Management, Organizational Culture by Chris Russell
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ERP systems are software solutions that are designed to enhance the performance and profitability of an organization. Constructions ERP are targeted particularly at the real estate and construction industry.

Constructions ERP can be used for all types of projects, like group housing, townships, apartments, malls, retail complexes, etc. That is, construction ERP software segregates data on the basis of projects, customers, brokers, and so on. In other words, a realty company building a group housing project shall use constructions ERP to store and process data related to a particular land, the project, its customers, brokers, sales, inventory, etc.

Normally, ERP vendors provide construction software that can accommodate any and all types of projects. Thanks to its flexibility, taking one suitable construction ERP is enough for taking care of all the needs of a real estate company. It is also important that the software be scalable, so that it can cater to the growing demands of a realty company. Scalability is the ability of the software to be upgraded or the ability of the software to accommodate a growing database.

Just as important as scalability are the other virtues, like adaptability, flexibility and security. Customizability and flexibility refer to the quality of the software, wherein, its features can be changed or adapted as per the needs of an organization. Security of data is yet another concern for any real estate organization. Thus, constructions ERP have features that allow only the approved users to access the system and modify its data.

Constructions ERP has the ability to comprehensively manage a project, in addition to document management, work scheduling, search functionalities, etc.

Its search functions enable the authorized user to find information at the single click of a button. Similarly, the docu [Read more →]

Tags: , , Leadership, Inspiration, Management, Organizational Culture by Chris Russell
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