Software Conferences

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Tips For Maximizing Time

1. Eliminate Forum Spam
Keeping your support forums filled with relevant content, while also keeping them uncluttered by "spam" posts, can be quite a chore. In order to reduce forum spam, require registration for forum participation, and then use "captcha" codes in the login process. By minimizing the level of spam in a forum, moderators can free up much of the time it takes to police and maintain the forum.

2. Minimize Email Spam
Use comprehensive email spam filtering software or services in order to minimize email spam. We all know how time consuming email spam can be; simply imagine cutting the amount of spam you receive in half. How much time could you save each day, how much time per week, per month, per year? A quality filtering system can significantly impact productivity.

3. Automate Registration Keys And Passwords
Implement an automated system to generate download passwords and registration keys. After an order is completed and verified, automatically generate a keyword or download password, along with the new product registration key, and automatically send that data to the customer via email. This will increase customer satisfaction, because the customer will receive immediate access to the product they've just purchased, and it will also significantly reduce your administrative support time.

4. Automate Responses
Automate email responses, forum posts, and signatures. Use a macro or clipboard tool that contains various response texts, and create standard responses to commonly asked questions, so that it only takes a few keystrokes to create and insert an entire response. Multiple smaller macro responses can be combined to provide complete answers to emails and newsgroup posts, saving significant time. Here are just a couple of such tools that can be used for this:

Type Pilot (macro response tool)
ClipMate (a comprehensive clipboard extender)
Macro Scheduler (advanced Macro Tool)

5. Use RSS
Rather than spending hours each day scanning multiple websites for news stories, use RSS feeds to easily scan news headlines from many different sites. Also, create "ego search feeds" of your company and product name, so that you will instantly know when you or your product receives a mention in the press.

Details to Setup Ego Feeds
More on Ego Feeds

6. Streamlining And Automation
Take a critical look at your systems and processes. Determine what systems can be automated, or even semi-automated. Automated systems will significantly increase productivity and save time. Constantly reevaluate your systems and processes, and determine where improvements can be made.

7. Improve Shipping & Mailing
Shipments can be excessively time-consuming. There are a number of alternatives for improving efficiency when it comes to shipping, and you may be able to outsource some of your shipping needs. Look at different ways to automate shipments, such as pre-printing shipping labels as an automated part of your order process. Evaluate what parts of your system take the most time, and then focus on ways to increase productivity for those tasks.

8. Utilize Technology (such as Mail Merge)
Technology is a small business friend. Utilize technology to your advantage; there is no need to compromise personalization in favor of productivity. Technology advancements mean that it is no longer necessary to manually type multiple letters when you can easily use a mail merge function. Evaluate technology that will increase productivity, and determine how it can be best used in your business.

9. Mass Printing / Bulk Printing
Traditional desktop printers still have a place in the business world, but knowing when to let go and outsource some of your printing needs can often be a significant time saver. Consider having your CD inserts, labels, envelopes, letterhead, etc printed in bulk using an outside printing company. Not only will the quality likely exceed what you are capable of creating in-house, but it will save time as well.

10. Collaboration Tools
Use collaboration tools like "Google Docs & Spreadsheets" to manage projects that require participation by multiple staff members. Collaborative web tools are increasing in popularity, and you can use these tools to allow you and your staff to work in-house or remotely, without having to update multiple documents.

11. Outsource Submissions
Search engine submissions and software submissions can be extremely time consuming and can dominate many many hours. Consider outsourcing software and search engine submissions. Most companies that provide such services can usually do it much better than you can, and much faster as well, and all while leaving you free to concentrate on other, more valuable and beneficial activities.

12. Look for Patterns
Evaluate company procedures and complaints; look for patterns. If you see a common theme or thread that causes recurring problems, determine how you can reduce or eliminate the problem. Similarly, if you find many of your customers asking the same support questions or having the same problems, look for ways to revise your product or support documentation in an effort to eliminate those questions and problems rather than trying to deal with them repeatedly with individual customers.

We have all heard the saying "time is money", and this is very true for MicroISV's struggling to compete. Your time is very valuable, so determine where it is best spent and minimize the need to spend it on less-valuable tasks. Look at how you can increase your productively, which will likely increase your profits as well!

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