Everything might be going smoothly at your business when everything’s working as it should be. But what about when it’s not working as it should? At that point, you could find that you have employees standing around, that it’s not possible to get a project underway, or that, quite simply, you’re losing money.
You can’t always prevent downtime. All businesses face it from time to time. But that doesn’t mean that you’re defenseless against the negative impacts of downtime. By taking proactive action, you can ensure that your business is as well-equipped as possible to reduce it as much as possible.
Have an Open Hiring Policy
Some causes of downtime are obvious. For instance, when the lights go out. Others are more subtle yet can, over a long enough timeframe, but arguably just as harmful. Businesses often find that they’re unable to work at full capacity — which is downtime in another name — all because they don’t have the employees they need to make things happen. If an employee leaves or is unexpectedly removed from their post, then downtime will likely occur. One solution to this issue is to have an ongoing hiring policy, which means you’ll bring in talent as and when they become available, rather than when they’re needed. With a talented team in place, you should be able to absorb any employee-related issues.
Work With a Reliable IT Team
For most businesses, the most common reason for downtime is an issue with the IT network. If the systems go down, then there’s not much work you can do — that has been true for decades anyway, but in an age when everything is online, it becomes an absolute truth. There will be some outages that will be beyond your control, but the vast majority will be due to issues with your private network. Don’t rely on your employees to fix complex network problems. Instead, work with an IT managed services company, that will ensure that your systems are virtually always up and running. In the rare event that they go offline, they’ll be there immediately to fix things.
Invest in the Right Tools
The above teams will minimize your downtime if you work in a standard office environment. But what if you’re in an industrial, manufacturing, or other environment that uses heavy machinery? At that point, your downtime will depend significantly on the quality and reliability of your machinery and tools. When it comes to buying new machinery, it’s best to look at products that have been specifically designed to reduce downtime, such as the airless 14.9-24 irrigation tire, or buy from brands that have an excellent reputation within your industry. Ultimately, the better the quality of the machines you use, the more likely it is that you’ll experience as much uptime as possible.
And Have a Trusted Repair Company On Speed Dial
Of course, even if you do invest in the best of the best, there’s no guarantee that things will always work exactly as they should. It’s recommended to identify a trusted repair company that you can call in in an emergency before their services are required. If you know that you have a great repair company on speed dial who will always fix things promptly, then you’ll have peace of mind that your business operations can carry on regardless of what happens.
Train Staff In Troubleshooting
Some problems that impact your systems will require professional assistance. But there’ll also be plenty that can be easily resolved with a little bit of know-how. In fact, for certain businesses, that’ll form the vast majority of issues. Of course, it’ll only be easy to resolve those matters if you know how to. Moving forward, look at training your staff — or at least the ones who are likely to come across issues — in the basic procedures of troubleshooting common problems that they might encounter.
Look At What Could Go Wrong
Most of the time, when you look back on an issue that causes downtime (or, indeed, any problem), you can usually see that the warning signs have been there all along. It’s just that nobody had noticed. The solution? Spend some time putting together a list of things that could be an issue in the future, and then take whatever steps you need to take to prevent them from happening. You might find that you can avoid a big problem in the future just by showing a bit of forethought and taking a few proactive steps.
Use Downtime Correctly
As we mentioned above, it’s not possible to avoid downtime completely. There’ll always be something that prevents you from working at your highest level, especially if you’re dependent on the supply chain. When you encounter issues that can’t be quickly resolved, look at simply using your time in productive ways. You might not be able to get your machines up and running, but you might be able to knock off a few items that have been stuck on your ‘to-do list’ for more months than you can remember.
Check Your Average Downtime
You’ll experience downtime — the question is, how much downtime are you experiencing, and is it in line with the industry standards? There are software tools you can use to determine the extent of your downtime and whether it’s a problem. If it’s above average, then there’ll probably be something within your operational processes to blame. Once you’ve identified the culprits, you’ll be able to work on finding solutions.
Conclusion
It doesn’t matter the size or scale of your business; at some point, you’ll run into issues that prevent you and your team from working at full capacity. When that happens, you’ll run the risk of losing revenue, annoying customers, and falling behind your competitors. As we’ve seen above, most issues that cause downtime can be remedied, but they usually require a proactive approach. So don’t wait until a problem comes your way — think today about what could be a problem and the measures you can put in place to limit their impact.
